Young Professionals Volunteer(s) for an IEEE Society/Council

IEEE Young Professionals membership is divided across both geographical regions and technical Societies/Councils. To serve the needs of their young professional members, each OU across IEEE recruits young professional volunteers.

Different keywords are used to define roles of young professional volunteers across different IEEE organizational units (OUs). IEEE Societies/Councils have complete autonomy on defining these roles and responsibilities of such roles. The following text can provide some helpful context to define these roles.

1.      Who is a Society/Council Young Professionals Chair/Representative/Liaison?

A Young Professionals Representative is a representative of all graduate student members and early career professional members of the society. The Young Professionals Representative also serves as a Liaison to various IEEE OUs to serve the needs of the members. This includes serving as a liaison to the Global IEEE Young Professionals Committee. For more details on this, please read Section 4a. The same representative may serve as a Chair of a committee of other Young Professionals volunteers in the same Society. The roles, composition, and responsibilities of this committee are defined by each Society’s governing body.

2.      What is the role of a Young Professionals volunteer in their Society?

1. A Young Professionals volunteer represents the next generation of leadership among the Society/Council volunteers. Young Professional reps are volunteers who can learn and interact with all activities for their respective Societies/Councils with the expectation of learning how to lead those activities in the future. In addition, these volunteers represent a bridge between Society/Council leadership and new incoming volunteers/members.
2. A Young Professionals volunteer can engage in activities specifically for Young Professionals in Society/Council technical areas. The volunteer can make sure that activities such as conferences, workshops, webinars, publications, etc. are relevant for the young members.
3. In addition to engaging existing young members of the society, the Young Professionals volunteer can encourage young people who are active in a Society/Council’s technical subject to join their respective Society/Council.
4. The Young Professionals Society/Council Representative/Liaison supports the vitality of Young Professionals members in their society, through organizing activities, communicating with membership and leadership towards the vision of the society.

3.      What are the key responsibilities of a Young Professionals volunteer?

1. Young Professionals volunteers appointed by Societies/Councils can serve as the liaison between the Society/Council and IEEE Young Professionals committee. As a liaison, the volunteer can learn about global and strategic goals. As a liaison, the volunteer must regularly communicate with the global IEEE Young Professionals committee using appropriate channels. Society/Council reps are expected to attend the annual Face-to-Face meeting of IEEE Young Professionals. More about this in section 4a.
2. The Young Professionals volunteers are expected to keep the governing body of the Society/Council updated about regular activities organized for young professionals. This can be done via regular reports. The volunteer can present the report to the Society/Council’s governing board and provide insights for future activities and concerns. The Society/Council are encouraged to invite the rep to attend at least one face to face meeting to give this presentation. In addition, the volunteer can also learn about other relevant activities organized by the Society/Council, and provide young professionals information about those activities. An example of this is inclusion in organization of the flagship conference(s) of the Society/Council, as the volunteer can contribute to attract young member towards the conference(s).
3. The Young Professionals volunteer should organize activities which provide benefit to younger members such as graduate students and Young Professionals. A few examples of such activities are regular workshops, meet-ups, engagement at conferences, industry tours, etc. These activities can be organized using funds provided by the Society/Council or using extra funds requested from other resources. More details about the activities in Section 5.
4. The Young Professionals volunteer can provide inputs to the strategic goals of the Society/Council. Such interaction can help the Society/Council in the organization of long-term activities and the formulation of strategy which will remain relevant in future. The reps can also include inputs on Society/Council bylaws and guidelines, and ensure that the needs of Young Professionals are included as part of these documents.
5. The Young Professionals volunteer should try to build a team with other Young Professionals volunteers of the Society/Council. A team can be helpful in organizing activities and keeping them very diverse. Also, it helps in training future volunteers and building a proper succession plan for the Society/Council.
6. For all activities, the Young Professionals volunteer can request the essential resources from the Society/Council governing body. Obtaining such funding requires proper and relevant communication including a business plan highlighting the benefits and anticipated outcomes of the planned activities. An introduction to relevant Society/Council leaders and staff will help the rep to understand how to best prepare the business plan. Also, the volunteer can also prepare and request a budget for activities during the year. The budget must include “costs and benefits”: all relevant expenses for the activities – eg. funding for the activities, marketing, travel, communication regarding all the events and relevant meetings such as conferences, workshops, Society/Council’s governing board meetings, IEEE Young Professionals Face-to Face-meetings, etc. IEEE budgets are processed during the year preceding the application, so these requests must be submitted early.

4.      How to Integrate within Society and IEEE OUs?

Once the Society/Council appoints a Young Professionals volunteer, there are a few important tasks, which can help in operating Young Professionals activities.

1. The volunteer should make sure that the Society/Council governing body recognizes the rep as the Young Professionals leader in the Society/Council. Request the Society/Council leadership and Society/Council staff to add the rep to the email roster as well as the Society/Council’s official website to have appropriate communication opportunities.
2. The volunteer may need assistance from additional volunteers. It is recommended that the rep create a Young Professionals Committee and recruit additional members based on expertise, performance, and diversity. When the committee is formed, it should be approved and recognized by the Society/Council’s governing body. The committee should be included in the Society/Council roster and website as well.
3. The volunteer should work very closely with the Society/Council leadership. Try to attend all the important Society/Council meetings. If your presence is required, the travel should be funded by the Society/Council and the rep should attend the meeting. Attendance at leadership meetings enables the rep to understand the Society/Council business and to meet relevant leaders in the Society/Council. The rep should regularly provide updates to your Society/Council leadership regarding upcoming activities and ideas for young professionals.
4. It is important for the young professionals to actively volunteer in order to stay in contact with different volunteers inside and outside their Society/Council. This includes the IEEE Global Young Professionals Committee, IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB)’s Young Professionals Representative, staff members in IEEE Technical Activities, student volunteers of the Society/Council, IEEE Young Professionals Regional volunteers, IEEE Young Professionals volunteers at other Societies/Councils and any other relevant volunteers.
5. The volunteer can also ask the Society/Council leadership or staff to provide access to a database of the Society/Council members (such as TBL Analytics), which can help in gathering relevant information for future activities or plans. Also, vTools (eNotice announcements) can help in marketing and communicating the Society/Council’s activities to relevant OUs and members. The volunteer can learn how to use these tools at the following website: https://sites.ieee.org/vtools/