Presidents Report Andrea Goldsmith IT Society BOG Meeting
President’s Report Andrea Goldsmith IT Society BOG Meeting March 18, 2009 CISS Johns Hopkins University
State of the Society �Current state of the society is excellent �Healthy financial outlook and reserves � Support for new initiatives this year � Some risks looming, long-term planning required �Transactions viewed as highly prestigious � Consistently ranks as one of the most cited IEEE journals �Our field is becoming more interdisciplinary �Members frequently honored for their work �Symposium and workshops well-attended and of high quality. �Membership decline reversed this year �Student committee events widely-attended and compelling � Identified as role model for other societies �Chapters are extremely vibrant and growing
So why not maintain the status quo? �Society governance has largely changed to a committee -based structure; less Bo. G influence �Our Transactions sub-to-pub time exceeds that of all other IEEE journals �Our membership/chapters committee lacked a charter �Our website was outdated and hard to maintain �We had a closed-door process for nominations to our most prestigious award �We are sometimes viewed as an “old-boys” network, and have lacked representation of women and minorities These issues are the focus of new initiatives this year
Society Governance � Our society governance has changed over the last few years. � In the past, most decisions and oversight was conducted by the Bo. G, � Society hierarchy was relatively flat. � Recently some of decisions and oversight have shifted to committees. � e. g. , conference committee � Given importance of conference committee: chair should become a voting Bo. G member: Vote for Bo. G approval � Officer oversight of committee operations important � Make officers ex-officio members of committees if not already � Currently in place: � � Pubs committee: the president, 1 st VP, and 2 nd Shannon Award and Wyner Award Committees: All officers Paper Awards Committees (chaired by 1 st VP) with 2 nd VP as an ex-officio member Membership and chapters committee: 2 nd VP chairs � Proposed ex-officio membership for the other committees. � � Conference Committee: President and 1 st VP (in bylaws: vote for BOG approval) Online Committee: President and 1 st VP Student Committee: 2 nd VP Outreach Committee: 2 nd VP
Reducing Sub-to-Pub Time �Our Transactions have unacceptably long delays �Provides poor member service, hurts timeliness of publication, impacts tenure decisions for authors �There are many reasons for these delays �But we can do much better �My biggest initiative this year is to reduce sub-to-pub time based on metrics we create (not IEEE) �Publications Committee report will have more details �Decision to upgrade Pareja, move to Manuscript Central, or create a new system must be made soon.
Membership/Chapters Committee �This committee has lacked a charter in the past �Our membership had experienced constant decline for many years (until this year) �We lacked a real Distinguised Lecture program �Chapters were not well integrated into the society �Outreach to countries without a significant IT presence was lacking New charter and initiatives for this committee
Awards �Open call for Shannon award nominees �Want to make sure not to exclude deserving nominess �Open nominations closed March 1 �Received 6 nominations �Committee will still generate internal nominations �Paper Awards �Changes to joint Comsoc/IT award �Would still like to see more paper award nominations �Not following bylaws on IT paper award nominations
New Website �Launched at ITA �Very successful – many clicks! �Many features that will improve its value to our members �Maintenance requires ongoing activity: �Proposal to make the online committee a standing committee �More details and vote from Nick
Other Initiatives �Outreach committee �Mentoring network �Newsletter initiatives �Closer ties between website and newsletter �More tutorial material �Possible creation of a magazine
I welcome your input and ideas
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