Peggy Hutcheson (Chair), Joe DeVita, Jean Eason, Chuck Elliott and Scott Grayson (staff)

The Committee approved the meeting summary of 3 March 2006

Scott reported that the committee will have underspent its budget this year.  This was due largely to the fact that the committee decided not to publish the Engineers Guide to Lifelong Employability in the traditional manner. Instead the committee saved approximately $10K in printing costs by publishing individual chapters as eBooks.  Three chapters will be released by the end of 2006.

STATUS REPORTS & UPDATES OF 2006 ACTION PLAN

Scott Grayson reported that he continues to receive positive feedback from members and non members about the CareerNavigator website. Users like the fact that it provides one stop shopping.  Scott asked committee members to provide input for making enhancements.  In 2007, more Today's Engineer articles will be published on the site as well.

Scott reported that the community continues to thrive. There are now nearly 2,600 members on the community. It is the largest and most active of all the IEEE Communities and is often used as an illustration of what is possible with the communities.

Scott reported that Chris Currie had negotiated a very favorable deal with SimplyHired.  Since there are many employment websites that use spidering technology for free it was time to find a new service since Spherion could not offer their service for free.  By 2007, we will provide members with a comprehensive job search engine that will include a resume builder and data on various companies.  Committee members were very pleased with this decision to move from Spherion to SimplyHired.

1. Resumes Traditional and Otherwise
2. The Transition from School to Work
3. What Are You Worth? 

Scott noted that all three of the titles listed above would be published as eBooks by year end. The Career Planning Guide is now an eBook and the Guide to Employee and Employer Relations will be published as an eBook as well.  By year end the Committee will be responsible for having published 5 eBooks.

Jean Eason recommended that we look at publishing eBooks on a variety of employment law issues that confront consultants, entrepreneurs, employed inventors. The Committee will take up these issues at the 2007 Committee planning meeting.  Jean recommended the following topics:

• Where EEs are employed?

• Where Are the Jobs--locating Jobs

• Internet Job Search

• Evaluation of the tools and sites out there

• What recruiters, employment consultants, etc can/can't do for you

• Networking

• Job Fairs, working room

• professional (and other) societies

• Employment law (liability, Copyrights, Patent, Employment at will and discrimination issues

• Self assessment

• Career Resilience

1. IEEE Careers Committee

Jean reported that Gus Gaynor has done an excellent job chairing the newly formed IEEE Career Services Committee. She explained that one of the greatest benefits is that staff and volunteers of many of IEEE's organizational units get together and have the opportunity to share with one another what they are working on.  At this point the group is not going to create new products and services but work together to promote all of the career, employment, educational and professional development products and services. Jean will continue to serve on this committee with Scott. She will keep the ECSC posted regarding developments.  The next project of the committee is to put together a web page for the entire IEEE arranged by career life cycle.

2. Liaison with IEEE-USA Career Workforce Policy Committee

The Committee discussed putting together a symposium that would engage organizations (academia, industry and government) to discuss the future of the engineering profession and what skills they perceive engineers will need for the future to remain competitive in a global marketplace. Scott will work with Vin O'Neill to put together a proposal. 

3. Discussions with Region 7 & 8  (Grayson)

Scott reported that he and the IEEE-USA President have been speaking with non U.S. Region directors about IEEE-USA's career and employment programs.  They have been very well-received and many of the non US members are interested in finding out more about our products and services.  Scott will continue to interface with them.

4. IEEE-USA "Annual" Meeting

Jean reported that the planning is underway for the Annual Meeting which will be held over Labor Day weekend at the Phoenician Hotel.  The theme will be competing in a global economy. She asked that the committee start thinking about what types of workshops they may be able to provide.

1. Salary Survey, Database & Calculator (Grayson)

Scott reported that the Salary Survey has still had difficulties during the past year. However, we now have hired new statisticians and survey report writers who we believe will be very helpful.  Still the revenue is not what we had hoped. We will be marketing the salary products throughout the rest of this year into early next year. The hope is that this will generate more revenue.

2. Unemployed Member Survey (Grayson/Hutcheson)

Peggy provided a synopsis of the survey report and the committee discussed the findings. It is apparent that members who are unemployed need to continue to network and need an outplacement package.  It was recommended that during the Committee's 2007 Planning Meeting we discuss what would go into this package.

3. Committee Survey Discussion (Hutcheson)

Peggy conducted a survey of the Committee.  She shared the findings with the committee members.

3. IEEE-USA ECS Member Survey  (Hutcheson)

Peggy briefly reviewed the ECS Member Survey conducted last Spring.  It was obvious that the members who know about IEEE-USA's employment and career services like what we are providing. However, many are unaware of IEEE-USA's offerings. 

Region 1 Report

Region 2 Report

Region 3 Report

Region 4 Report

Region 5 Report

Region 6 Report

1. Eremita's Question: What approach can we take to get Corporations to encourage their engineers to become members and participate in IEEE?

Committee members discussed this issue and decided to have further discussion about this at the next meeting but discussed the notion of holding a symposium that may attract participation by Corporations.

2. Symposia: