October, 2004 Signal

Volume 13, Number 4 IEEE SIOUXLAND SECTION NEWSLETTER October, 2004
http://www.siouxland.org

October 19 – Annual CPSS/IEEE Meeting and Dinner @ Brookings Inn in Brookings, SD
October 19 – Executive Committee Meeting @ Brookings Inn in Brookings, SD
October 21 – IEEE Gold Section Affinity Group Kick-Off Meeting @ Sencore in Sioux Falls, SD
November – Possible Tour: Site TBD
December – Meeting to elect new officers

In this newsletter you will find the announcement for the upcoming Center for Power System Studies (CPSS) 2004 South Dakota Regional Power Conference and Banquet on October 19, 2004 in Brookings, SD. This conference is a great offering for electrical engineers in our Siouxland section. I would encourage you to review this information and consider attending the conference and/or the evening banquet and presentation. The evening presentation “Wind Power in the Midwest: Progress and Challenges” by Matt Schuerger should prove to be very interesting as it highlights a topic that is gaining viability in our local area. Please note that this conference is another great opportunity for Professional Engineers in our section to obtain Continuing Education Units (CEUs). If you have any questions about this conference or would like additional information regarding the content, please contact Steven Hietpas at (steven.hietpas@sdstate.edu).

In addition to the CPSS conference please note that our IEEE section will be holding an Executive Committee Meeting on this same date in Brookings. During this meeting we plan to discuss budget, officer nominations, and meeting plans for the upcoming year along with discussions about the progress in the revival of a Power Chapter and the formation of a GOLD affinity group. If you would like to be involved in these discussions I would encourage you to stop in and join our meeting.

This newsletter also contains an announcement for the upcoming Graduates Of the Last Decade (GOLD) affinity group kick-off meeting. The formation of this group has been in the works over the last year so we are very excited to see this group get kicked-off and look forward to the opportunities this will present to our younger members. If you are a qualified GOLD member you should have received an e-mail announcement from Brian Matherly for this meeting. I would strongly encourage you to attend this meeting and take the opportunity to influence the direction that this group takes to benefit our members in the future.

In closing, if anyone has suggestions on how our section can play a role in better serving you or your companies needs please contact me at (jeffwhite@ieee.org). Also, I would like to take this moment to encourage you to spend a little time browsing our Siouxland Section IEEE website (http://www.siouxland.org) and the IEEE national website (http://www.ieee.org) when you have a chance. Each of these websites highlights many of the opportunities that are available to our engineers that belong to the IEEE organization.

WHAT:                      IEEE October Meeting "Wind Power in the Midwest: Progress and Challenges"                                    Presentation/CPSS Awards Ceremony
WHEN:                       Tuesday evening, October 19
WHERE:                     Brookings Inn, Conference Center - Brookings, SD
ACTIVITIES:             5:30 PM Social
                                   6:00 – 7:45 PM Banquet and CPSS Award Ceremonies
                                   8:00 - 9:00 PM, Matt Schuerger, Wind Power in the Midwest: Progress and                                    Challenges. See presentation overview below.
RESERVATIONS:     RSVP by October 13th to Karen Bravek, (605) 688-4526 karen.bravek@sdstate.edu and
                                   fill in and return registration form provided here on the Siouxland IEEE website. The cost for the
                                   banquet is $15 for members, $7.50 for student members. (No reservations are required if
                                   attending only the presentation.)
DIRECTIONS:           From Interstate 29 take the 6^th Street (US 14) exit 132. Brookings Inn is just to the West of
                                    I-29 and on the South side of 6^th Street.

WHAT:                  Siouxland IEEE Executive Committee Meeting
WHEN:                  4:30 – 5:30 PM Tuesday October 19
WHERE:                Brookings Inn, Brookings, SD (Room - TBD)
AGENDA:             Discussion of 2005 budget, future meeting planning, officer nominations, Power Chapter and Gold
                              Affinity group.

WHAT:                  IEEE Siouxland Section GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) Kickoff Meeting
WHEN:                  6:30 PM Thursday, October 21 2004
WHERE:                Sencore Electronics
                              3200 Sencore Drive
                              Sioux Falls, SD 57107
MENU:                  Pizza (Free!)
RSVP:                    Please RSVP Brian Matherly (Brian.Matherly@sencore.com) to ensure there is enough food.
MORE INFO:        To see if you qualify for GOLD and for more information: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/gold/what.html

“Wind Power in the Midwest: Progress and Challenges”
Matthew J. Schuerger, P.E.
Consultant
Energy Systems Consulting Services
Saint Paul, MN

Mr. Schuerger will present recent developments in wind power internationally and nationally as well as the current status of wind power and projected development with a focus on the Midwest. He will cover both the significant advances in technology and economics and the remaining challenges.

Matt Schuerger is an independent consultant focusing on renewable energy planning and development. Current projects include work as a technical advisor for the Western Area Power Administration on the Dakotas Wind Transmission Study and for the Minnesota Department of Commerce on the Xcel Wind Integration Study. Mr. Schuerger has over twenty years of experience in the utility industry, including senior positions in engineering, power plant operations, and business development. He is formerly the Executive Vice President of District Energy Saint Paul, Inc. Mr. Schuerger is a licensed Professional Engineer and holds a Masters in Business Administration.

Center for Power Systems Studies
2004 South Dakota Regional power Conference
Tentative schedule
October 19, 2004
Brookings Inn, Conference Center
Brookings, SD

10:00-11:00 Distribution Generation Power Quality Issues (wind generation)
Bob Zavadil,

A Description and Discussion of the “PV in the Parks” Program
Mike Ropp, Ph.D.

8:00 – 9:00 Wind Power in the Midwest: Progress and Challenges
Matt Schuerger,

It really is that time of year again; time to renew your annual IEEE Membership.

Annually, the IEEE members are requested to participate in the IEEE elections. This is your opportunity to provide input to determine who will serve on the IEEE Board of Directors, Regional Activities Board, Technical Activities Board, IEEE-USA Board and the Standards Association Board. The ballots have been mailed and must be returned PRIOR to 1 November 2004. For the first time, members may cast their ballots either electronically or by mail. Instructions and codes for electronic transmission are provided in the election ballot materials.

In the 2003 IEEE Election, only 15% of the eligible voters returned a valid election ballot. This percentage reflects the recent trend in which the amount of ballots returned has decreased. In an attempt to increase the number of ballots returned, the Regional Activities Board has agreed to recognize two Sections (one large/one small) that have the highest percentage increase in the number of ballots returned in the IEEE annual election. A Section is considered large if it has 501 or more members.

Please remind the members in your Section to return their ballots. If your Section has the highest percentage increase in the number of ballots returned, the Section will be recognized for its efforts. To see how many members of your Section voted in the 2003 election, please see the following URL: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/voting/.

Visit the IEEE election website (http://www.ieee.org/corporate/elections/candidates.xml) for the most accurate and up-to-date information on all candidates and election categories. In addition to selecting candidates, this year members also are being asked to vote on a constitutional amendment containing revisions to the wording of the IEEE Constitution. For detailed information on these changes, visit http://www.ieee.org/about/whatis/bylaws/changesgrid.xml.

Do you get too many email bounces using your Unit's SAMIEEE data? Ideally, IEEE members keep their email addresses and phone numbers up to date when renewing membership via the web or as needed throughout the year. To do this, they can use the web based "change of profile" form (http://www.ieee.org/coa), by sending an email to address-changes@ieee.org, or by contacting IEEE Member Services directly at 1-800-678-4333 (1-732-981-0060 outside of the US).

However, some members do not make these changes in a timely manner, so what can you do as a volunteer, if you have the correct contact information? There is a link on the SAMIEEE website, http://www.ieee.org/samieee, titled "Report Data Corrections to IEEE." Located on the lower left sidebar, it was created to assist the volunteers with this task.

Using this web form allows you to report member data corrections directly to Member Services, on behalf of a member in your organizational unit. Follow the directions making sure you type in "SAMIEEE Recipient Submission" in the Other Reason field. Once a correction is made to the IEEE membership database it will appear in a new or refreshed query in SAMIEEE following the weekly maintenance refresh.

We are happy to announce a new feature added to the online Rosters on the IEEE web site at http://www.ieee.org/roster. We have added a roster name search and enabled it for use in navigating the online rosters.

This new tool allows authorized users to search for IEEE volunteers regardless of the roster in which they are named. With the deployment of this new search capability comes expanded access rights. Now anyone in any of the major rosters can view ALL rosters. Searching for an IEEE volunteer will retrieve contact information as well as all the current positions held. You need your IEEE web account to access the Rosters.

On 15 September, the IEEE rolled out enhancements to the IEEE UCE/Spam Filtering Service for members with an IEEE email alias.

· An option that combines the tagging and blocking of UCE (spam); messages with a low spam score will be tagged, messages with a high spam score will be blocked, thereby reducing the amount of spam received over time.

· The ability to add email addresses you always want blocked to a blacklist, and those you never want blocked to a whitelist.

· Improved identification technology that will more accurately target possible UCE/spam messages.

· An additional layer of anti-virus protection beyond what is already provided via the IEEE Email Alias Service.

Members with an IEEE email alias may sign up for the IEEE UCE/Spam Filtering Service at https://uce.ieee.org/. Members who already use the filter may update their profiles starting 15 Sept. to select from among the new options.

For any questions regarding the enhancements or the IEEE UCE/Spam Filtering Service in general, email uce-admin@ieee.org.

The Regional Activities Board is currently accepting nominations for the prominent RAB Awards:

      RAB Achievement Award
      RAB Innovation Award
      RAB Leadership Award
    RAB Larry K. Wilson Transnational Award

The RAB Awards and Recognition Program seeks to honor the outstanding efforts of some of the most invaluable IEEE Volunteers who have made substantial Regional contributions through innovative projects, exemplary leadership, service, and by fulfilling the goals as related to Transnational Activities. Each prestigious award has a unique mission and criteria, and offers the opportunity to honor distinguished colleagues, inspiring teachers and corporate leaders.

These awards, the most prestigious RAB has to offer, are designed to recognize outstanding efforts by IEEE volunteers. These are NOT technical achievement awards. The deadline for nominations is 15 October 2004.

Minutes of the IEEE Siouxland Section Executive Committee Meetings can be found along with past issues of the Siouxland Signal at: www.siouxland.org/newsletts.htm

Please send comments or items to include in the newsletter to the Electronics Communications Coordinator (John Weber / PO Box 88920 / Missouri River Energy Services / Sioux Falls , SD 57109 / Telephone 605-330-6979, e-mail johnw@mrenergy.com). Make address corrections online at http://www.ieee.org/update or call them at (800)-678-IEEE.