Region 4 Section Reports 19. Red River Valley Section

Red River Valley Section Report IEEE Region 4 Meeting - Oct 16/17, 2004

Red River Valley Section Demographics Total Members:267 –Members158 –Student members67 –Senior members16 –Life members13 –Affiliates 13 Meetings –Section meetings per year 6 or 7 –Format Dinner & talk and/or tour –Type 80/20 technical/PACE –Section vs ChapterSection Only –Excom meetings were by phone only –% quorum Excom meetings80%

Red River Valley Section Demographics Section Leadership for Red River Valley Section –Term: Calendar Year 2004 –Chair – Ken Lien, office –Vice Chair – Jodi Bullinger, –Secretary/Treasurer – Saleh Faruque, office Neighboring Sections –North: Canada –South: Siouxland –East: Arrowhead, Twin Cities –West: Missouri Slope Joint Meetings Held with Neighboring Sections - None

Red River Valley Section Demographics Section Organization –Subsections - None –Society Chapters - None –Affinity Groups - None –Student Branches/Joint Activity NDSU Student Section (ND State Univ.) UND Student Section (Univ. of ND) No joint activity but we support student sections by: –providing opportunities to attend all IEEE Section 1/2 cost –providing financial support for student trips –holding a student presentation contest with cash prizes every April

Red River Valley Section Vitality Meetings/attendance during the last year –Oct03 => Regional Transmission in the RRV by Jason Weiers and Ryan Retslaff, Ottertail Power Engineers/13 –Dec03 => Annual Meeting/Election of Officers/12 –Jan => Cellular Communication by Saleh Faruque, UND Professor/15 –Feb => Power Off Receptacle by Chris Skarie, CEO & President of Power Off Products/18 –Mar => Graduate Education in New Product Development by Richard Schultz, UND Professor/21 –Apr => Student Project Contest - 3 projects each from NDSU and UND/21

Red River Valley Section Vitality Meetings/attendance during the last year –Sep => Distributed Generation by Brad Schmidt, Cass County Electric Engineer/20 –Oct => Tour of EERC (Energy & Environmental Research Center) at UND –Nov => Annual Meeting (election of Officers, budget, etc.)

Other Section Activities PACE - –Hosted Internet Conference on topic of Wind Generation by Dennis Woodford, Chairman of IEEE HVDC and FACTS Subcommittee. Dennis is with the Electranix Corp. in Winnepeg, Manitoba. We received a lot of support from IEEE- Regional Activities - Attendees 22 –Membership Upgrades/2 New This Year - Section Website

Successes/Best Practices Providing a variety of programs for a diverse membership in a vast area where there are no society or affinity group meetings. Providing a variety of meeting locations at 3 different sites –Fargo (80 Miles to GF, 60 to FF) –Grand Forks –Fergus Falls (its 140 Miles from GF)

Successes/Best Practices We get good results when we get several people involved from across the entire region in planning meetings and other activities. Because of the vast distances, we are good at organizing things by phone or .

Lessons Learned Internet Conference was a success and provides us with an important option for future PACE activities. 20% of the Internet Conference attendees did not attend a meeting in past year (more involvement). Internet Conferences can be an avenue for continuing education in a rural area.

Lessons Learned Members are very busy (Membership upgrades are difficult) Engineers in our section see the section as an avenue to network with other engineers in the area.

Goals for Next Year Initiate GOLD Group if feasible Recruit more members Identify Members for Grade Advancement PACE and/or Internet Conference Organize Interesting Programs

Goals for Next Year Support Student Participation and the Student Sections Increase Participation by Membership in planning Section Activities

Region 4 Could Most Help My Section By… Continuing to provide lists of Distinguished Lecturers for conferences (PACE or Internet) Communicating announcements of PACE activities in neighboring sections Region & National Activities

Region 4 Could Most Help My Section By… Since it was the first Internet Conference, R4 Regional Activities helped a lot. Future conferences would require an instruction manual if goal of less involvement from R4 is to be achieved. Technical help by a conferencing hosting group would still be needed.

SUMMARY Our section covers a vast area about 250 miles across in both directions. Providing services to members is, thus, very challenging We find meeting and working with other engineers in our area to be very supportive to us in our profession.