Joint Chapters are a helpful option when trying to form a Chapter where there are not enough members of a single Technical Society in a particular Section. As a result, the Chapter organizer can either expand the Chapter’s geographical boundaries to include a neighboring Section, or expand the technical focus of the Chapter to include another Society’s (or Societies’) field of interest.
Joint Society Chapters – Joint Society Chapters are those comprised of two or more Societies (example: France ED/AP/MTT Chapter). Existing Chapters often become Joint Society Chapters when they find that some of their members are involved in technology related to another Society’s field of interest. Joint Society Chapters also provide a broader perspective of interest and potential events and information sharing for the members. Joint Society Chapter Chairs should ensure that Chapter activities reflect the interests of both (or all) Societies and all members from each participating Society should be invited to all Chapter events. Joint Society Chapters may receive support from each of the Societies represented in the Chapter. See Section V, Support from Other Societies and IEEE, in this handbook for more information.
Joint Section Chapters – Joint Section Chapters are those for which the membership of a single chapter is across the geographic boundaries of two or more Sections (example: Long Island/New York Section AP Chapter). Joint Section Chapters must invite the Chapter members from all member Sections to all of the meetings and develop as good a working relationship with the leadership of all Sections as you have with your own Section. Often Joint Section Chapters seem like a good solution, but they are frequently under utilized as they rarely involve the members of both Sections as originally intended.
Regardless the type of Chapter formed, only one Section is the administrative “parent” of each chapter. The administrative parent Section is responsible for reporting the Chapter’s activities to IEEE headquarters, and receives a rebate that should be passed along to the Chapter. You can learn more about the details of this rebate under the topic Section Financial Support in this handbook. Further detailed information on expanding a Chapter to a Joint Chapter can be found on the Society Chapter Petition here.