ExCom Minutes
April 2021 Meeting
Action Items:
- SUSTECH; last in Portland in 2014. We should bring it back to Portland, perhaps in 2023. Action: Ed Perkins will send an e-mail with a list of what resources will be needed. org.
- Dan G. to sent IEEE Survey info to John P. that was discussed at the Sections Congress. The e-mail address is shown at https://mga.ieee.org/resources-operations/geographic-unit/vitality/surveying-members Complete
- INCOSE (Herb Milligor at PSU) e-mail Action: Promote it on vTools. Was someone supposed to supply info to the Secretary? John will pursue. John sent an e-mail out and will follow up.
- Dan G. to work with Daniel E. and exchange critical site passwords. Dan G. sent e-mail.
- John P: To summarize ways to increase attendance and engagement at ExComm meeting and send out an e-mail.
6:15 Secretary starts meeting and notes attendees
6:30 Chair calls the meeting to order
6:35 Approval of Past Minutes and status of previous action items
Adoption of Agenda
6:40 Chair’s Report IEEE Sections Congress was last weekend. John and Dan G. attended. John will make more contacts. Big emphasis on pre-college STEM activities. John will report back and we want to try doing something in September. Go to
https://sections-congress.ieee.org/program-schedule/ to see the videos.
6:45 Vice-Chair’s Report Nothing new to report.
6:50 Treasurer’s Report; IEEE NextGen Finance: Upcoming Changes in NetSuite and CBRS Do a search on “NextGen Accounting” on the IEEE site to learn how to update your Chapter’s financial transactions. This does not impact Concur.
6:55 Secretary’s Report; did everyone get the invite on April 8th or 9th? IEEE Sections Congress
7:00 Chapter Reports (5 minutes Each)
WIE/Eve: Recently joined with the Women in Code book club, next meeting May 11th, 6-8. “Working in Public: The making and maintenance…” They will meet every other month.
Solid State Circuits Society/Farhana: Tech talks scheduled, April 28 4:30pm, Intel; June 24th is also confirmed.
Signal Processing Society/Jinsub: Two meetings in April. Next meeting April 23rd.
Nanotech/Ed Perkins: No meetings scheduled, but they will be soon. Webinar on Air Quality; see the Nanotechnology council site. https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/265997 . CPMT has had a few meetings.
SUSTECH starts next week, 95 attendees signed up. Members can attend for $75. NWSE is looking for general judges; Regeneron is the new sponsor of the International Science Fair (it was Intel).
Professional Activities/Rick Smith: Might help with pre-college project; will work with John P.
Computer Society/Sohrab: Is arranging a webinar on supply chain, professor from U of Florida, April 29th or a few weeks later. https://tttc-vts.org/public_html/new/2021/ https://tttc-vts.org/public_html/new/2021/sponsors/
7:35 Focus Presentation: Ed Epp presented on activities by the Robotics and Automation Society.
7:50 New Business
MOU for a conference PICMET at Doubletree. We will decide whether to approve next month.
From IEEE Sections Congress: There are funds available to for COVID-related products. John will pursue further.
John: We should revive our Newsletter. Ed P: What is our outreach? Where will we get content? Santa Clara Valley has one. Ed P and John might pursue this further.
Ed: SUSTECH; last in Portland in 2014. We should bring it back to Portland, perhaps in 2023. Action: Ed will send an e-mail with a list of what resources will be needed. Ieeesustech.org.
7:55 Reading of Action Items
7:58 Next Meeting May 11th
8:00 Adjourn Adjourned at 8:33pm
March 2021 Meeting
5:30 Jeffrey A. Von Arx (Java), Ph..D., the Senior Director of Systems, Technology, and Platform Development at Biotronik/MSEI, gave a fascinating presentation on "TECHNOLOGIES AND TRENDS IN IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICES".
6:30 Chair calls the meeting to order
6:35 Approval of Past Minutes Approved and status of previous action items Completed.
Adoption of Agenda Approved.
6:40 Chair’s Report. No NW Area meeting scheduled for Region 6; John P. will follow up.
Let’s start focusing on what the Section can do to help Chapters, and encourage them to attend ExComm. Per Ed Perkins, Region activity has not been high; he will reach out.
6:45 Vice-Chair’s Report Justin not present. His new e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
6:50 Treasurer’s Report Unofficial balance $112,573. Chapters have been receiving support once their financial report is submitted. Chapters should have received the e-mail (Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer get the e-mail).
6:55 Secretary’s Report
7:00 Chapter Reports (5 minutes Each max)
Ed Epp: Artificial Intelligence/Robotics are the top two future industries. They met yesterday.
Farhana: Solid State Circuits—they have an invitee list. First presentations will start this month. They may host a PSU short course on AI Hardware, and would like to coordinate with the PSU Student Chapter. Their biggest challenge is attendance at events.
Jinsub: No meetings yet, but two technical meetings in March and April scheduled. Topics are optimization and signal processing communication.
Mirella:
Ed Perkins: Nanotechnology Council. 25 attendees at the last meeting on 3D and quantum computers. The next Chapter meeting is scheduled for March 16th at 1pm.
Russ M: Communications Society. Last met February 25th on AI in vehicles, about 75 people attended. Pradeep organized the event.
The Women In Engineering. will have their monthly book club meeting—see vTools for details.
Sohrab: Computer Society had a joint meeting with the Phoenix chapter, with 20 or so attendees from Oregon. EventBrite was used successfully.
Dan G: PES is meeting Tuesday, March 16th at 12:30—see vTools for details.
7:35 Focus Presentation Done at 5:30
7:50 New Business
Ed Perkins: SUSTECH conference program is nearly completed. April 22-24, virtual. Info is on the Region 6 Linkedin site. Student member $25, IEEE member $50 for all 3 days. $150 for IOT webinar, and you get hardware. About 20 entrants in the poster competition. The Los Angeles area will run it next year, but since our Section supplies 50% of the funds (the Region the other 50%), the plan is to try and meet in Portland.
The Virtual Sections conference is open for registration, and is free of charge.
Increasing Attendance at ExComm: How can we get 80% participation at the ExComm? Require Chapter updates to be given in order to get the funding from the Section? The report can be just one paragraph (who your officers are, and 3 things you will be doing the next year)—perhaps require 2x per year update to get funding. Should we use social media, like Twitter? Personal outreach also works, as well as making sure what resources are available to the Chapters.
Should we have a virtual Chapter Chairs symposium?
Ed talked about spatial.chat, a virtual room kind of like “Second Life”. The Region plans to do something with this.
7:55 Reading of Action Items
7:58 Next Meeting April 13th at 6:30pm
8:00 Adjourn Adjourned at 7:55pm
Action Items:
All: Find a permanent Chair and Vice-Chair volunteer. Carry over to next meeting.
Lee: 2021 budget—completed
Lee: Find a speaker for the next meeting—completed
All: Recruit folks for future focus presentation. Ed Epp is speaking in April
John P: How are we perceived by our members? He will contact IEEE staff about assistance with the survey, and then form a committee of 4 or 5 folks to move forward. Carry over to next meeting.
INCOSE (Herb Milligor at PSU) e-mail Action: Promote it on vTools. Was someone supposed to supply info to the Secretary? John will pursue.
Dan G: Update of Officer on Section web site: Provide information to Daniel E. (completed), and he can update. Completed, except for a photo of John and a group photo.
Dan G: to get web site passwords from Daniel E. and store them, as well as the GoDaddy account. Carry over to next meeting.
Ed Epp: Creating a forum/message board that don’t cost a high monthly fee—to discuss with Russ and Daniel E. Ed contacted Daniel E., has not heard back from others on IEEE tools. Ed Perkins suggested Slack; the robotics team uses it; it limits the total number of messages at 10,000. Ed Epp reports using e-mail is easier to manage with the small number of weekly e-mails they are receiving, for now.
Ugonna: Provide contact info for Student Officers to Dan G. Carry over.
John P: Gather e-mail addresses and provide to Dan G. to store and send out meeting notices. John will send the list March 10th.
Sohrab: Either find a Treasurer and set up a concentration account, or track the funds himself to be sure the funds don’t get lost year to year. Rick Smith offered to help with a tracking sheet. Carry over to the next meeting.
Ed Epp: To provide a focus presentation on RAS at the April meeting.
John P: To summarize ways to increase attendance and engagement at ExComm meeting and send out an e-mail.
Dan G. to go over vTools events that have not been filed and will send out an e-mail.
Dan G. to set up a time for the four officers to meet monthly, perhaps 3rd or 4th Tuesday at 6pm. Send John P. the webex password info.
Attendees: John Prohodsky, Lee Oien, Daniel Goodrich, Ed Epp, Ed Perkins, Rick Smith, Russ Mickiewicz, Sohrab Aftabjahani, Farhana Sheikh, Jinsub Kim, Mirella.
February 2021 Meeting
Minutes by Daniel Goodrich, Secretary
6:30 Welcome and Introductions
6:33 Last meeting action items:
Find a permanent Chair and Vice-Chair volunteer—None yet Action: Recruit!
Dan G. to reserve Summer Social event for August 7th. Complete.
Is there a 2021 budget? John P. to contact Lee O.—Not one yet; the 2020 financials have been sent and accepted. Lee needs major expenditures, donations so that he can develop the budget. Action: Send information to Lee.
Future focus presentation. Ed Epp offered to give a 15 minute report in April. Action: All attendees to suggest names. Lee offered to find a speaker, possibly in March or May (45 minutes). John P. will contact another section like Seattle to help with a focus presentation.
6:35 Chair’s report (John P)
How is the Section perceived by its members, and what are the needs of the members? Perhaps conduct a survey; how will it be executed? E-mails haven’t worked in the past.
Action: John P will contact IEEE staff about assistance with the survey, and then form a committee of 4 or 5 folks to move forward.
6:45 Vice-Chair's Report (Justin W). Justin is not present.
6:50 Treasurer's Report (Lee O.). Bank account is very strong, about $114,085 in the account. Typically our budget is about $30k. Next month he will start sending out their 2021 allotment, $250 per chapter, $500 for joint accounts. Action: The $590 allocation from PES for high performing chapter will be transferred to the PES account.
6:50 Secretary's Report and Social/Awards (Daniel G.)
Need to coordinate with Lee to mail out plaques from Awards ceremony in December
INCOSE e-mail Action: Promote it on vTools.
Plaque commemorating first high tension power line in Oregon City—Dan to chair committee for IEEE Milestone. Ed Perkins will assist. Ugonna will also join us.
Any needs for Webex meeting reservations? Action: Add a reminder e-mail to the series, as well as an updated agenda.
New photo, update info on other parts of the web site Action: Dan G to Provide information to Daniel E., and he can update.
Action: Dan G. to get web site passwords from Daniel E. and store them, as well as the GoDaddy account.
7:00 Region Meeting Update (Ed Perkins): Student memberships are half off for 2021, see https://ieee-region6.org/2021/student-membership-discount/ . Congressional visits day will be virtual this year on March 29th; usually you have to travel to Washington DC.
7:05 Chapter Updates (Max 5 minutes per chapter)
Communications (Russ) 2/25 5pm seminar
Solid State Circuits (Richard D): They are working on career-oriented events and a distinguished lecturer
Sohrab—He is the only remaining officer for his chapter, but he is working on recruiting others.
PES—David Silver, next meeting February 16th. All offices are filled. Scholarship to be awarded this year.
Jinsub Kim—Have not met yet. Some events are being planned.
Souma—Young Professionals (with Jay), nothing formally planned yet for this year.
Robotics—(Ed Epp), Seminar 2/10 at lunch time, “open bot” open source robot. Robot workshops for high school students, using GitHub. Around 165 views on the youtube that Ed created. There was also a virtual interactive event with a teacher and students in Hood River.
Ed Epp asked: Are there ways of creating a forum/message board that don’t cost a high monthly fee? Per Daniel Engel, we could host at the section level, but we would need a moderator. Slack is another idea. Action: Ed will discuss further with Russ and Daniel E.
Student Activities—(Ugonna) He sent out an e-mail to students, waiting on a response. None of the local student branches list officers in vTools. Action: Provide contact info to Dan G.
Nanotech: Ed Perkins. Met January 28th, Distinguished lecturer Kingzang from Singapore. The EPS chapter met January 21st, Flexible Hybrid Electronics, and on Feb 25th there will be another Distinguished lecturer from Singapore on quantum computing.
Rick Smith: Not much to update.
WIE (Eve Klopf by e-mail): We had one book club meeting. Heidi and I also met with the book club organizers for the Women Who Code; we're planning on joining forces with them and co-hosting a single book club going forward. I'll be sending out an announcement to the folks on our book club e-mail list about the change.
7:30 Tonight's Focus (Do we have one? Future focus?) None tonight.
7:35 New Business/Final Issues
Update Roster (See John’s Excel Sheet) Action: John P will get the e-mail addresses.
Sohrab asked how to get allocated funds into the concentration account. He is the Chair, but cannot find a Treasurer, and he cannot be both. Action: Sohrab can either find a Treasurer and set up a concentration account, or track the funds himself to be sure the funds don’t get lost year to year. Rick Smith offered to help with a tracking sheet.
Go over action items
7:40 Adjourn Adjourned at 8:10pm.
Attendees: John Prohodsky, Diwakar, David Silver, Jinsub Kim, Lee Oien, Richard Dorrance, Ed Epp, Russ Mickiewicz, Daniel Engel, Rick Smith, Sohrab Aftabjahani, Ugonna Chikezie, Souma, Ed Perkins, Daniel Goodrich
January 2021 Meeting
IEEE Oregon Section ExCom Meeting Minutes
January 12, 2021
6:30 Introductions and Adoption of Agenda Approved
6:33 Approval of previous minutes
6:35 Reports:
Election Committee Report—John Prohodsky. Lee has offered to continue to serve as
Treasurer. Daniel Goodrich self-nominated for the Secretary role. John P. and Ed P. offered
to serve temporarily in a role. Justin W. will remain as Vice-Chair until we find a replacement.
Daniel and Lee were nominated and elected at this meeting. John Prohodsky was nominated
and elected (temporarily) as the Chair of the Section. We will meet the first week of February
as officers, prior to the next ExCom.
Action: Everyone think of someone who might be willing to permanently serve as Chair and
Vice-Chair.
Secretary Report—Daniel Goodrich (also will give Summer Social Report). We paid about
$800 deposit last year. The consensus was to see a Gherkins game Saturday, August 7 th at
7pm. Daniel G will contact them and reserve that date.
Treasurer Report (Lee Oien) $113k in bank account. Action: Has a budget for 2021 been
approved? John P. will contact Lee.
SAC Report (Ugonna Chikezie) Ugonna will be using some funds for the Rising Stars conference.
WIE (Eve Klopf) Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil Degrasse
Tyson will be the next book for discussion. February 4 th at 6:00pm.
Conference Chair, Nanotechnology (Ed Perkins)
1. SUSTEC is April 22-24, (hosted by Orange County CA).
2. The Regional Meeting (?).
3. The APS meeting will be January 21 st at 6pm on Flexible Hybrid Electronics. For
the Webex, contact the Secretary.
RAS Volunteer (Ed Epp):
1. We are sponsoring a robot build (open source)
Signal Processing (Jinsub Kim)
COMSOC (Pradeep)
1. Pradeep showed the ComSoc web site, newly updated using WordPress at
www.Oregon.chapters.comsoc.org
2. There are also Linkedin and Facebook groups as well.
Webmaster: Daniel Engel
PACE Chair (Rick Smith)
Computer Society (Sohrab Aftabjahani): Pradeep assisted with election of officers.
7:00 Discussion Items: Ed Epp: Volunteer student work, is it an employment or contractual
relationship? Liability issue? Can Ed give him a “start date”? Per Lee, we do not certify volunteer
hours at the Section level. No action from the Section at this time.
7:20 New Business Report Intel volunteer hours—they are due February 14 th .
7:30 Future Focus Action: Everyone think of someone that can present at the next ExCom.
7:44 Next Meeting February 9 th , 2021
7:45 Adjournment Adjourned at 7:50pm
Attendees: Ed Epp, Ed Perkins, Daniel Goodrich, Eve Klopf, Lee Oien,
Russ Mickiewicz, Pradeep Kumar, David Silver, Sohrab Aftabjahani,
Jinsub Kim, Rick Smith, Daniel Engel
Notes by Daniel Goodrich, Secretary
October Meeting
Agenda:
6:00 – Refreshments and Social (Virtual during COVID-19)
6:30 – Adoption of Agenda
6:35 – Approval of previous minutes
6:40 – Reports:
- Chair's Report (Paulo Vasconcelos) - Oregon Section meeting its retention goals for the 2020 membership year
- Treasurer's Report (Lee Oien) - Travel advisory/Concur travel reimbursement application
- Secretary Report (Heidi DeGarmo) - All Attendance Reports are filed
- YoPro (Jay Guo) / SAC Report (Ugonna Chikezie) / WIE (Eve Klopf
7:25 – Action Items: Elections Committee
7:35 – Discussion Items: Volunteering Platform 3 benefits: Propel career as a technical expert, great platform for volunteers who do not regularly come to meetings, great way to recruit reliable volunteers as they are reviewed by peers on the website
7:45 – Tonight's Focus: Student Chapter PSU Alex Higgins Presenting
8:00 – Old Business / New Business
8:20 – Future Focus: Daniel Goodrich - Winter Social and Awards
8:30 – Adjournment
Attendees (WebEx): Paulo Vasconcelos (Chair), Justin Wagner (Vice-Chair), Lee Oien (Treasurer), Heidi DeGarmo (Secretary), Rick Smith (PACE Chair), Daniel Goodrich (Awards and Events Coordinator), Ed Epp (RAS Chair), Ed Perkins (Nanotechnology Council), Sohrab Aftabjahani (CS Chair), Michael Bates (CS Vice-Chair), Jian Guo (YP Chair), Ugonna Chikezie (SAC Chair), Alex Higgins (PSU SB Chair), John Prohodsky, Richard Dorrance, Russ Mickiewicz, Diwakar Agarwal, Alex K, Brano, Hader
 Attendance.png | 31 kB |