Message from the President

MESSAGE FROM THE 2011 CAS SOCIETY PRESIDENT*

If I may paraphrase Garrison Keillor's famous introduction to the Lake Wobegon monologue, “2011 has been a rather quiet year in the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society.” The major structural changes approved by the Board of Governors in 2010 are now implemented, with attendant planning to finalize the implementation in 2012. The Society has made significant operational improvements, most notably the new web page with many attractive features to help communicate better with the membership at large, better record keeping of our procedures and processes, operational transparency, and improved committee structures for GOLD, Women in CASS, and DLP. We have been successful in attracting new volunteers to serve on many committees, in addition to relying on the expertise of long-time volunteers who have made major contributions to the Society. The staff have also done a great job assisting with the daily operations of the Society, the maintenance of the new web page, and other tasks that strengthen our infrastructure.

The Society, through our Vice Presidents, members of the Board of Governors and our headquarter staff, has had many major accomplishments:

1.Publications, e.g. cooperation with CEDA, SSCS, and the Computer Society in managing the Design and Test Magazine; appointments of new EiCs; collaboration with Springer in creating the first Encyclopedia of Circuits and Systems,
2.Conferences, e.g. holding the first ISCAS in Region 9 with significant success; formalized structure for CAS FEST; sponsoring approximately 60 conferences / workshops /symposia,
3.Budget Administration, e.g. continuing healthy annual budgets; funding Outreach initiatives to serve membership at large; improved transparency in budget administration,
4.Membership and Regional Activities, e.g. a plan to implement the new regional structure with the new Vice President of Regional and Membership Activities; completion of the membership survey with actions to be taken in 2012; many new chapters in Regions 7, 9, and 10; and
5.Technical activities, e.g. completion of the first draft of the Society’s Vision statement with contributions from technical committee chairs and other experts; merging and enhancing the current technical committee structure.

Our members have also excelled in technical work and other activities, with 12 new Fellows elected in 2011, in addition to many members receiving Society and IEEE awards.

Elsewhere on the Society web page is a more detailed 2011 annual report that you can review for more information on our accomplishments this year. Suffice it to say that, if I may again paraphrase another famous line from Lake Wobegon, “our membership is strong, our technical achievements are excellent, and our Society leaders and staff are of course well above average.” Our new President, Thanos Stouraitis, will take over in 2012: this is a historic occasion since he will be the first President to serve for two years and, with all your contributions, he will help accelerate the growth and prosperity of the CAS Society.

Mani Soma

2011 President, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society

*This article will also be published in the 2012 first issue of the IEEE CAS Magazine.