Q2 - QUESTIONS & ANSWERS FOR COMSOC PRESIDENT-ELECT CANDIDATES 2010

The annual IEEE Communications Society elections will soon commence. The result of this year's elections will fill the President-Elect position (as well as four Members-at-Large) on the Board of Governors. Questions are being addressed to the four candidates running for position of President-Elect providing them an opportunity to answer questions that will better amplify their positions.

Q2. What are the major challenges confronting the Society today? If elected, what would you do to address these challenges?

Sergio Benedetto

A2_SB. The major challenges:
1. A budget too biased towards incompressible expenses, leading to reduced member services
2. A decline in membership from over 60,000 to below 45,000
3. A decline of participation from industry, both as members (from 59% in 1999 to 45% in 2009) and in the attendance to our major conferences, which sees now a large prevalence of academic
4. An ancillary position toward IEEE, which does not fully recognize the key role of societies in determining IEEE revenues
5. An uneven geographical distribution of leaders at all levels
6. A serious gender issue.

How to face them:
A. Identifying policies aimed at reducing overhead costs and of new revenue-generating initiatives
B. Increasing the new member retention rate through personalized attention and initiatives dedicated to young professionals through GOLD (members and attract the members from industry and professions recently lost
C. Strengthening the practical content of our journals, magazines, and conference workshops; increasing the number of members from industry in editorial boards and technical program committees, in order to attract the members from industry and professions recently lost;
D. Joint initiative with the Presidents of the other societies to increase the share of IEL revenues distributed to the societies
E. Reaching members locally through chapters and inviting them to become active members, with the goal of having the global composition of our society reflected in all instances, from the Board of Governors to Editorial Boards
F. Valorizing women participation through dedicated initiatives (women best paper award, …).

Vijay Bhargava

The challenges faced by ComSoc fall into two categories:

1. Challenges in terms of the needs of our members:

ComSoc membership continues to decline. Retention of graduate student members is a problem.
ComSoc has been too slow in launching new publications that address emerging technologies.
Need to provide more practical contents in our publications for the practitioner.
Publication time line and other publication related problems continue.
Perceived lack of value of ComSoc membership relative to cost.
Mandatory page charges and exorbitant conference registration fee is a hindrance.
2. Challenges in terms of the finance and governance of ComSoc:
Open access to publications, if and when it comes will have financial implication. This coupled with current budget deficit is a big challenge.
Volunteer turnover at the board level is an issue. This has created the perception that the Board is an "old boys/girls club".

If elected I will work to broaden the membership base, start new publications for practicing engineers, and ask the IEEE to develop the best search capability as a membership benefit. If our publication related problems continue, we will need to abandon in-house publication and seek assistance elsewhere.

The budget deficit can be controlled by cutting down volunteer and staff travel, sunset activities that have outlived their purpose and streamline operational and governance efficiency. I will urge the Board to impose a limit on the period that a person can serve on the Board, to facilitate introduction of new volunteers.

Harvey A. Freeman

Stabilize and improve ComSoc’s financial situation: As the current Treasurer I’ve already started by increasing our yearly draw from the foundation pay for student travel grants. I am also pushing for a redirection of ComSoc’s marketing efforts to promote activities that promise greater financial returns

Reduce costs while increasing services: I am now working on ways to reduce our conference costs while still offering more value to exceed attendees’ expectations. I have scheduled a trial of a new method of post-processing the accepted papers at conferences that promises a 75% reduction from current costs.

Fortify Byeong Lee’s vision of the “ComSoc Golden Triangle” - globalization, young leaders, and industry: Among my agenda items are expansion of ComSoc’s presence in China, India, Russia, the Eastern European countries, and Africa; increasing Chapter activities and integrating these activities into other parts of ComSoc; and bringing more practical content to our conferences and sharing and communicating best practices with our members

Provide additional benefits to ComSoc’s younger members: I will promote more affordable dues during the first few years out of school, increased networking opportunities to assist in their jobs and in finding new or more challenging positions, and the establishment of a mentoring program

Increase ComSoc’s membership: ComSoc’s membership drop from its peak in 2001 was mainly due to reduction of members from industry. As President I will work to add programs and services that especially appeal to people in industry.

Andrzej Jajszczyk

The Times They Are a-Changin' sang Bob Dylan when ComSoc approached its adolescence. Now, the times are changing again. The unprecedented development of telecommunications technologies and services penetrating every aspect of our lives as well as the growth and diversification of the related industries have triggered new needs and expectations from our professional Society.

We have to provide a proper response to serve our constituency and avoid membership decline. One of the ComSoc’s strengths was a good balance between industry and academia benefiting members from both sectors. Now, that balance is partly lost as industry needs have changed and we are being dominated by academics. If elected, I will focus on the carrier development and carrier evolution value to existing and prospective members. I will extend and strengthen our certification and standardization programs. I will also work to provide more high-quality tutorials, webcasts, white papers, and research reports.

Other challenges are facing our publications and conferences. We are operating here in a highly competitive environment. My answers would be: quality, proper scope, as well as timeliness and fairness of the review process. But we also have to respond to changing business, regulatory, and operating models in these areas, reflected, for example, by the open access issue or web-supported remote conferencing.

ComSoc is about people. If elected, I will work to strengthen the sense of community, breaking geographical and other barriers between our members. New Internet and web-based tools should facilitate better interaction and exchange of ideas within our Society.

Click here to read the answers to
Q1. In relation to your colleagues, running for the same elected position, how would you distinguish yourself in terms of experience or position?