Life Members

Two notable developments of Life Member activities have been under way during the summer period:

Meeting of LMAG Chairs in Neuchatel, Switzerland, September 5th 2017.

The LMAG Chairs from Benelux, France, Italy, Lebanon, Slovenia, Switzerland, and UK & Ireland held a meeting on September 5th to coincide with the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the foundation of the Swiss microelectronic watch industry, at the Microcity Centre in Neuchatel.
This was the first meeting of LMAG Chairs in Region 8. The continuing loss of older members was a matter of concern in most Sections and needed to be addressed urgently. Among the proposals discussed were ways to improve the quality of service for older members, a possible review of the criteria for qualification as a Life member, and the need for wider inclusion of older members in Life member activities.
A proposal for the involvement of Life members in IEEE’s Humanitarian Activities (e.g. the IEEE SIGHT programs) was also discussed. These are expected to be especially of interest to retired members: it was agreed that Sections should be encouraged to begin recruiting volunteers from their Life and retired members for specific projects in their local communities under the SIGHT program.

Life Member Committee Task Force on Life member activities.

A small task force set up by the IEEE Life Member Committee has been working on the problem of engaging Life members more actively. Some proposals being discussed include improving communications with Life members, informing them of new advances in technology, and re-vitalising LMAGs. One potentially significant proposal argues for the active involvement of all members in the pre-retirement age group in Life member activities. This would help to boost the number of volunteers and active members in LMAGs, making LMAGs viable even in Sections with very few Life members. The Task Force is due to complete its work shortly and will report to the next LMC meeting.
In summary, the current focus of the IEEE Life member community must be on proposals to raise the level of member involvement so that older members are motivated to remain as members. The challenge to MGA is to offer an attractive menu of activities and services with particular appeal for older members.

Charles Turner (Region 8 Life Member Coordinator) October 2017.

Life Members – “Experience does not go on retreat”

IEEE Region 8 LM Coordinator: Charles W Turner

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.

There are currently 12 LMAGs in the Region. These, including the contact details for the Chair, are;

1. Benelux: Wim van Etten (etten@ieee.org)
2. Croatia: Ursic Srebrenka. (srebrenka.ursic@systemcom.hr)
3. France: Victor Fouad Hanna (v.fouad@ieee.org)
4. Germany: Hans Ludwig Hartnagel (hartnagel@mwe.tu-darmstadt.de)
5. Greece: Athanasios Safacas (a.n.safacas@ece.upatras.gr)
6. Hungary: Peter Arato (arato@iit.bme.hu)
7. Israel: Jacob Baal Schem (jacob@qos.net.il)
8. Italy: Antonio Savini (antonio.savini@unipv.it)
9. Lebanon: Usamah Farrukh (uofarrukh@ieee.org)
10. Slovenia: Baldomir Zajc (baldomir.zajc@fe.uni-lj.si)
11. Spain: Jose A Delgado-Penin (ja.delgado-penin@ieee.org)
12. Switzerland: Hugo Wyss (h.wyss@ieee.org)
13. UK and Ireland: Charles Turner (c.turner@ieee.org)

Life Member activities in Region 8 are coordinated by an appointed member of the Region 8 Committee. Actually the Region 8 Life Member coordinator is Charles W Turner and he can be reached at: c.turner@ieee.org. We are encouraging all Region 8 Sections with Life Members to establish a Life Member (LM) group. Life members are encouraged to make contact with their LMAG Chair to find out about opportunities to participate in Life member activities and to volunteer their services.

According to IEEE Life Member Group Procedures:

A petition to establish a LM Group requires the signature of 6 IEEE Members, including at least 2 Life Members.

In addition to a rebate of $200 to the Section, Life Member Groups are authorized by the IEEE Life Members Committee an annual budget not exceeding $1,000 towards meetings or activities approved in advance by the Regional LM Coordinator. The funding will be provided upon actual expenses.

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. This “Jubilee Year” is especially appropriate for bringing up “stories of the past” related to Electrical, Electronic and Computer engineering in the past century.

In their Sections, LM Groups should cooperate with other Society chapters, affinity groups (GOLD and WIE) as well as with student branches – on common projects. 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) .

LM Groups which report at least two meetings annually, will receive the 200 $ rebate from IEEE Member and Geographic Activities Board. As mentioned before, it is possible to apply to the Regional LM Coordinator for extra funding of up to 1,000 $ from the LMC.

For any advice or question, please contact c.turner@ieee.org

Charles W Turner IEEE Region 8 Life Members Coordinator