REGION 10 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE — January 2023
To IEEE Members, Volunteers, Leaders, and all our readers in IEEE Region 10.
Welcome to 2023 and Happy New Year! I wish everyone a prosperous, safe and healthy New Year. May you have joy, happiness, and success in the coming year.
We are grateful for our Region 10 Director 2021-2022, Deepak Mathur, for his leadership, in steering our Region from strength to strength through the stormy waters, under the challenges of the global pandemic. At this time of writing, our membership number in Region 10 on 31st October 2022, has registered a healthy growth of 7.4%, or an increment of 10,232 over the same time last year. The number of members in our region remains as the largest among the ten regions in IEEE, comprising over one third of the total IEEE members. Our region’s performance is truly spectacular.
I also invite you to congratulate Deepak, for being elected in the 2022 November Meeting of the IEEE Assembly, as the IEEE Members and Geographic Activities (MGA) Board Vice President-Elect 2023. He will assume his role as Vice President of MGA Board in 2024. This represents a significant success of leadership from R10 within the IEEE governance structure, following the footsteps of our excellent leaders Professor Toshio Fukuda (IEEE President 2020), Professor Kukjin Chun (MGA VP 2020) and late Professor Lawrence Wong (MGA VP 2015-2016).
I’d like to thank everyone for your support and trust, for electing me in 2020 as the Region 10 Director-Elect 2021-2022, leading to my position as Region Director this year. I do not take this opportunity for granted, nor will I take this position lightly. I assure that I will give my dedication and attention, to fulfil my roles on the IEEE Board of Directors, as well as within the Region.
I gave my position statement during the 2020 election as follows:
I will dedicate my time, professional experience and practical knowledge to:
- Support innovative projects to address local issues in alignment with IEEE’s Mission, Vision and Strategic Plan
- Actively represent the voices and concerns from R10 in IEEE Boards and Committees
- Develop strategies to improve the values, benefits and experience for R10 memberships
- Encourage R10 volunteers to participate in decision making, and public recognition of their contributions
- Establish and support collaborative schemes between Students, YP, WIE, higher-grade members and members through networking and joint projects
- Promote sustainable Humanitarian Technology projects
To achieve the above, it cannot be done by me alone. I have invited over 30 experienced volunteers and leaders, as members of the 2023 R10 Executive Committee (ExCom), in various positions as Vice-Chairs, Committee Chairs and members of the R10 Nomination and Advisory Committee. Each one of these leaders has a wealth of experience and organisational knowledge from different Organisation Units (OU’s) within IEEE. They all have served in diverse executive positions within Affinity Groups, Chapters, Sections, Councils, Region as well as Committees and Boards. The Committee Chairs are also tasked to invite dedicated volunteers for the planning and execution of projects within their respective committees. It is expected that the opportunities for volunteer training and involvements will increase.
In addition, I have also invited several experienced volunteers to lead a number of R10 AdHoc Committees, to provide recommendations and suggestions on joint projects among the R10 Committees and coordination of activities. The charters of the AdHoc include Climate Change, Diversity and Inclusion, Conference Expansion and Steering, Leadership Recruitment and Training, and Philanthropy Initiatives. Last but not least, an Ethic Awareness and Advancement Committee is also established with the intention to raise the awareness and necessity of upholding the highest professional standards, ethics, and compliance among our members, volunteers and OUs.
We will inform you of the activities from the committees and recommendations from the AdHoc Committees in subsequent updates. You can also meet all these volunteers via IEEE R10’s web presence . I render my heartfelt appreciation and thanks for all their contributions and services.
Together, we will make Region 10, ten out of 10!
Lance Fung
IEEE Region 10 Director 2023-2024