Jean Eason (Chair & R5), Nigel Bristow, Joe DeVita (R1), Ken Doniger (R6), Chuck Elliott, Joe Kalasky (R2), David Macchiarolo (R3), Gregg Vaughn (VP Member Activities) Jim Jeffries (Denver Section PACE Chair), and Scott Grayson (Staff).

Scott Grayson reported that the U.S. membership is decreasing which has a direct impact on the IEEE-USA Budget since a portion of U.S. members' dues fund the operations of IEEE-USA.  Scott explained that employment & career products can serve as a membership development and retention tool.

The Committee unanimously approved the Meeting Summary.

Scott reported that if the committee does not plan to publish the Engineers Guide this year we can project about $8K less in expenses.  Jean Eason will prepare the Engineers Guide by the end of the year and will be published in 2006.

The Committee discussed the effectiveness of the CareerNavigator web portal. The Committee agreed the website is doing exactly what it was intended to do. Committee members will continue to monitor the site and provide suggestions for enhancements

Ken Doniger and David Macchiarolo continue to monitor the ECS Virtual Community.  See Ken Doniger's Report.

Committee Recommendations:

• The Committee recommended that we recognize those community members who have been most active.
• The Committee also recommended that we create a folder for new users that would highlight some of the best tips. 

ACTION: Committee members will review the material on the Community and provide Scott with recommendations for which postings should go in the special folder by 1 December 2005
 

Scott reported that 78 people have signed up for the EmploymentNavigator.  Scott also explained that there are others in the industry who may be offering spidering technology job searches for free.  Therefore, he has been discussing with Spherion the potential of providing our members with CareerStar.  This is a more robust product that includes an extensive industry database that will allow people to research the industry and companies they may want to work within.  The service has on-line workshops and a resume builder program as well as a job search.

Spherion plans to conduct a survey of our members who are currently using the service.  Scott and Spherion will continue to discuss a new business model and a potential pricing model consisting of low monthly rate subscription rather than locking members into a six-month subscription.

See October IEEE Institute article, New Site Searches for Job
Listings Far and Wide

Scott reported that when the Institute article on the Career Planning Guide ran we had over 1,800 downloads of the Guide. We received very positive feedback on the Guide.

Scott reported that IEEE-USA plans to improve its entire marketing effort for all of our products and will put a special focus on the Fieldbook.

Scott reported that 28 Achieve Global Professional Development On Line Workshops launched last week.  He reported that already 5 people have already signed up. 

ACTION: 
Scott will try to get usernames and passwords for committee to test the service for limited time frame.  Scott will also pursue getting access for local section meetings.

1. Career Services Survey (Hutcheson/Elliott)

The data was distributed via email on Friday night so people did not have enough time to digest the data.  Chuck will contact Peggy to work on digesting the data and putting into a useable format.  Chuck will provide Scott with the analysis by 15 November--at which time Scott will upload it to the Committee Business area on the ECS VC for discussion.

Committee members made a few observations:

• Members were not aware of our products & services
• Members would rather receive career & employment products via the web rather than at section meetings

Chuck recommended that we contact all of our members once a year for their "Career Checkup" Chuck will develop a plan that will include a brief email to members and a checklist that members would look at to make sure they had their career toolkit in order.

ACTION: 
Chuck (working with Peggy) will provide Scott an analysis by 15 November-- at which time Scott will upload it to the Committee Business area on the ECS VC for discussion.

ACTION: 
Chuck will provide Scott with a plan that will include a brief email to members and a checklist that members would look at to make sure they had their career toolkit in order.  It would include a short questionnaire.  Depending upon how the members answer the questions further questions would branch off into different directions.

ACTION: 
Scott will prepare a information item concerning the Career Check Up for Gregg Vaughn to bring up at the October 2005 OpCom on behalf of the Committee.

2. Employment Survey:  The Employment Survey will run every other year (even years) during the July/August timeframe and will go to unemployed members.  This will be an opportunity for us to touch base with our unemployed members. (The Career Survey will run every other year in the odd years).

Scott reported that a project is underway to develop an on line database of speakers (MPAC/SPAC/Career/Expert Witness, etc).  See attached specs.

1. IEEE-Wide Careers Committee
   Jean and Scott reported that there is newly formed ad hoc committee that will manage career services for the IEEE as a whole. This committee will consist of representatives from RAB, Publications, IEEE-USA and potentially EAB.  Jean and Scott are the IEEE-USA Representatives on this committee. They will report back to the ECS once there is any additional informaiton.
2. IEEE Financial Advantage Collaboration
   The Committee decided to move ahead to post a banner ad linking to the Grogan Advisory Services Website.  Jean and Scott explained that IEEE's Financial Advantage Program has done their due diligence and has selected Larry Grogan to provide financial planning services to IEEE members.  IEEE-USA ECS will put a banner ad on the CareerNavigator website and could potentially earn revenue from click throughs to the Grogan site.

ACTION:
Scott will explore revenue streams from the click throughs to the Grogan Site.  Scott will also explore setting up a webinar on Financial Planning.

3. IEEE Regional Activities eMentoring Program
   Scott reported that the eMentoring pilot program has been rolled out in Regions 1 and 3.  Scott has had a demonstration and saw that there were mentors and mentees who had been matched already.  Committee members may want to serve as mentors.

4. myIEEE
   Scott reported that myIEEE has a number of career links to www.ieeeusa.org/careers.  He is not sure what direction IEEE is going to go with myIEEE but it is a good site that allows members to personalize their site based on technical or career interest.  There are a number of links to our career websites.

5. IEEE EAB ExpertNow
   Scott reported that EAB is perfectly happy to put us in touch with ExpertNow which is an on line learning module tool.  To turn workshops into an on line module the cost is between $11-18K.  It was determined that the Achieve Global Workshops will suffice for now and that this cost of ExpertNow was prohibitive. The CareerNavigator has links to EAB's website to technical education opportunities.

6. IEEE Sections Congress
   Jean briefed the committee on the Sections Congress and alerted them that there might be some tasks for this committee to work on that came out of the Sections Congress (SC2005 Recommendations).

7. IEEE-USA "Annual" Meeting
   Jean and Scott explained that there is a proposal to change the name of the IEEE-USA Leadership Workshop to the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting.  OpCom will receive a motion to endorse this change for BoD approval at the upcoming meeting.  Jean explained that this committee is responsible for one of the tracks.  The committee developed the track that they were responsible for.  (See Workshop Draft Program).
8. 2005 IEEE-USA Workshop Recommendation: The Committee discussed the Recommendations. Jean asked that the committee carefully review these Recommendations.

Region 1: See Joe DeVita's Report
Region 2: See Joe Kalasky's Report

ACTION: 
Joe Kalasky will send Scott his Survivability and Career Strategy Presentation by 28 October 2005.

Region 3: See David Macchiarolo's Report
Region 4: See Tarek Lahdhiri's Report
Region 5: See Jean Eason's Report
Region 6: See Ken Doniger's Report
 

WORKSHOP MODULES:
Jean noted that it is going to be important to find a way to keep workshop modules up to date.  Even if we no longer post them to the web they will serve as useful PowerPoint slides for committee member presentations.  It was suggested that the VC may serve as a good resource for mining information that could be turned into a workshop.

SAMPLE LETTERS OF REFERENCE:
Ken Doniger recommended that we post sample letters of reference to our CareerNavigator website as a resource.  Joe Kalasky agreed to send Scott a sample by 4 December 2005.

ACTION:
Joe Kalasky will send Scott a sample reference letter by 4 December to be posted to the web.

1. What should go into a Career Tool Kit? (Chuck Elliott will send preliminary work plan by 15 November then this item will be posted.
2. What Should Go in Members Only Webspace?