IEEE History Committee Corresponding Members
The IEEE History Committee maintains non-voting Corresponding Members. These are broadly: the history activities coordinators of various IEEE organizational units, past History Committee members, milestone proposers, historians at sister society and heritage organizations, museum curators, and archivists.
Roles of History Activities Coordinator (which might also include serving as Chair of the organizational unit's own history committee if it has one)
The role and activities of a history activity coordinator vary depending on the size and historical emphasis of the IEEE organizational unit. To a large degree, the position is what the history activity coordinator and the OU Chair or President choose to make it, and reflects the time and resources available to spend on history activity. The list below shows examples, but is not intended to imply that all OUs do all of the activities on the list.
History activities such as Milestone dedications raise the visibility of IEEE organizational units, help attract membership, and foster relations with industry and academia.
Activities include but are not limited to:
- Communicating between the IEEE History Committee https://www.ieee.org/about/history-center/history-committee.html and your organizational unit, as well as coordinating history activities among your organizational unit and across other organizational units.
- Maintaining an archive for the organizational unit of newsletters, agendas, minutes, and other documents, and if possible, converting them to digital form and making them available (as appropriate) via the ETHW.
- Preserving the organization’s historical records and keeping its history page(s) up to date on the Engineering & Technology History Wiki (example https://ethw.org/IEEE_United_Kingdom_and_Ireland_Section_History )
- Proposing IEEE Milestones, or coordinating milestone proposals within the OU. http://ieeemilestones.ethw.org/Milestone_Guidelines_and_How_to_Propose_a_Milestone
- Conducting oral histories of important IEEE members in your organizational unit, or suggesting people for the IEEE History Center staff to interview. http://ethw.org/Oral-History:List_of_all_Oral_Histories
History activities coordinators become corresponding members of the IEEE History Committee. Corresponding Members receive History Committee agendas, minutes, and invitations as observers to face-to-face meetings and teleconferences. Corresponding Members are welcome to observe History Committee meetings and teleconferences (muted) as non-voting members. The IEEE History Committee regrets that it does not have the budget to reimburse travel expenses for liaison, corresponding, and other non-regular members. Travel expenses for liaison and corresponding members must be reimbursed by the corresponding member’s sponsoring organizational unit (e.g. Region, Society, etc.), or other organization. It is recommended that corresponding members confirm their source of travel funding prior to making any reservations.
The mission of the IEEE History Committee is to preserve, research, and disseminate information about the history of IEEE, its members, their professions, and related sciences and technologies. The History Committee oversees the operation of the IEEE History Center. http://www.ieee.org/about/history_center/index.html .