THE SCOOP 
You don't need e-mail or a Web browser, or even a computer to take advantage of RAB's new one-call information service. All you need is a fax machine with a handset.
The IEEE Regional Activities Department's new RABFacts information service is now on-line. A fax-on-demand system which allows you to access a library of RAB's most requested forms, program descriptions, calendars, catalogs and more 24 hours a day, seven days a week, RABFacts responds to your request for information within seconds. Here's how it works:
With the handset of your fax machine (NOT from your voice-only phone), dial 1-908-562-6555. The RABFacts system automatically determines the number from which you are calling, and prepares to send up to three documents of your choice back to that number, instantly, during the same phone call.
Indicate the documents you wish to receive by their five-digit identification number. You can request a copy of the directory of available documents from the RABFacts voice menu. If you know the number of the documents you need, follow the instructions given when you place your call.
RABFacts means no more waiting. You'll have access to information and forms you need when YOU need them, instantly. The only charge is the cost of your brief phone call.
A short user satisfaction survey will be faxed with your RABFacts selections. Please return the completed questionnaire. Your feedback will be used to insure that RABFacts is easy to use, reliable, comprehensive and informative.
If you have questions about RABFacts service or operations, or you experience difficulties while using the service, please contact Cindy Tiritilli, RABFacts System Administrator.
The hard copy version SCOOP is sent primarily to Section Chairs, but it frequently contains information that would be useful to other officers or committee chairs within your Section as well. Though our budget does not allow us to mail copies to all 6,500 Geographic officers throughout the IEEE, we would like to be sure that the information it includes gets to the appropriate people. So, could we ask a favor of you? Would you share? You can either make photocopies of the pages, or encourage those with a fax or e-mail and Internet access to autosubscribe to the electronic version of the newsletter. All they have to do is follow easy directions. To autosubscribe via e-mail:
Address an e-mail message to:[email protected]
The first line of the message should read:
subscribe scoop-news [email protected]
(e.g.:subscribe scoop-news [email protected])
Good News! The Section rebate for 1996 has been finalized, and it includes an increase for your Section and a continuation of the 10% bonus. Here are some details:
Are you wondering what the catch is? It should come as no surprise -- as usual, it is REPORTING! You must have ALL your reporting submitted to Gloria Gutwein in Section/Chapter Support before your rebate can be calculated, processed, and mailed. The deadline for submitting your reporting is February 1, 1996.
However, once again, the Regional Activities Board has decided to be lenient; if your reporting is submitted in full by February 23, 1996, your Section will still be eligible for the 10% bonus. This means you must report your Section's 1995 meeting activity, financial activity and your current officers by the extended deadline. The reporting for any Chapters your Section may have must also be complete by that date. If you have trouble getting your Chapters to provide you with their reporting, you can opt to submit your reporting by the February 23 deadline without your Chapter(s) reports. You will then receive your 10% bonus, but you will not get the $150 for each Chapter that did not report.
So consider yourself alerted. Bring your Section Secretary and Treasurer and Chapter Chairs up-to-date so they can start getting their records in order. Don't lose the opportunity to earn your extra 10%.
A copy of the 1996 Rebate Schedule is available upon request. If you have questions after reading it, please contact Gloria Gutwein.
* If your Section was created in 1995, your annual allowance will be pro-rated this year.
Last January, Mel Olken, the Regional Activities Staff Director for the past five years, accepted the position of the Power Engineering Society's first Executive Director. He's been wearing both hats now for more than six months while an extensive search was in progress for his Regional Activities successor.
At long last, a replacement has been named. She is Cecelia Jankowski, senior member and volunteer extraordinaire from Long Island, NY. She assumes the title of Managing Director (the job's title was changed about two months ago) in early September.
In her new position, Cecelia becomes the geographic volunteers' champion on the IEEE staff, a task for which she is eminently suited. Cecelia's accomplishments and qualifications are myriad. She has been an active IEEE volunteer since the mid-1980s. Notable among her many activities are serving as the chair of the USAB Student Professional Awareness Committee (SPAC), the Region 1 PACE chair, and a track chair for Sections Congress '93. In addition, she has been the chair of the Long Island Chapter of the Signal Processing Society, and is a member of the Aerospace & Electronic Systems, Computer, Engineering Management, and Professional Communications Societies as well.
Since 1983, Cecelia has won more than 10 awards for technical excellence from the IEEE, Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering Honor Society), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the Grumman Aerospace Corporation. She has published numerous articles, made dozens of invited presentations, and holds three patents.
Cecelia comes to the IEEE Regional Activities Department after 15 years with the Grumman Aerospace and Electronics Corporation, where she worked on advance technology projects and garnered more than 10 years of management experience.
We all wish Cecelia the best and look forward to working with
her. Welcome!
Did you know that 1996 does not start until the beginning of March? It's true, at least as far as the Membership Data Diskette Program is concerned. As a matter of fact, the change in schedule is just one of many modifications you will see in the 1996 program. For starters, there is the name. The 1996 program will be known by the acronym SAMIeee - for Section Access to Membership Information. The person previously known as the Diskette Recipient will now be called the Data Recipient.
Why these changes? Here's a hint: The name change eliminates the word "Diskette". Hopefully, we will be in a position to offer Sections the option of FTPing their membership data rather than receiving it on diskettes via mail. We have scheduled (and rescheduled, and rescheduled again) a test of the FTP method, but once the test is successfully concluded, we will invite all Sections to make use of this faster, more efficient method of obtaining their data.
By moving the start of the 1996 program to March rather than January, we accomplish two things. First, it gives our IS department more time to make the modifications needed in the data. (More about this later). Second, January and the beginning of February are extremely busy months at IEEE Headquarters and in Regional Activities. A great deal of end-of-year work is scheduled for the same time. That is why the White diskettes were always sent to you at the end of January rather than the beginning. The new schedule should allow us to be more on-time (assuming the new system cooperates).
Two other changes: if the IS schedule allows, we will have some new fields added to our data. First is the frequently-requested e-mail address. Also, there will be a second fax field (one for each address), and assorted additional flags and change codes. Finally, there will be a second mail code field, so you can sort by either address.
We've saved the biggest and best change for last: For 1996, there will be totally new very user-friendly software. And, we will be providing two versions of it, one for Windows and one for DOS. The SAMIeee program will be written in FoxPro, the highly-acclaimed commercially-available data base software. In addition to the standard, built-in reports, it will allow you to generate virtually any report you like and include any fields you wish. You will be able to format labels any way you need them. You will be able to select on any field, or combination of fields. There will be on-screen directions to guide you through the software. The software will automatically convert certain long fields to variable length fields, saving considerable space on your computer. In addition, it will build in fields that are user fields which will not be touched when you update your data.
A renewal form for the 1996 Program is available on request. Additional copies will sent to the current diskette recipients as well, or can be obtained via RABFacts, document # 1 03 07. Please coordinate your Section's renewal with the current recipient -- we don't want more than one renewal from your Section, but we send out extras because we know how forms can disappear under piles of paperwork, never to be seen again. We will try to acknowledge each renewal form we get. Then, you can dispose of any duplicate forms without wondering if we received the one you sent us.
Watch future SCOOPs for more information about SAMIeee.
Anticipation, excitement, regret and a sense of loss -- these are all things I am feeling as I write that, as of October 23, I will be leaving Regional Activities to join the staff of the IEEE Power Engineering Society, located right here in IEEE Piscataway. That means I will no longer be writing and editing the SCOOP, working on Sections Congress, the Faraday Lectures, the Membership Data Diskette Program, the Program Resources Guide, or any of the other projects which have come my way in Regional Activities. I will miss them. Most of all, I will miss the contact I have had with the greatest group of volunteers it has been my privilege to know. I hope that you will feel free to keep in touch. My new phone number will be 908-562-6844, the fax will be 908-981-1769, and my e-mail will remain [email protected].
As soon as a new Regional Projects Manager is appointed,
you will be given her/his name and contact information. In the
meantime, if you have questions about the Diskette program,
please contact Vera Sharoff. For Sections Congress, please get
in touch with Jill Levy. Questions about other projects should
go to Cecelia Jankowski.
(The following article was provided by the Corporate Communications Department.)
The IEEE is seeking members to help support an innovative new program at their place of work. Called the Industry Partnership Program (IPP), it was created to strengthen relationships between the Institute and organizations that employ engineers.
IPP promotes the benefits of IEEE membership within industry and recruits members directly at their workplace through a special on-site event. It features an informational display of IEEE products and publications provided by Institute staff, and might also include other activities, such as a special lecture about the benefits of being an IEEE member.
Members who are interested in helping to develop an on-site IPP event at their companies will be asked to do the following:
More information about the Industry Partnership program is
available from Kathy Kowalenko, IEEE Corporate Communications.
The IEEE is once again bringing the highly acclaimed Faraday Lecture to North America via satellite. Sponsored each year by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (the IEE) in Great Britain, the Faraday Lecture is designed to open the fascinating world of science to high school students.
For the past two years, the annual lecture has been beamed via satellite to the USA and Canada. Schools with downlink capabilities registered with the IEEE at no cost to receive teachers' guides. Tapes were made available after the broadcast for schools which didn't have the technology to view it live, or had a schedule conflict.
Sections play a big role in the success of the Lecture. A school can request to have an IEEE representative on site the day of the broadcast to answer questions about life as an engineer and about the IEEE. If the school is within your Section's boundaries, we contact you, and ask you to get in touch with the school to arrange to have a volunteer at the school on the appropriate day. It is one of the most effective outreach programs we have seen yet. A number of Sections request literature to give to local schools in order to promote the lecture. We hope your Section will be one of them for the February 7, 1996 broadcast.
The Lecture is entitled "From A to B without C", and is about the recently-opened English Channel Tunnel, a dream of engineers and travelers for centuries. It employs the latest theatrical techniques to involve its young audience in an inspiring look at how engineering coupled with extraordinary technological achievements turned a dream into reality. For more information, please contact Cecelia Jankowski.
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