SOCIETY NEWS

Call for Nominations: CASS Board of Governors

Each year, the members of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) elect new Governors to serve the Society starting at the beginning of the following year. I am calling on you now to nominate candidates for this year’s Board of Governors elections.

CASS is a volunteer-based organization. It is essential that we elect energetic and engaged leaders who will organize activities that will meet your needs and who will guide our Society into the future. As a CASS member, you are in an excellent position to know the strengths of your fellow members and how they can best serve our Society.

As you consider potential nominees, please give specific consideration to those CASS members who are Graduates Of the Last Decade (GOLD) members. GOLD members are those who have received their first professional degree within the last ten years. CASS, in concert with efforts by IEEE, is very interested in improving participation by these recent graduates. Please identify them in your nomination process.

Board of Governors

Five members of the CAS Society are elected each year by the Society membership at large to serve three-year terms on the Board of Governors. The four candidates receiving the largest number of votes are declared elected. If no GOLD candidate is among the four receiving the largest number of votes, the candidate from the GOLD seat nominations receiving the largest number of votes is declared elected. Otherwise, the candidate receiving the fifth largest number of votes is declared elected.

According to changes in the CAS bylaws, the regions will be represented by BoG members. This means that the CAS BoG must have at least one member from each region (R1-7, R8, R9, and R10).  Based on the current BoG membership, one newly elected BoG member must come from Region 9 during this election. If no Region 9 candidate is among the five receiving the largest number of votes, the candidate from the R9 seat nominations receiving the largest number of votes is declared elected.

The Board of Governors represents the members of the Society and approves the Society's annual budget and amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws, elects Society Officers, and authorizes the expenditure of Society funds. Members of the Board of Governors are expected to attend two annual meetings, one in the spring and one in the fall. Eligibility criteria can be found in the CASS Constitution on the CASS website http://www.ieee-cas.org.

Complete Board of Governors nominations must be received at IEEE Headquarters by close of business (5:00 pm EDT) on July 1, 2011 in order to be considered.

Nomination Process

Candidates are added to the slate in two ways:

(1) One process is to be nominated by petition. The IEEE rule regarding the nomination petition process states: "For all positions where the electorate is less than 30,000 voting members, signatures shall be required from 2% of the eligible voters." "The number of signatures required on a petition shall depend on the number of eligible voters, as listed in the official IEEE membership records, at the end of the year preceding the election"

For CASS in 2011, this implies that we need 199 signatures on a petition for a candidate to be automatically placed on the election ballot. Note: Signatures from student members and affiliate members are not allowed. Graduate student members are eligible to sign a petition as well as vote in the election.

In order to accommodate the petitioning process, IEEE has established a web-based petitioning system that will automatically authenticate petition "signatures." The web address will be provided at a later date. According to IEEE rules, a candidate with a valid nomination by petition is guaranteed to be on the ballot.

(2) The second process involves the Nominations Committee, which may also place candidates on the ballot at its discretion.

Nominators should indicate if the name of the nominated candidate is to be placed on the petition site for collecting petitions and/or if the nomination is meant for consideration by the Nominations Committee.

Nomination Documents

A complete nomination must include

(1) Nomination Form

(2) Candidate Position Statement

(3) Candidate Biography

(4) Candidate Photo

(1) The Nomination Form is appended below. Candidate eligibility information and electronic copies of these forms is available on the CAS Society web site: http://www.ieee-cas.org.

(2) Candidate Position Statement. The candidate’s position statement is limited to 700 words. In addition, the position statement should include answers to the following five questions. (Each answer is limited to 100 words)

- What are in your opinion the three most important services that CASS should provide to its membership?

- Mention one large long-term initiative that CASS should undertake in the next two years and that you would help to establish if elected.

- Mention three ways for CASS to reach to young CASS members (students and recent graduates) so that they retain their membership after graduation.

- Mention three ways for CASS to reach/serve members from industry.

- What is in your opinion the single biggest challenge for our human society today and how can the field of Circuits and Systems help to address it?

(3) Candidate Biography. The candidate’s biography should be limited to 350 words

(4) An electronic photograph should be included

Nomination Submission

The Nomination Form, Biography, Candidate Position Statement and Photo must be submitted electronically via email to the Chair of the CAS Nominations Committee, David Allstot, allstot@ee.washington.edu with a copy to the CAS Executive Director, Heidi Zazza, h.zazza@ieee.org.  

The Nominations Committee greatly encourages you to recommend suitable candidates for these elections. Our strength as a society is not only in our engineering expertise, but also in our societal spirit including the sharing of information with each other. This we can do best when we have a strong organization with engaged members.

David Allstot, 2011 Nominations Committee Chair, IEEE CAS Society

Call for Nominations of Editors-in-Chief for Journals of the IEEE CAS Society

The IEEE Circuits and Systems Society invites nominations for the position of Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of each of the following transactions and the magazines:

1. •IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I, Regular Papers.
   

2. •IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II, Express Briefs.
   

3. •IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology.
   

4. •IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine.
   

The term of duty for all the positions begins on January 1, 2012 and ends December 31, 2013.  For all positions, a period of four months prior to the beginning of the term (i.e., starting September 1, 2011) will be spent to enable smooth transition of the EiC duties.

A Selection Committee, appointed by the CAS President, will evaluate all the received nomina­tions and will select the EiCs. After the EiCs are chosen, the Selection Committee will identify the corresponding Deputy EiCs, in agreement with the newly appointed EiCs. The EiCs will form their own Editorial Boards, which are composed of Associate Editors. Details about the publications for which EiC nominations are sought can be found here.

Nominations should be sent electronically by June 30, 2011 to Ms. Heidi Zazza at h.zazza@ieee.org in order to be considered. The Selection Committee will conclude its duties, and the EiCs will be nominated by the President of the Circuits and Systems Society, by July 31, 2011.

The nomination package should include:

1. 1.Name, postal address, email address, and telephone numbers of the nominee and the publica­tion for which the candidate is nominated.
   

2. 2.Explicit confirmation by the nominator or nominee that the nominee agrees to serve as the EiC for the relevant publication.
   

3. 3.Curriculum vitae of the nominee.  This vitae should be supported by an abridged list of significant technical contributions the nominee has published in the relevant transactions or magazine, a statement that indicates the level of reviewing services the nominee has pro­vided to the pertinent publication, and a statement that defines any administrative work the nominee may have executed for the publication or for either the Circuits and Systems Soci­ety or the IEEE in general.
   

4. 4.The nominee should offer a statement that briefly overviews a vision of his/her goals for en­hancing the quality and general visibility of the publication over its established level of qual­ity.  For example, the nominee may choose to articulate his/her plans for addressing relevant emerging technologies to which the publication is not currently strongly focused.  The nomi­nee may also wish to advance preliminary thoughts as to how existing areas of publication emphasis can be further strengthened or revitalized.  Finally, it is recommended that the nominee offer preliminary suggestions as to his/her choice for Deputy EiC.
   

Self-nominations are not discouraged, as long as the nominee is a member in good standing of the IEEE and of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society.  Desirable qualities of the candidates include: established, visible records of technical contributions; unquestionable leadership, integ­rity, and ethical standards; demonstrable organizational and management skills; and finally, an energetic eagerness to continue moving the journals forward toward visibly higher levels of accomplishment and contributions to the relevant technical community.