IEEE Society support of local Chapters is important, both to benefit Chapters and the sponsoring Societies, to ensure their future leadership. Communication between Societies and Chapters is often weak and Society volunteer leaders are as busy as Chapter Chairs. As a result, Chapters frequently receive sporadic at-tention from Societies. Fortunately, the Societies do wish to support their chapters, and have support mechanisms in place. Chapters that are joint chapters of multiple IEEE Societies, should benefit from all of their Society sponsors, but each Society will have different requirements for support and different levels of support. It is important for your chapter to become familiar with the guidelines and support available from all of your Society affiliations.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIETIES AND CHAPTERS
Chapters are important to IEEE Societies in the following ways:
- Chapters provide a diversity of perspective from different geographical regions and organizations.
- Chapters introduce potential new members to Societies; Chapters assist in promoting member upgrades to Senior and Fellow membership levels.
- Chapters provide training opportunities for potential new leaders in Societies.
- Chapters enable Societies to personalize their technology to local members.
- Chapters identify and satisfy needs of local Society members.
- Chapters encourage local members to participate in Society activities.
Although the relationship between Chapters and Societies is potentially extremely simbiotic, both Societies and Chapters are run by busy volunteers and the relationship and support are not automatically as strong as they should be. Chapters and Societies operate largely independently of each other. They have similar but different goals. Your chapter can benefit significantly by building a strong relationship with your affiliated Societies. Understanding how those Societies do support chapter activities and staying in contact with the members of their Administrative Committee responsible for Chapter activites is to your advantage.
IEEE SOCIETY PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
Many IEEE Societies offer financial support and services similar to those described in this handbook in Section II: Financial Support from MTT-S and Section III. Services from MTT-S. Financial support, travel support, guest speaker programs, society publication publicity and Chapter Coordinators are some of the programs and benefits many IEEE Societies offer their chapters. Contact your affiliate IEEE Societies or check the Society web sites to learn more about what other IEEE Societies can offer you. Additional information can be found in the Society Chapater Funding Guide page on the IEEE web site.