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The Region 5 Community Connector

Newsletter Promoting activities, information, and news to the membership

February 2023

  Membership Contacts:

Hunter J Boudreaux – East Area Chair

Maciej J Zawodniok– North Area Chair

Christopher B Sanderson– South Area Chair

Faye Kann– West Area Chair

R5 EXCOM Roster can be viewed here: https://rosters.ieee.org/home.html

  R5 EXCOM Meetings

The R5 Fall EXCOM meeting was hosted at Texas Tech University and was organized by Dr. Bilbao and Dr. Gale. Dr. Bilbao hosted the tour of Texas Tech University Global Laboratory for Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing (GLEAMM) facility https://www.depts.ttu.edu/gleamm/

  • IEEE Region 5 2023 Winter EXCOM Meeting and Audit Committee Meetings
    The meeting was held on Friday Jan 27 – Sunday Jan 29, 2023  at Courtyard Marriott Springfield Airport, 3527 W Kearney Street, Springfield, Missouri, United States, 65803.ExCOM recommended Christopher Sanderson and Kenneth Rice for the R5 Director-Elect Candidates.
    There could still be a petition candidate, thus, this is not the final candidates slate for the Director-Elect position.
    Stay tuned for more information in subsequent newsletter issues.

EXCOM Group Picture above

EXCOM During meeting session

  Major Developments

2023 Audit Committee
  1. Treasurer: Paul Cassingham.
  2. Audit Committee Chair, 4th Year: William Wylie (North) Billwylie@ieee.org
  3. Audit Committee, 3rd Year: Silke Spiesshoefer (East) Silke_Spiesshoefer@ieee.org
  4. Audit Committee, 2nd Year: Ernest X Njouondo (South) njouondo@ieee.org
  5. Audit Committee, 1st Year: Patterson, Tristan Hunter (West) tristanpatterson10@hotmail.com

POC: Director Bob Becnel bob.becnel@ieee.org

2023 IEEE Region 5 Awards CALL for NOMINATIONS 

Above: Leslie Martinich presenting award chart at the Winter EXCOM Meeting

IEEE Region 5 is accepting nominations for the following awards.
• Outstanding Large Section (1501 or more members)
• Outstanding Medium Section (501 to 1500 members)
• Outstanding Small Section (500 or fewer members)
• Jim Leonard R5 Outstanding Member Award
• Outstanding Educator
• Outstanding Large Student Branch (>50 members)
• Outstanding Small Student Branch (≤50 members)
• Outstanding Student
• Outstanding Student Branch Counselor
• Outstanding Large Company (>500 engineering employees)
• Outstanding Small Company (≤500 engineering employees)
• John Meredith Region 5 Lifetime Achievement
• Outstanding Young Professional Member
• Outstanding Individual Achievement Award (up to 5 awards)

A short description of each award and nomination forms are posted on the Region 5 Website (ieeer5.org/awards). The same award can only be received once in three years.
• Use your IEEE login to enter nominations at

     https://ieee.secure-platform.com/a/page/major_board_awards/mga-awards/region5_awards

• Nominations and endorsements are to be submitted online
• The nomination platform allows you to collaborate on nominations
• Self-nomination is not allowed.
• Endorsers should be someone other than the nominator. Endorsers are expected to provide supporting information to the nomination. Short descriptions are good.

Send questions to Leslie Martinich at lmartinich@ieee.org

The deadline for nominations is March 18, 2023.

   Membership Development

Have you renewed your IEEE membership for 2023?

It is easy to forget and easy to put off.  If you haven’t renewed your IEEE membership, or don’t know
if you have, go to www.ieee.org/renew  NOW and find out or simply call 800 678-4333.
Renew NOW to avoid loss of any of your IEEE benefits.

If you have already renewed, thank you for being part of the Central Texas Section and the IEEE, the
world’s largest technical professional association.

Above Joe Redfield Discussing Membership development at the EXCOM winter Meeting

Did you know about IEEE – IEEE Collabratec 

The IEEE Collabratec™ online community offers a suite of productivity tools and is available to technology
professionals around the world with exclusive features for IEEE members. Plus sign up is free to everyone.
IEEE Collabratec™ can help you:
– Connect with global technology professionals by location and
– Access robust networking, collaboration, and authoring tools dedicated to technology professionals
– Establish a professional identity to showcase key accomplishments

Go to Collabratec NOW     You do NOT have to be an IEEE member to join IEEE Collabratech.

    IEEE Member Discounts – Have you see what’s available now?

IEEE members can access more savings in more places for home and office including group discounts on
insurance, travel, home/office and technology needs. While you focus on your career, we’ll take care of
saving you money.  See vendor details for terms, conditions and availability.
Visit the Member Discounts page at www.ieee.org/discounts  to discover this added perk of IEEE Membership

Opportunity to make a difference as an Engineer!
As an IEEE member, or simply as an Engineer, we get the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of future engineers AND have some fun at the same time!
Science Fair Judge – Yes it is science fair season again! There are a number of science and engineering focused schools in the Region 5 area that host science fairs each year. Most will be hosting fairs over several days this year. Typically, they start in December with a local fair, move to a regional based fair in the Feb/March time, and then onto a state level competition. Those winners then go to Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair – Society for Science, the Regeneron International Science and Engineer Fair. This is the world’s fair of science fairs. In 2023 ISEF will be held in Dallas May 13-19. If you look, there will probably be many local Science Fairs in your area. Many schools are still working out how to continue to support their students with virtual/in person science fairs. Pick a school, find out if they have a science fair, reach out to them, and go have some fun supporting the next generation of engineers!
R5 Membership Development Chair: Joe Redfield, R5 Membership Development Chair (J.Redfield@ieee.org)
 R5 Conferences, Webinars and Professional Activities

  R5 Conferences and Webinars     

  • 2023 NESC Changes, plus ARC Flash calculation for small services workshop

        Workshop Details:
This one-day workshop has four parts under two major divisions:
Parts 1 – 3 will explore the changes in the 2023 version of the National Electrical Safety Code
Handbook (NESC, IEEE STD C2-2023), a print copy of which will be provided each registered
participant as Workshop material.
New for 2023, the IEEE Handbook contains the full 2023 NESC plus the commentary in a single text.
Part 4 will cover arc flash including two effective methods to calculate arc flash for small electrical
services, especially single-phase 100-amp services, and the strengths of each method.

       Location Details:
The historic Austin Scottish Rite Theater is located at 207 W. 18th Street, Austin, TX 78701.

Registration:
Registration and payment for this workshop must be completed at https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/341023.  
Wednesday, 5/03/2023 is the final day for registering online. Walk-ins will be accepted but must
have a check for the full amount made out to IEEE-CTS.

       Contact Information:
If you have any questions or need any additional information about the workshop,
please contact James Mercier at jmercier@ieee.org

      2023 Region 5 Annual Meeting and Student Competitions
The 2023 IEEE Region 5 Annual Business Meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Aurora-Denver

Conference Center, 13200 E. 14th Place, Aurora, CO 80011. On Friday April 21, 2023, a reception starts

at 6 PM. The website is https://r5conferences.org/

  Student Competitions: For more information about the competitions, visit the Student Activities
webpage https://r5conferences.org/student-activities/

Student Teams interested in competing will also need to complete the Intent to   Compete forms from the
competition of their choice.
Forms should be submitted as soon as possible to properly accommodate everyone. We are looking
forward to a great conference in 2023, and we hope to see you all there. Note that the Region 5 annual
business meeting is held adjacent to the IEEE 2023 GreenTech conference; for information on attending this
technical conference, please visit the GreenTech webpage at https://ieeegreentech.org.

   R5 Conference Organizing Committee: Abd Arkadan, General Chair Ian MacMillan, Operations Chair Jim Sipes, Student Competitions  Chair

Region 5 Annual 2023 Student Competitions
  • The 2023 IEEE Region 5 Annual Student Competitions will be held at the Hyatt Regency Aurora-Denver Conference Center in Aurora, Colorado on April 22, 2023. These competitions are open to all undergraduate IEEE student members who are attending a school in Region 5. Space is limited for some competitions and is given on a first come first serve basis. Interested teams should submit their ‘Intent to Submit’ forms as soon as possible. Student Competition Discord server: https://discord.gg/meG8Qku6RD For more information, please visit: https://r5conferences.org/student-activitiesPlease direct any questions you may have to the region 5 student representative, jaiden or the student activities chair, Amardeep. Jaiden Strong rsr@ieeer5.org, Amardeep Kaur student_activities@ieeer5.org
Professional Activities
  • Professional Activities: Region 5 makes funds available for the support of professional activities in IEEE R5 Sections, Chapters, and Student Branches. The funds are managed and distributed through the Region. To obtain funding, a Section, Chapter, or Student Branch must complete a Project Plan and Financing Request form, obtain supporting signatures, and file the form with the Region 5 PACE Coordinator. For R5 PACE Form (includes program details) and project ideas, https://r5.ieee.org/member-opportunities/professional-activities-pace/.   POC:  Diane Collier pacechair@ieeer5.org.
 R5 Sections and Formation Date
Section Date
1 Arkansas River Valley June 20, 1994
2 Arkansas April 23, 1947
3 Baton Rouge February 5, 1955
4 Beaumont June 27, 1945
5 Central Texas May 23, 1930
6 Corpus Christi October 25, 1951
7 Dallas March 18, 1928
8 Denver May 18, 1915
9 El Paso March 7, 1940
10 Fort Worth January 5, 1956
11 Galveston Bay January 1, 1980
12 High Plains February 13, 2010
13 Houston August 7, 1928
14 Kansas City April 4, 1916
15 Lafayette November 11, 1970
16 Lone Star November 23, 2019
17 New Orleans December 8, 1933
18 Oklahoma City February 16, 1922
19 Ozark April 20, 1966
20 Panhandle June 12, 1947
21 Pikes Peak May 22, 1978
22 Saint Louis January 14, 1903
23 Shreveport January 14, 1903
24 South Plains May 4, 1955
25 Southwest Missouri February 14, 2009
26 Tulsa October 1, 1937
27 Wichita September 16, 1937

  IEEE USA News

IEEE-USA MOVE Vehicle

Region 5 will be receiving an IEEE-USA MOVE Vehicle that would be located in the Region to help with disasters, STEM events and training for the central part of the USA.

Opportunity:
Need drivers and operators – training/certifications required
Red Cross volunteer certifications
Disaster deployments vs STEM activities

Above: Gery Qurada, presenting the R5 MOVE initiative at the EXCOM Winter meeting

For more information, go to:
http://move.ieeeusa.org/

http://radioclub.moveteams.org 

Contact:
Gerry Ourada – R5 Coord Rep gourada@computer.org    
Grayson Randall – MOVE Operations Lead g.randall@ieee.org

 

Congessional Visits Day (CVD) – April 4-5, 2023

Join IEEE-USA In-Person in Washington, DC
IEEE-USA Congressional Visits Day (CVD) is an opportunity to introduce yourself, your colleagues,
your company, and your profession to our elected officials. It also a great opportunity to discuss
legislation and issues that are uniquely important to IEEE members.

More information at: ieeeusa.org/cvd

Check out IEEE-USA Insight’s New Look IEEE USA have launched version 3.0 of our flagship publication IEEE-USA InSight, which covers career and public policy issues that are important to technology professionals.

  IEEE MGA News

MGA Scoop

https://mga.ieee.org/news/32-ieee-news/476-mga-scoop-december-2022-issue?mkt_tok=NzU2LUdQSC04OTkAAAGIgm2E3Pw9vccIGRMODFno50CI8gmz227f1jiMT3-ysxLF9P-FOp796IgApBiZPulu41Yod3iGNY-_v-_makx-5o0ldaH_lOVV40teM79ezSU#nss-featured

2022 Financial Reporting
The deadlines for your Geo Unit to submit the financials for the fiscal year of 2022 are:
•  Third Friday of February (17 February 2023) – To qualify for the additional 10% rebate bonus
•  Last Day of February (28 February 2023) – To qualify for a rebate

Starting on January 3, 2023, those Geo Units with Local Bank Accounts will receive the Bank
Upload Templates along with instructions on how to complete them. For those Geo Units with
CB Accounts, we will start sending the CB Bank Upload templates as soon as the statements
for the month of December 2022 have been released by our Treasury Department, around
mid-January 2023.

If your Geo Unit has already submitted the transaction templates for the period of January 1 to
June 30 2022, we will send you the templates for the remainder of the fiscal year (July 1 to
December 31 2022).

If your Geo Unit did not submit the transaction templates for the period of January 1 to
June 30 2022, you will receive a template for the entire fiscal year (January 1 to
December 31 2022). Please use these new  templates instead of the old templates we sent
to you back in August/September.

Acceptable and unacceptable gifts and recognition for IEEE staff and volunteers.

IEEE’s policy regarding gifts will be modified effective 1 January 2023
Understanding what is an acceptable and unacceptable gift is a critical component to the IEEE’s commitment
to ethical business practices. To improve the clarification on what gifts may be accepted and distributed, on
20 November 2022 the IEEE Board of Directors approved revisions to the IEEE Policies on gifts.
The following changes have been made:
– Language has been revised from “Business Gifts” to “Gifts”
– Gifts are subject to a $100 threshold instead of a “nominal value”
– Recognition gifts to volunteers are now integrated with a value of $100 per gift not to exceed a
total of $500 per year
– The annual cap above does not apply to IEEE-branded items
– Incorporates contact information for questions
For any questions, please contact the Legal and Compliance team at compliance@ieee.org.

EFFECTIVE DATE: 01 January 2023 / IEEE Policy, Section 9.9.F
“Gifts. Employees and volunteers of IEEE are not permitted to receive gifts, favors, services, payments,
privileges or special treatment of any kind or nature whatsoever from any individual, enterprise or
organization that conducts or seeks to conduct business with the IEEE unless:
· They are consistent with good business practices; and
· They are of a nature that could not be construed as a business inducement; and
· The retail value of the gift does not exceed USD 100. There may be occasions when it is appropriate for IEEE to provide an IEEE volunteer with a gift to recognize
their contribution to an IEEE event or activity. Such gifts from IEEE should not exceed USD 100 (or the local
equivalent) and the total value of all gifts to an IEEE volunteer in any calendar year should not exceed USD 500
(or the local equivalent).

IEEE branded items (e.g., certificates of appreciation, keepsakes items, plaques) under USD 100 shall not be
considered gifts for purposes of this policy.
For further guidance on the IEEE Gift Policy, contact compliance@ieee.org

  Frequent Links

The Full ExCom Roster can be viewed here: https://rosters.ieee.org/home.html
IEEE Region 5 https://r5.ieee.org/

The Newsletter is sent to all current members in Region 5

Newsletter Editor: Ademola Peter Adejokun

newsletter@ieeer5.org