Life Members

IEEE Region 8 LM Coordinator: Péter Magyar

It is a privilege to be an IEEE Life Member (LM) with so much to contribute back to the engineering community and to the public in general. You are entitled to become a LM when your chronological age is at least 65 and the sum of your age and of your active membership duration reaches 100. Life Members are exempted of IEEE membership fees and pay lower fees at IEEE Conferences (at most – IEEE Student fees).

Most Life Member activities are performed by Life Member Affinity Groups (LMAG), similar to Chapters, established as part of an IEEE Section.

In summary the mission of Life Members Groups is to:

• Enhance and encourage interest in electrical and electronic engineering at secondary and tertiary (college) levels.
• Utilize the vast experience of LMs to impact the general public’s knowledge of electrical and electronic engineering and increase understanding of the role of engineers.
• Foster collaborations in pre-university education and encourage students to consider taking up engineering as a career.
• Promulgate the history of electrical engineering together with information and related technologies.

IEEE Region 8 Life Members Ad-Hoc Subcommittee for 2021 is consisted of the following IEEE Region 8 volunteers:

Péter Magyar Chair Germany Section	Victor Fouad Hanna Corresponding Member France Section	Tony Davies Corresponding Member UK & Ireland Section	Charles Turner Corresponding Member UK & Ireland Section	Vinko Lesic Corresponding Member Croatia Section

There are currently 15 LMAGs in the Region. These, including the contact details for the Chair, are;

LMAG Funds :

• Funding of activities is provided by Life Members Committee (LMC), Region 8 and IEEE Foundation
• A rebate of $200 to the Section is provided annually from IEEE Member and Geographic Activities Board
• Groups that report at least two meetings annually will receive the $200 rebate. The rebate is increased to $275 for groups with six or more reports annually.
• Groups are authorized by the IEEE Life Members Committee an annual budget not exceeding $2,000 towards meetings or activities approved in advance by the Regional LM Coordinator. The funding will be provided upon actual expenses.

Types of activities of Life Member Affinity Groups:

• Technical Lectures, joint activities with parent Section, visits to museums and technical sites, social gathering, luncheons
• Using existing groups’ experience, typical activities can range from: invited talks and seminars, technology-oriented meetings, history workshops and conferences, oral histories, and dialogue with other professional institutions, to initiating technical milestones, monitoring outside technical archives, museum projects, and social activities.
• In their Sections, LM Groups should cooperate with other Society chapters, affinity groups (YP and WIE) as well as with student branches – on common projects. They can work together in IEEE Foundation Grants Program, which are supported by MGA Life Members Committee. We encourage the forming of “History teams” to preserve the History of technological developments in which people participated through the use of the IEEE Global History Network (www.ieeeghn.org) and Engineering and Technology History Wiki – ethw.org
• For any advice or question, please contact Péter Magyar, IEEE Region 8 Life Members Coordinator

To form a new Affinity Group:

• look at the informative map above and the full list of affinity groups to see if you are already part of it
• find out if there is already an existing IEEE Section in your country – full list can be found here
• a petition to establish a LM Group requires the signature of 6 IEEE Members, including at least 2 Life Members
• if there is an IEEE Section in your country but not a LM AG, you are eligible to submit a petition – check the Guide to establish a new LMAG

Practical Advices in Administration and Holding Meetings:

For finding the list of names of your LMAG members:

• go to IEEE OU Analytics (login and password of member IEEE)
• choose “Memberships, subscriptions and more”
• under “Products” dropdown menu, choose only Life Members category and click apply
• see the “Details” tab
• the list of your members appears (you can export as table)
• you can also contact your Section or R8 Ad-hoc Subcommittee Chair Péter Magyar

For declaring the names of officers of your LMAG:

• Go to https://officers.vtools.ieee.org
• If you are the present chair, you can add or change the officers by going to the concerned position, then go on “Add officer”. A window will be opened to asking you to give your N° of membership IEEE and the date of the start of your function. Go then on “Validate” and “Submit”
• If you are the new elected chair, go on “Chapter chair” and apply the same procedure..

For declaring your LMAG activities (event report):

• go to  https://events.vtools.ieee.org/events/search
• login as IEEE member
• go to Event/Report Administration
• go to File >> Report for a Past Event
• OR go to Create an event
• two reports at least are required each year from any category (technical, professional, social, administrative)

For organizing elections:

• go to: http://sites.ieee.org/vtools/category/vtools-voting

For sending a message by e-Notice

• go to: https://enotice.vtools.ieee.org

For reserving a teleconference on Webex

• go to: http://sites.ieee.org/vtools/tools-ok/webex/webex-registration
  
• send your request to IEEE staff at least 5 days before the event

I. Administrative Status of R8 LMAGs at 2021

• No R8 LMAG is recently dissolved
• 25% of total R8 Sections have LMAG

Effort for increasing the number in R8 LMAGs

II. Life Members Ad-Hoc Subcommittee (LM AHC) Meetings 2021

R8 Section Chairs and LM Subcommittee Joint Meeting, April 08, 2021

Date and Time:

Thursday, April 08, 17:00-18:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time, UTC+2).

Please use the time zone converter https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/ to determine your local time.

Region 8 Section Chairs, Region 8 OpCom Members and LM AHC Members are kindly invited.

WebEx Meeting
Join from the meeting link: https://ieeemeetings.webex.com/ieeemeetings/j.php?MTID=m00fb20576adbe7af296e2baad8d9c333
Join by meeting number (access code): 130 571 0190

Agenda:

• 17:00 Opening Address, Roll Call (Peter Magyar, LM AHC Chair)
• 17:05 LM Overview and R8 Opportunities (Peter Magyar, LM AHC Chair)
  
• 17:30:
  • R8 Director´s Comment (Antonio Luque, R8 Director)
    
  • R8 Vice Chair MA´s Comment (Sara Barros, R8 VC MA)
    
  • Success Stories (Short reports of Organizers of new LMAGs)
    • Andre Sopczak, Czechoslovakia Section
      
    • TBD
      
• 17:45 Q&A Session (All participants, moderated by Vinko Lesic, R8 LM AHC Member)
  
• 18:00 End

Presentation: Life Members – Overview – R8 Opportunities

Group photo of the participants at R8 Section Chairs and LM Subcommittee Joint Meeting, April 08, 2021

HA and LM Joint Committee Meeting, March 16, 2021

Date and Time:

Tuesday, March 16, 16:00-17:00 CET (Central European Time, UTC+1).

Please use the time zone converter https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/ to determine your local time.

Agenda:

• 16:00 Opening Address (Peter Magyar, LM AHC Chair)
  
• 16:01 History Activities (Martin Bastiaans, HA AHC Chair)
  
• 16:15 History Activities & Life Members (Anthony C. Davies, LM AHC Corresponding Member, HA AHC Member)
  
• 16:20 LM AHC Introduction (P. Magyar)
  
• 16:30 What do we expect from the LMAGs and Sections (P. Magyar)
  
• 16:40 LMAG and LMC Connection (Charles W. Turner, LMC, LM AHC Ex-officio Member)
  
• 16:45 R8 LMAG Activity Highlights (Victor Fouad Hanna, LM AHC Past Chair, LM AHC Corresponding Member)
  
• 16:50 Connection to YPs and other Affinity Groups (Vinko Lesic, YP, LM AHC Corresponding Member)
  
• 16:55 Q&A Session (P. Magyar)
  
• 17:00 End

LMAG Chairs´ Meeting, February 23, 2021

Date and Time:

Tuesday, Feb 23, 17:00-18:00 CET (Central European Time, UTC+1) / 16:00-17:00 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time, UTC+0).

Please use the time zone converter https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/ to determine your local time.

Agenda:

• 17:00 Opening Address, Roll Call (Peter Magyar, LMAHC Chair, Germany Section)
• 17:05 LM Presentation (P. Magyar)
• 17:15 LMAG and LMC Connection (Charles W. Turner, LMC, LMAHC Ex-officio Member, UK & Ireland Section)
• 17:20 R8 LMAG Activity Highlights (Victor Fouad Hanna, LMAHC Past Chair, LMAHC Corresponding Member, France Section)
• 17:25 Connection to the History Committee (Anthony C. Davies, LMAHC Corresponding Member, France Section)
• 17:30 Connection to YPs and other Affinity Groups (Vinko Lesic, R8 YP, LMAHC Corresponding Member, Croatia Section)
• 17:35 What we expect from the LMAGs (P. Magyar)
• 17:45 Q&A Session (Moderator: Victor Fouad Hanna)
• 18:00 Closing Address (P. Magyar)

III. Milestones Activities in R8 in 2019 :

• Many LMAGs in Sections in R8 participate with the History Committee to propose IEEE Milestones, Examples :
  • A milestone plaque was unveiled at Dundee University in Scotland on Thursday 5 April, 2018 at the university laboratories where Spear and LeComber carried out their experiments which led directly to the world of flat screens and smartphones we live in today
• A dedication ceremony was held on September 6, 2018 to honor an Engineering Milestone: The French Transatlantic Telegraph Cable, 1898. IEEE President James Jefferies unveiled two plaques (English and French versions) honoring the Cable at the French Cable Station Museum (FCSM) in Orleans, MA.
• The LMAG of France Section is working now to propose the Storage Battery (Plante, 1859) and Transformer (Gaulard/Gibb, 1881) as IEEE Milestones.

IV. LMAG Chairs Meeting Archive:

2020: Online

• See the report here: 2020 Report Life Members Activities

2019: Valencia, Spain, October 11, agenda:

• Welcome, Magdalena Salazar Palma, (R8 Director).
• Why Don’t Sections Give More Support to Life Members and LMAGs?, Charles Turner (Chair LMC)
• Report for R8 LMAGs Activities, Victor Fouad Hanna, R8 LMs Coordinator.
• Benelux LMAG report, Wim van Etten (Chair).
• Egypt LMAG report, Vice Chair.
• Coffee Break.
• Proposal for future, some projects for future implementation, Hugo Wyss, Switzerland LMAG Chair.
• France LMAG report, Jean Gabriel Remy, Officer .
• Hungary LMAG report, Imre J. Rudas (Chair).
• Italy LMAG report, Antonio Savini (Chair).
• Lunch (12h30 – 14h00).
• A Possible Development of IEEE Life Membership, Charles Turner (Chair LMC)
• FRANCE contribution to IEEE Milestones : A valuable task for Life Members, Jean Gabriel Remy.
• Lebanon LMAG report, Usamah O. Farrukh, (Chair).
• Slovenia LMAG report, Baldomir Zajc, (Chair).
• Coffee Break.
• Practical Advices in Administration and Holding Meetings, Victor Fouad Hanna, R8 LMs Coordinator.
• Spain LMAG report, Jesús “Fraile Ardanuy, (Spain Section Chair).
• Switzerland LMAG report, Hugo Wyss (Chair).
• United Kingdom and Ireland LMAG report, Charles Turner (Chair).
• Debate and Conclusions.

Notes from the meeting :

Charles Turner raised the question of the lack of support for Life member activities from the Section Committees. The two main problems were the poor state of Section websites and the low level of funding from the Section for LMAG activities. The increase of the Life member Fund budget to $90K this year is a bonus, but it was agreed that the Section Chairs need to be reminded about their responsibilities towards their Life members, especially if they have an LMAG.

Victor Fouad Hanna reviewed the status of LMAGs in Region 8. A new LMAG had been formed in Egypt this year and there were good prospects for more to be formed, especially in Poland and Sweden.

Wim van Etten reported that the Benelux Section had 115 active Life members, based on a recent survey. An EXCOM had been formed to manage the LMAG which had its own website, created using the IEEE template to be found at www.site(s).ieee.org/benelux.

Meetings were split between the Netherlands and Belgium and were open to all IEEE members. The average attendance was around 24.

An e-newsletter was sent to all LMAG members.

A Milestone ceremony to celebrate the first demonstration of WiFi would take place on October 29^th at Nieuwegein, Holland.

Hugo Wyss reviewed the history of the Switzerland LMAG which had to deal with the two languages spoken in the country. He highlighted the production by Robert Weiss of a ‘tapestry’ of the history of computers. The poster would be translated from the German into French and English, and distributed to IEEE entities across the world, if funding could be secured. The LMAG worked closely with the. Section and a new Chair would be appointed shortly.

Jean Gabriel Remy reported on the Life member activities in France. The very successful technical tour held in Paris, Geneva, and Munich in 2015 had boosted LM activities in the France Section. New Milestone projects were being explored, such as the Transatlantic cable from France to Newfoundland, at an event being planned in Orleans.

Imre Rudas mentioned a strong link between the LMAG and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The relatively small number of Life members in the Section was a limiting factor.

Antonio Savini reported on the wide range of topics pursued by the Italy Section LMAG which had about 100 members. These included the history of technology, Milestone, joint meetings with the Switzerland LMAG, and a visit to the Museum of Technology in Pavia. Attracting members to meetings was a priority perhaps by introducing a social dimension, but more Life members were needed.

Usamah Farrukh reported that the Lebanon Section has only a small number of Life members but had managed to organise some successful events, including introducing robotics to schools.

Baldomir Zaic reported that there was a need to get an updated list of Life members and other retired or older members. Holding meetings via Webex would be helpful, as for other small LMAGs.

Conclusions

1. The Life Member Coordinator should write to the Chair of every Section that has an LMAGA, asking them to increase financial support for their LMAG and to provide a webpage for Life member activities and news of events.
2. A top priority is to facilitate the use of Webex for Life member meetings, to reduce the running costs and make it easier to connect members living away from the main urban centres.
3. LMAGs should make greater use of the larger allocations for Life member activities, up to a maximum of $2,000 each year.
4. LMAGs should encourage members to apply for the special projects grants available from the Life Member Fund and the IEEE Foundation.

Outlook:

• Increased collaboration between LMAGs and other IEEE Operation Units in their Sections is very important as the Section can make use of the knowledge and experience of Life Members and also from the more time that they can devote for IEEE Section activities.
• It is agreed that the inclusion of older members approaching LM status, together with retired members, would transform the viability of the smaller LMAGs.
• Resources from MGA (Life Member Committee and R8) are now reasonable to make and expand  LMAGs activities.
• Sponsorship from industry and Government organizations could be available for certain types of projects.

Group picture of the latest in-presence LMAG meeting, Valencia, 2019