EXCOM Meeting Minutes

12 Noon – 1:00 PM

7 March 2005 

The voting EXCOM Members participating in 7 were approved by E-Mail vote in mid February 04.  Of the 13 possible votes, nine votes were cast to approve the minutes.  Ellahi (2), Granville, Hodgman, Kasper, Pishori, Richardson (2 votes), Ritter, Rummer, Talley, and Vollmar.  Van Dee was the only Voting Member absent. Great attendance; 12 out of 13 possible votes.

 The non-voting EXCOM Members participating in the 7 March 05 Meeting, were Lamendola, and Stuerke. 

1.  The Minutes from the 7 February 05 EXCOM were approved by E-Mail vote in mid February 04.  Of the 13 possible votes, nine votes were cast to approve the minutes.  Ellahi (2), Granville, Kasper, Richardson (2), Ritter, Rummer, and Talley were the members that voted.  The Chair requests that ALL EXCOM Voting Members respond in the future to EXCOM business needs and encourages all non-voting EXCOM members to participate to their fullest capability. 

2. Old Business:

A. Schedule Section Training for sometime in the future.  On 7 of Feb 05, the EXCOM unanimously selected 26 Feb for the Section, Chapter, and Affinity Training.  The intent was to have the training from 10 AM – 2 PM, with a catered lunch.  KC Masterpiece does not open until 11 AM, so Bill Ritter tentatively reserved two rooms for 11 AM – 3 PM.  Out of an initial 23 participants (not counting all the Chapter and Affinity Group Officers), there were 5 individuals responding that they could not come (this is an acceptable number), but out of the remaining 18 individuals 9 replied with Yes, but 9 failed to even reply (this is the reason the Chair cancelled the training session).  

Discussion:

Good ideas were discussed. 

It was discussed that the best way to get people to answer the emails and vote (Yes of No) was to make public the number of yes/no votes by name and the names of those not responding at all. When an individual does not respond by a certain date, he/she should be contacted by means other than an email to inquire why they have not responded.  This follow-up contact should be by phone.  EXCOM members other than the chair would be responsible for doing this.  EXCOM phone and e-mail contact information needs to be provided to the EXCOM Members – Imran will do this.

 B. KC Section by Laws needs to be updated to include changes resulting from activation the Southwest Missouri Subsection.  (Responsibility – Imran Pishori) 

Action: Bill Ritter and Imran Pishori will get together in the future to discuss this. 

3.  New Business:

A.  Communication –

1- Why do EXCOM members fail to reply to requested information?

Discussion: see old business

2- What changes can be made in E-Mail communication to improve communication?

Discussion: Outlook automatic reminder is working for certain people.  However, again the best way to improve communication is to contact the individual by phone ONLY after they have failed to respond to an email. 

3- Chairs of Chapters and Affinity Groups need to provide the section Chair and section Secretary with a list of the officers and their contact information by 15 March 05.

Action: Imran Pishori will send out another email to the group and request a list of the officers.   

B.  Need to nominate a second person to attend the 2005 Sections Congress.  Request that nominations be made and voted on at this meeting.  This is in addition to Taimur Ellahi, who will attend as the Section Primary Delegate. 

Action:  Ken Vollmar was nominated to attend the 2005 Sections Congress.  The event will be held on October 13, 14, 15 and 16 of 2005. 

C.  Need to have a face-to-face EXCOM meeting in the near future.  Telephone conference calls are fine and need to be fully utilized, but a face-to-face meeting should happen from time to time.

Discussion: An excellent idea.  We should do this after work so that we are not on a time constraint.

Action: Date of April 4^th was set.  Dick Hodgman will be responsible for setting up the dinner reservation and following up to make sure maximum people attend.

D.  Need to schedule EXCOM meeting at KU in the future.  We have talked about it; it is time we did it.

Action:  A date of October 3^rd, 2005 was set.  Dale Rummer will work in getting in contact with KU and setting up the meeting.

E.  Discuss having a Linda Library Tour again this year.  It was a great success last July (15 for lunch and 25 for the tour).  Suggest we think of a time when the college students are around and can join.

Discussion:  Everyone wanted to have another tour of Linda Library.

A date was not set but it would be on a Saturday.  Dave Kasper will work out the details.

F.  Discuss Joint Meetings between Section and Chapters/Affinity Groups.  Currently the only Units having more than the minimum number of meetings is the Consultant Network.  Technically the Section is and always has been joint with these groups since the Section pays for loss in meal revenue.  The following is from the reimbursement guidelines:

“All Sections reporting 10 meetings or more, at least five of which must be of a technical, professional, or educational nature, shall receive an additional $200.  Activity bonus funds are excluded form 10% bonus for timely reporting.  All units must qualify for the timely reporting bonus in order to be eligible for an activity bonus.  Joint meetings may be counted toward only one unit’s bonus.  For example, joint meetings of different Chapters and/or Affinity Groups may not be counted as a meeting for both units.”

The Consultants Network qualified for an additional $75 last year by having additional meetings.  Since the other units do not have additional meetings and will not therefore qualify for additional funding, the Section could use the joint meeting for their bonus.

Discussion:  Again an excellent job by Bill Ritter in maximizing the amount of money the groups receive.  The Consultants Network does not foresee a problem in getting their meeting to receive their bonus. 

It was agreed that the Section would maximize any Chapter/Affinity Group meetings and declare them joint meetings unless doing so will prohibit the group form receiving their bonus. 

G.  Approve budget for both Pittsburg State University and University of Missouri in Kansas City.

Action: A motion to allow the Section Treasurer to issue the $200 approved in the Section Budget for UMKC and PSU was passed.

4. Telephone Conference Call – The EXCOM Meeting will be by Telephone Conference.

The procedures for the conference call on 7 Mar 05, 12:00 Noon to 1:00 PM is as follows: 

A.  Local access phone number is: (816) 650-0799

If you join the conference call from the KC area, please use the number listed above – Local Call –less cost-This is a Kansas City, Missouri local number.

If you join the conference call from a location outside the KC area you can use the toll free number show below.

B. Toll free phone number is: (888) 2-TALK-2U or (888) 282-5528

C.  Participant access code: ATM98 (enter this code when prompted)

D.  You will hear music until the KC Section Chair initiates the conference.  The conference will end when the KC Section Chair hangs up.

Imran Pishori
IEEE Kansas City Section Secretary
ipishori@ burnsmcd.com
816-336-9400 ext. 2658

William (Bill) T. Ritter
2004 Kansas City Section Chair
IEEE Region 5
w.ritter@ ieee.org
785-478-0215 (H)
785-249-3311 (C)