Ned R. Sauthoff
2001 President, IEEE-USA


President's Column
(January - February 2001)

Communications Play Key Role in Building Careers and Shaping Public Policy

Recent blackouts and power shortages in California, the Northwest, Midwest, Northeast and Florida have demonstrated that electric power policy has a large impact on the public benefits of electrotechnology. The IEEE and its members -- leaders in electrotechnology and information technology -- have key roles to play in maximizing the public benefit of our field. Achieving that goal entails more than technical work, it requires involvement by members in the public-policy process.

Similarly, career success for today’s mobile engineer demands both technical and non-technical skills and a supportive policy environment.

To support our members both individually and collectively, IEEE-USA is working hard to increase the availability of our quality professional development programs and to increase the effectiveness of our government relations programs. We do this by focusing on the highest-impact issues and by engaging our geographically dispersed U.S. members in grassroots activism.

Communication is key to making our programs more available, and to engaging members in public-policy programs. Based on surveys and studies of member preference, we have designed a comprehensive IEEE-USA member communications program. At the forefront of our efforts are the new magapaper IEEE-USA News and Views, and two insightful monthly Web-based magazines (Webzines), IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer and IEEE-USA Policy Perspectives.

Here’s a more in-depth look at each one:

  • News and Views, the linchpin of our new communications efforts, is a quarterly print publication that will debut in March. It will feature articles that help you build your career and alert you to IEEE-USA products and activities that help shape public policy in the areas of career policy and technology policy. It will also include pointers to material available in previous Webzine issues and will be delivered with your copy of The Institute and Spectrum.
  • Today’s Engineer replaces the award-winning print publication by the same name that was available through subscription only. It provides information on careers in electrotechnology and information technology, on products useful for building your career, and on professional development for today’s engineer. It appeared for the first time in January.
  • Policy Perspectives addresses topics in both career policy and technology policy, including the status of pending legislation, IEEE-USA position statements and opportunities for you to act. It also began in January.

Both Webzines can be found at http://www.todaysengineer.org. Each one has an "opt-in" notification service, where you can sign up to receive an e-mail when each new issue of Today’s Engineer and Policy Perspectives is posted on the IEEE-USA Web site. For this service, go to http://www.todaysengineer.org/emailupdates.

You, the member, are the most effective messengers of the perspectives of engineers to your congressional representatives and senators. As former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill once said, "All politics is local." Our electronic grassroots outreach program enables you to monitor and act on developing legislation and issues that affect our members and the engineering profession. You can receive legislative alerts on specific issues of interest at www.ieeeusa.org/forum/grassroots. And you can have news delivered your in-box by subscribing to IEEE-USA’s Eye on Washington electronic newsletter at http://www.ieeeusa.org/emailupdates.

Our Policy Forum (http://www.ieeeusa.org/forum) and Legislative Action Center (http://congress.nw.dc.us/ieeeusa) provide a variety of tools and resources to help educate you about the issues, prepare a letter to your congressperson, or arm you with material for a visit to your congressperson’s district office.

These communications vehicles play a key role in IEEE-USA’s mission to build careers and shape public policy. In the area of building careers, IEEE-USA sponsors conferences and symposia; develops and disseminates career-development tools; argues for a strong U.S. engineering workforce through programs ranging from pre-college to continuing education, to permanent immigration; and supports pension portability for a mobile workforce. In the area of technology policy, IEEE-USA works for reliable restructuring of the electric supply industry; strong research and development through both industrial tax incentives and federal funding; fair intellectual property rights in today’s economy; and privacy and reliability of the information infrastructure.

So I encourage you to utilize the communications tools we have provided. Because electrotechnology and information technology carry great potential for improving the public’s quality of life, it is up to us to communicate our important messages both inside and outside the profession. We each have a responsibility to serve by providing both authoritative perspectives to decision makers and professional development tools to our members. Here’s to a great 2001.

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Last Updated: 25 January 2001
Staff Contact: Michell Scott, m.scott@ieee.org

Copyright © 2001 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Permission granted to copy for non-commercial uses with appropriate attribution.  IEEE newsletter editors are encouraged to reprint this column or portions there-of in their newsletters.