Scott Grayson reported that ECS Committee has under spent its budget this year due to increased use of the eBook publications process and has held less face to face meetings while holding more teleconferences in an effort to save money. 

Many of the eBooks that the ECS has produced have sold very well and are quite popular.  Scott Grayson reported that at the end of last year IEEE-USA ran a promotion for members who renewed early.  They were given a coupon to download 2 free eBooks. Career Planning was among the titles that was downloaded most frequently.

STATUS REPORTS & UPDATES OF 2007 ACTION PLAN
(updated 26 October 2007)
The committee reviewed and discussued their 2007 Action Plan. Many of the action items for 2007 have either been completed or will be by yearend.

Scott Grayson reported that the Career Navigator has a new look and feel after partnering with JibberJobber. Scott reported that it provides networking and resume building features. Work is underway to be able to list current events and career news on the entry webpage.  With the redesign the ability to list current employment and career events was lost.

The community continues to grow and thrive. There are currently over 2,800 users and over 180 different topics.

The EmploymentNavigator has been enhanced by SimplyHired. Scott reported that he has received positive feedback from members.

Scott reported that there have been thousands of downloads focused on Career and Employment issues.

ACTION:

It was recommended that the upcoming Intellectual Property Webinar (to be held with Region 8) be recorded and turned into an eBook.

It was recommended that an eBook be produced that helps our members who are now working in a global market. The content would focus on cultural differences and conducting business globally.

A number of webinars have taken place including those of Cliff Wilcox, Peggy Hutcheson and William Miller.  Currently Scott Grayson and Helen Hall are researching better webinar software solutions. The webinar platform that IEEE-USA had used has substantially increased in cost.

ACTION:

ECS is targeting rescheduling Elizabeth Sauter's webinar for December once Scott and Helen find a new software solution to conduct the webinar.  Scott will try to find a new solution by November 16th.

The Committee discussed next steps to moving forward with the Engineering Skills Symposium project.

It was decided that committee members would contact various people, organizations, businesses and academia to discuss the concept of creating documents and data to assist our members in figuring out what engineering emerging skills they will need for the future. 

Following is a list of people and organizations that will be contacted by yearend:

Texas A&M (Mauro Togneri & Scott Grayson)

LinkedIn (Wole will contact his network)

New Technologies Directions Committee (contact Russ Lefevre)

Computer Society (Scott Grayson)

Power Engineering Society (PES)
Power -- Wind Renewable Energy -- Solar
Nuclear Renaissance
Plug Power for Fuel Cells
Environmental
Solar Energy Skills (Chuck will contact APS)
Constellation Energy (Wole)

Nano Technology Jean

Educoss Technology organization for academics (Wole)

Google

Microsoft

CISCO

Communications

IEEE-USA Entrepreneurs Committee (Scott & Mauro Togneri)

Spectrum Data Dump (Jean)
 

Chuck Elliott showed the committee the website for Career Checkup and discussed sending 12,000 members an announcement.

ACTION:

Scott will send a note to the committee asking them to look at the Career Check Up site: http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/checkup/ and provide him with additional links to useful resources to be added to the referring pages.

ACTION:

Scott will look into sending out an email notice to members letting them know about ECS and the Career Checkup Web page by yearend. 

1. IEEE Careers Committee
   Scott reported that the IEEE Careers Committee continues to meet about twice a year and is in the process of developing a career life cycle webpage with the help of IEEE-USA.
    
2. Liaison with IEEE-USA Career Workforce Policy Committee
   Tarek continues to serve as a liaison between ECS and CWPC.  CWPC has held a number of career workshops throughout the country. Paul Kostek and Ed Perkins spoke at a Career and Government Relations Workshop in the Santa Clara Valley Section in October 2007.  The CWPC  has been actively lobbying the U.S. Congress on immigration issues.
    
3. and has been actively lobbying the U.S. Congress on immigration issues.
    
4. Discussions with Region 7 & 8  (Grayson)
   Scott noted that he continues to meet with representatives within IEEE Regions 7 & 8 to promote professional activities.
    
5. IEEE-USA "Annual" Meeting
   Jean reported that the Annual Meeting was successful over Labor Day weekend in 2007.  Many of the ECS Committee members served as speakers.

Salary Survey, Database & Calculator (Grayson)
Scott reported that the salary database project continues to have difficulties associated with uploading new data.  A fix is underway.  However, the salary calculator is working extremely well and members are very satisfied with this product.  In fact, Scott reported that he has received a number of emails from members who said they only reason why they renewed their membership was for the use of salary calculator.

The committee discussed the need for a balanced committee in order to do the work of the committee. It was pointed out that when the Employment Assistance Committee started there was no easy way to disseminate information.  During that time Regional Coordinators were needed to communicate within a Region. With the emergence of email and the web it may not be as crucial to have a coordinator from every Region.  The Committee will discuss this further at its first meeting of 2008.

Tarek has agreed to take on Bill Gjertson's project of creating and IEEE Rep. in industry.

Jean will contact Charles Hickman regarding writing an Ethics eBook.

Career Development Course:  Cliff Wilcox discussed his proposal for Career Development -- Thinking about Product manufacturing, product development, sales, application marketing, leadership and management, system engineering.  Cliff Wilcox will send the committee a synopsis of their input.

Global Toolkit

The ECS was asked to develop a Global Toolkit of resources, products and services that will help U.S. members work in a global environment.  The committee determined that much of the products and services that IEEE-USA already has can be repackaged in a way to provide members with skills and tools they need.

A telecon will be scheduled for mid December 2007 and February 9th was tentatively set for the Committee's next face to face meeting.