Minutes of the IEEE Siouxland Section
Executive Committee Meeting
March 16, 2003
6:30 – 8:30

Attending:            Jeff White (Chair), Steve Wolterstorff (Vice Chair), Bob Fourney  (Sec/Treas), Brian Matherly (at Large), John Weber (Newsletter editor/Web Developer), and Doug DeBoer (Past Chair/ Dordt Student adviser)

Not attending:      Josch Rich (at Large) and Michael Ropp (SDSU Student Adviser)

Guests:                 None

Article 01-0001:  OLD BUSINESS. No old business, approved old business

Article 01-0002:  NEGOTIATIONS WORKSHOP.  Steve will take lead in ensuring that required equipment (LCD projector, TV and VCR, Flip Chart and markers, etc) is on site.  MR energy will loan equipment.  If there is any that they cannot provide, Steve will contact other members of Ex Comm to borrow that piece of equipment.

Food accepted as proposed (box lunch @ 10.95 per participant, Continental breakfast @  $8.95, Sundae Bar @ 5.95, and Soft drinks at $ 1.95 each.)    Next year we might re-visit this to see if a better price can be obtained.

Jeff will send the Ex Comm an email ASAP with testimonials from past participants in this workshop by Baker Communication.  The Ex Comm will try to drum up participants by contacting local businesses.  We should all keep Jeff informed as to who we contact.

Article 01-0003:  REGIONAL CONFERENCE.  We agreed to let Brian select the workshops that he thought would be best for Siouxland.  Brian will request reimbursement from the section for his expenses after he determines how much will be supported by the region.

Article 01-0004:  GOLD AFFINITY GROUP.  Jeff and Brian will follow up with Kristi Brooks and alert the rest of the Ex Comm to options and status.

Article 01-0005:  STUDENT ACTIVITIES FUNDING.  The region might provide funding for some student activities.  We should look into getting SAC funding for the student industry tour that the section supported earlier.  We agreed to request that the students submit a report to the Ex Comm.  Report should include details of the trip, including administrative details that will help next-year's planners to avoid any pitfalls encountered.  It is possible to get reimbursed for a past trip, but this report will also help to obtain funding for any future trips.

Article 01-0006:  RECRUITMENT OF SENIOR MEMBERS.  Bob will contact Lew Brown and ask Lew to contact the other three senior members associated with SDSU (Virgil Ellerbuch, Wayne Knabach, and Duane Sander).  The hope is that we can get three letters of recommendation for some members of the Ex Comm who are known to at least 3 of these Senior Members.  Some members of the Ex Comm, or other members who are willing to write letters for future members would seek to become Senior Members and then help others to do so.

Article 01-0007:  POWER OR COMPUTER CHAPTER.  There did not seem to be any interest in establishing a Computer Chapter.  Doug DeBoer was interested in re-establishing our Power Chapter, and thought that it might just be a matter of re-activating the dormant chapter.  Since many of our meetings would qualify as Power Chapter meetings, Doug seemed to think that this was worthwhile, and agreed to take the lead on developing bylaws and other bureaucratic details.

Article 01-0008:  HIGHLIGHTS OF REGIONAL MEETING.  The Region is attempting to decrease the reserves by supporting numerous projects.  If we need money for a worthwhile project, now wouold be a good time to receive support from the region.

Article 01-0009:  ANNUAL TOUR.  Since the people at EROS could not do an after-hours (evening or Saturday) tour, someone suggested contacting them to see if they could just give IEEE a couple of special presentations during their annual open house.  Bob was asked to contact EROS and ask for a couple (1 or 2) presentations at around 2 pm next time they did the open house.  This would allow members to come early, eat lunch, view some of the general exhibits, and then attend the presentation or come at 2, attend the presentation, view the general exhibits, and then eat supper.

The above was given as our first choice, with the second choice being to ask again for an evening tour.  The third option would be to have one or both student branches arrange a daytime tour for students, which would be open to general members also.  (It was felt that most of our members would have work conflicts with a daytime tour, so it is not worth the section's time to arrange such a tour.  It was also felt that if we did arrange a tour and had low attendance it would not reflect well on the section).

Bob was pretty certain that they would NOT offer an evening or Saturday tour  (and they did not mention the open house).  Bob asked is he should arrange a tour of the Aurora Ethanol plant (VeraSun Energy) if EROS didn't work out.  It was decided that there were other Ethanol plants closer to most of our members, and a tour of them would be preferable. Bob is to keep the Ex Comm informed on progress wrt the Eros tour.

Article 01-0010:  HKN/IEEE AWARDS BANQUET.  Bob was asked to get details from Steve Hietpas  (SDSU HKN adviser, previous treasurer of Siouxland Section).  Bob will send details to John ASAP and cc the rest of the Ex Comm.

Article 01-0011:  GENERAL BUSINESS.  Bob was asked to confirm that our January meeting was registered with IEEE.  Bob stated that it had not been reported yet, but Doug DeBoer asked that we wait until the issue with the Power Chapter was resolved (as this would technically be a Power Chapter meeting).  Bob agreed to check with Doug before reporting this meeting.

Article 01-0012:  JOB SEARCH.  Job Search info on IEEE USA web site - should we be making our students aware of this resource?  The members in attendance thought we should make sure that the students know about it.  Bob agreed to mention this to Mike Ropp.  Doug will check with the Dordt students.  Both groups will probably link this from their student web page.

Article 01-0013:  ADJOURNMENT.  Meeting adjourned 9:36

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Fourney
10/12/2004