The Institute - September 2019 - 2

president's column

IEEE: A Global Organization
Our commitment to serving our worldwide community
I WOULD LIKE to update you on
the progress reported at the June
IEEE Board Series by several ad hoc
committees, as well as IEEE's handling
of export control restrictions.

go beyond Web-based solutions and use
mobile applications that provide access
to services and products anytime and
anywhere. The committee will continue
its hard work and deliver recommendations at the Board's November meeting.

REACHING NEW AUDIENCES

TI-2

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SEP 2019

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THE INSTITUTE

A MORE TRANSPARENT AND
INCLUSIVE ORGANIZATION

The Board also received updates on
the progress of several other ad hoc
committees focused on identifying
ways to make IEEE a more transparent,
diverse, and inclusive organization.
The ad hoc committee on diversity,
inclusion, and professional ethics is
working to define, collect, and track
diversity metrics on age, gender,
geography, race, ethnicity, and work
sector across all IEEE organizational
units. The committee intends to
produce an annual report on diversity
that will highlight IEEE's efforts and
progress. It is also working on a
website that will include metrics, best
practices, and educational materials
on diversity and inclusion.
The committee is also looking at
IEEE's professional ethics programs.
One of its proposals is to merge the
existing codes into a single code of
ethics with two high-level principles.
Another proposal is to overhaul the
IEEE ethics processes to be more
responsive to complaints and protect
the rights and responsibilities of all
involved. I call attention to the article in
this issue on pages TI-8 and 9 about the
ad hoc committee's formation and plans,
and the results of the IEEE Women in
Tech survey on page TI-10, which provides some sobering statistics.
A second Board-appointed ad
hoc committee is exploring ways to
improve IEEE's financial transparency.

This entails changing how we record
financial transactions at the appropriate level of granularity, leverage
project-based accounting and service
cost centers, and plan to move charges
for overhead expenses to be direct
costs. These efforts will help improve
the foundational structures underlying
IEEE's financial systems and prepare us
to meet our changing needs. The good
news is that the focus on budgets has
produced a noteworthy turnaround.
Our operations have gone from significantly negative budgets to a healthy
operational surplus.
At the November Board meeting,
we expect to act on the committees'
important recommendations.
MEETING EXPECTATIONS ABOUT
IEEE'S GLOBAL NATURE

Our global membership is the heart
of IEEE, and I value our commitment
and contributions to the profession. In
more than 160 countries around the
world, IEEE members see each other
as part of an international professional
community, and I am committed to
ensuring this endures.
We are required to comply with legal
obligations in the countries where IEEE
operates, and we are committed to

COVER: L-DOPA; THIS PAGE: CARNEGIE MELLON

As I mentioned in an earlier column,
under the direction of the IEEE Board
of Directors, an ad hoc committee
is considering new ways for IEEE to
engage with the millions of professionals
across our areas of interest. These areas
cover the spectrum, from electrical and
electronic engineering and computer
engineering to computer science, robotics and artificial intelligence, biomedical
engineering, and information and communication technologies, among others.
The committee is exploring different
concepts for how to engage with a
significantly expanded audience, new
membership models, and new member personas. The committee is also
considering what type of infrastructure
is needed, as well as product offerings
and revenue models to support an
expansion of IEEE's reach.
The committee is also making
significant progress on issues such as
how IEEE can better engage and be
relevant to technologists given their
broad diversity of technical, geographic,
professional, social, and other interests
across the various stages of their career.
At the June IEEE Board meeting, the
committee received strong feedback on
its ideas from several hundred volunteer
leaders and the Board. In addition to
debating ways to increase the value
and relevance of IEEE to professionals,
there was excellent discussion on the
question of which technology was best
suited to reach such a large group. The
committee recognizes that it needs to
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ieee-member-news/ieee-president-moura-on-the-importance-of-financial-transparency
The Institute - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Institute - September 2019
