President's Column
December 2003

A Look Back at 2003

My dear U.S. IEEE members, I wish to thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as your 2003 president. As the year closes, I’d like to look back at some of IEEE-USA’s major 2003 achievements. These could only be accomplished with the help of our many volunteers and dedicated staff.

On Capitol Hill, we held two Congressional Visit Days, including one on engineers’ careers, and a nanotechnology briefing for Senate staffers. We’ve started a grassroots movement that provides an opportunity for our members to participate in shaping government policies.

Ron Hira, chair of the IEEE-USA Research and Development Policy Committee, delivered testimony on offshoring before the House Committee on Small Business. As president, I have communicated with every member of Congress and the President that we want American engineering jobs to remain in America for Americans.

Our Board of Directors passed many new policy position statements, including one on reverse engineering that served as a basis for an amicus curiae brief that we filed with the U.S Supreme Court in June.

After WKMG-TV in Orlando, Fla., did such a wonderful job on their “Stolen Jobs” series, which showed how offshoring and temporary workers were hurting employment opportunities for U.S. high-tech professionals, we reproduced the series onto CD and distributed it to the media, other societies and members of Congress.

In March of 2003, we held another successful IEEE-USA Leadership Workshop and Professional Development Conference in Seattle. Next year’s workshop is slated for Atlanta.

When the blackout of 2003 struck in mid-August, IEEE-USA spokespeople drew national coverage. We were quoted in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times, heard on CBS and BBC radio and seen on CNBC and MSNBC, to name a few. IEEE-USA continues to look into the cause and provide policy recommendations for preventing future problems.

Throughout the year we have been preparing for the IEEE’s role as lead society of National Engineers Week in 2004. We have a number of fun and educational activities planned to promote engineering awareness and public understanding of the profession. I urge your participation in EWeek ’04.

In July, I was particularly pleased to represent IEEE-USA at the centennial of powered flight celebration in Dayton, Ohio. Working with the IEEE Aerospace & Electronics Systems Society, we sponsored a display that featured a 100-year timeline on avionics. I was so impressed with the display that I arranged for it to appear at the Digital Avionics Systems Conference in Indianapolis in October. Successful engagement between IEEE-USA and other IEEE organizational units (RAB, TAB, EAD, PUBS, Standards) is ongoing.

I am involved with an IEEE Board-level committee that is striving to improve our industry relations by defining what the IEEE can do to help industry. And we will ask its leaders to continue to support our IEEE volunteers.

I’d like to thank past president LeEarl Bryant and the IEEE-USA Board of Directors for their help and support this year. I know that the presidency of IEEE-USA is in good hands with John Steadman, who will succeed me on 1 January. And again thanks to each of you, the 235,000 U.S. members of the IEEE, for allowing me to serve you as your top IEEE-USA volunteer leader in 2003.

>> Leonard Profile <<

Note to Editors: Please feel free to adapt this IEEE-USA President's Column for use in your local IEEE print and electronic publications. For more information, please contact Chris McManes at c.mcmanes@ieee.org.