The IEEE MEMS-TC is a technical community. An IEEE technical community is perhaps best thought of as a precursor to an eventual council or society. As such, the goals of the IEEE MEMS-TC include not only fostering activity and growth in the MEMS field across the IEEE organization and beyond, but also the eventual transition to either a council or a society. To achieve that elevation, the IEEE MEMS-TC needs to prove that receives enough support from the IEEE community (currently, we count with more than 2,500 participants according to OU Analytics) and can successfully organize events and technical activities throughout IEEE and outside (an example is the IEEE MEMS Conference which is our flagship conference, and it is organized annually rotating between three different continents).
Why Transition at All?
An IEEE technical community can already do many things that can benefit a technical area like MEMS. But as a Society or Council it has the ability to recover funds generated by our activities and reinvest them in the subsequent years. The IEEE MEMS-TC can use current annually allocated funds to support
- Conference sponsorships
- Publication in IEEE Xplore for any MEMS-centric meeting
- MEMS growth activities, especially for students and industry
- Student travel support, educational activities and resources, e.g., web-based courses on MEMS topics not normally covered at universities
- Efforts to preserve the history of MEMS, e.g., via video recorded interviews with the “movers and shakers”
- New publications
While the above are nice, there are many things that an IEEE technical community cannot do, including
- Maintain a financial reserve
- Vote on the IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB)
- Generate and sponsor IEEE awards for MEMS
- Sponsor IEEE Fellow applications
- Sponsor chapters
Difference Between Council and Society?
IEEE councils and societies can do many of the same things, including
- Sponsor meetings
- Generate periodicals (publications)
- Sponsor IEEE awards, including distinguished lecturers
- Sponsor IEEE Fellow applications
- Support a variety of growth activities, from educational, networking, WIE, to student travel support and competitions
- Form and sponsor chapters
- Generate standards
- Maintain a financial reserve
- Vote on the IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB)
The main difference:
- A Society has members, i.e., individuals who are members
- A Council does not have individual members, but has member IEEE societies
Since MEMS researchers and practitioners are a specialty field of interest, they could benefit greatly the sense of belonging and camaraderie that a specialty membership brings and that often encourages volunteer activities. For all the aforementioned reasons, there is consensus from our core group of volunteers to transition directly to a society instead of a council.
