11:59 BST
Share
Microwave Theory and Techniques Society organized a Chapter Chair Meeting (CCM) in Kraków, a beautiful historical city in Poland, former capital of Poland, on May 9, 2016, in conjunction with the Microwave and Radar Week, which combined the MIKON and IRS Conferences. Representatives of all Region 8 Chapters of the MTT Society and MTT Chapters joined with other societies had been invited to attend the meeting. Representatives of MTT-S Chapters could make use of a travel grant covering expenses up to a maximum of $500 for transportation to and from Kraków, and accommodation for two nights. People from Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and United States were present at the Meeting representing corresponding chapters.
The aim of this very friendly meeting was to present to chapter chairs and to other chapter representatives basic information on how to run their Chapter successfully, what they are required to do and what they can get from the Society and from their Section. The main task of chapters and their chairs is to represent the Society to their members. The Chapter’s activity in favor of its members is in fact the activity of the Society. That is why MTT-S takes so much care of chapter volunteers and organizes these meetings. At the same time, the meeting provides a great opportunity for participants to network, to meet their colleagues, to exchange ideas on good practice and of course on bad practice, and to share their experience.
The meeting was chaired by its organizer Jan Macháč the Region 8 MTT-S Coordinator. Participants were welcomed by MTT-S President Ke Wu, by MRW General Chair and Division IV Director Józef Modelski, and by Maciej Ogorzalek, IEEE Poland Section Past Chair, and IEEE Division 1 Director. The main “training” part of the meeting was conducted by Jan Macháč, and by MTT-S MGA Committee Past Chair Daniel Pasquet. They explained how to manage a Chapter successfully, and the structure of IEEE.
Józef Modelski presented the MRW and the statistics and history of the two conferences. In the second part of his presentation he mentioned Enigma Milestone commemorating the breaking of the German code by Polish mathematicians.
Wojciech Krzysztofik, IEEE AP/AES/MTT Poland Joint Chapter Chair and MTT-S Region 8 Chapter Ambassador presented his experience with chairing of one of the most successful Chapter in Region 8, and presented activities of the Poland Joint Chapter. The natural resources of the success are very active Chapter members.
Maciej Ogorzalek talked about future directions of IEEE. First he gave IEEE structure and membership statistics, next he talked about the “Future Directions of IEEE”: big data, brain, cyber security initiative, digital senses, green ICT, internet of things, rebooting computing, smart cities, smart materials, software-defined networks.
A fruitful discussion moderated by Daniel Pasquet, combined with a small poster session, showed participants some best practices of participating Chapters. The meeting was attended by 18 people. The following tasks for the chapters and their chairs follow from the discussion: Make the Chapter activity interesting to members to stop the member decrease. Try to motivate people from industry to participate. Get new members, get new volunteers as MTT-S is the volunteer driven society.
The Chapter Chair Meeting organizers thank the MRW organizers for establishing such a warm and pleasant atmosphere. Special thanks go to Artur Rydosz, the MRW Organizing Chair.
(Photo: Józef Modelski, standing at left; Daniel Pasquet, and Ke Wu seated in front row.)