Signal Processing - January 2017 - 4

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Rabab Ward | SPS President | rababw@ece.ubc.ca

Volunteerism Makes a Positive Difference

appy New Year! The onset of a new
year is an exciting time filled with
renewal, opportunity, and possibility.
As we close the book on 2016, it's only
natural to reflect on our progress, celebrate our successes, and learn from our
failures. But the beginning of a new year
is also empowering-it reignites your
fire to try something new, to set goals, to
be open to change and embrace new
challenges. The IEEE Signal Processing
Society (SPS) hopes to invoke these
principles and nimbleness into 2017 and
for many years to come. We hope that
you'll continue to work with us through
this exciting time!
I would be remiss to not mention
that 2017 marks the expiration of a
valued member of the SPS Executive
Committee's term. In 2013, the SPS Executive Committee divided the role of
vice president, Awards and Membership,
establishing a newly individualized
role of vice president, Membership,
to better examine, understand, and
serve SPS's growing and diverse
membership. Dr. Kostas Plataniotis
was chosen as to fill this position.
His vision and innovation were essential to not only proving the role's
necessity but to driving its purpose
and setting the course for future member services and activities. We thank
him for his effective and incredible
service and are excited to welcome
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSP.2016.2628418
Date of publication: 11 January 2017

Dr. Nikos Sidiropoulos to his new position at SPS vice president, Membership.
This past year brought about a lot of
exciting changes-in June, we launched
the new SPS website, accompanied
by the SPS Resource Center; http://rc
.signalprocessingsociety.org. With these,
a new era began for the Society, looking
toward and acting on a rapidly changing
future. Our organization is changing.
Our Society is changing. And, most notably, our membership is changing, and
we have to find new and effective ways
to keep members of all ages, career stages, professions, and fields engaged and
involved with the SPS and its activities.
Volunteerism is a great way to encourage early involvement, building loyalty across a diverse member body with
varying interests, availability, needs, and
expertise. Volunteerism has evolved in
itself, and SPS is working toward building a strong volunteer base, with roles to
suit the growing needs for the Society
and its members alike.
The nature of "volunteering" used
to be immersive and intimidating, with
excessive time commitments that made
volunteerism seem like too much to juggle among other activities. Now, with
the help of technology and the evolution of workplaces, a volunteer has new
flexibility and freedom to choose his/
her level of involvement, from demanding high-profile leadership roles to
"microvolunteering" opportunities that
spark interest and action without consuming as much from our already busy
IEEE SIgnal ProcESSIng MagazInE

January 2017

schedules. Over the past couple of years,
the SPS has expanded its volunteer
roles to encourage diverse involvement
opportunities. You can choose a position that best fits your lifestyle whether
you're a student, young professional, in
the middle of your career, or your career
is winding down-or even if you are
retired but want to stay active.
The SPS relies on its dedicated volunteer base-more than 1,000 members
strong-to develop and manage Society
activities, products, and services. Decision makers who sit on our boards and
committees play an integral role in the
Society and its operations. These highlevel roles cover a wide array of Society
needs in the areas of conferences, publications, membership, education, and
more. Sitting on boards and committees,
while time-consuming, can be incredibly rewarding and prestigious. Many
high-ranking board members move on
to become decision makers in broaderscale positions within the IEEE.
Even among publications, conferences, education, and membership, there
are a multitude of opportunities of varying levels of involvement. You can be a
reviewer or editor of one of our Society
publications, form a committee to propose and host a conference or a meeting
in a desired area, or propose a seasonal
school workshop near you. Want to get
involved locally? Form an SPS Chapter,
or attend an event of an existing local
Chapter to strengthen connections with
other signal processing professionals

http://rc http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signal Processing - January 2017