NEWSLETTER of the IEEE Power Electronics Society
April 1997, Volume 9, Number 2 
The President's Message
Jerry Hudgins, PELS President
TAB Report
My introduction to the IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB) proceedings was quite interesting this past February. For those not familiar, TAB is the ruling body of the technical side of IEEE and is composed of the 36 Society Presidents, the Neural Networks Council President, 10 Division Directors, the Chair of the Presidents' Forum, the Vice President-Technical Activities (TAB Chair), the TAB Vice Chair, the TAB Secretary, the TAB Treasurer, and a few standing committee Chairs. While there, I attended a governance meeting for new Society Presidents that introduced many of the procedures and IEEE staff involved with the operation of TAB and Technical Society business. Major topics discussed during the TAB Meeting included the All Society Periodicals Package (ASPP) funds distribution algorithm, the Book Broker Program and funds distribution procedure, chapters development activities worldwide, minor changes to the budgeting calendar for all Societies, and the introduction of a new magazine to be published by IEEE-USA titled Today's Engineer. This new magazine, dedicated to nontechnical needs of practicing engineers, may be of interest to many of our members.
Transnational - The RAB/TAB Transnational Committee (RAB is Regional Activities Board) recommended (and further endorsed by TAB) a motion that IEEE staff develop a plan to allow collection of IEEE dues and other payments in local currency worldwide, and to assess the financial impact to the IEEE. This has been recommended to the IEEE Board of Directors for their approval. If approved, this should greatly facilitate participation in technical society activities in regions 8, 9, and 10.
ASPP - The ASPP distribution algorithm has been studied by the TAB Products Committee, and a recommendation will be presented to TAB at the June meeting. The intent is to change the algorithm to more accurately reflect the market value of each periodical published and to distribute the income accordingly. The proposed changes are under review and I will be working closely with the Society Treasurer, René Spée, to study the impact of the proposal on the PELS.
Book Broker - The Book Broker Program is undergoing changes that will have an effect on our Society. In 1996, TAB altered the way that sales and the associated income were recorded. Single copy sales were tabulated separately from sales of bundled titles for the first time. The attempt was to return more income to the Societies and then charge, on a Society by Society basis, for services performed by the IEEE staff. In this way it was thought that income and expense would be more equitably distributed. The results were that some of the Societies showed a net loss in the Book Broker Program for the year-end 1996. PELS, in fact, is estimated to have a loss of about $11,000 US. This loss is associated with the start-up of the new accounting scheme and should turn around as income from sales are accrued. There was much debate about this topic because of the negative effect on about half the Societies. More information is being gathered by IEEE staff and will be presented ahead of the June TAB meeting so that any necessary corrective action can be taken as early in 1997 as possible.
PELS Review - The Power Electronics Society will have its five year review by TAB at the June meeting in Cleveland. This will be the second review for our Society and is a good opportunity to focus on our activities, identify weaknesses, and take positive steps toward improvement. Two of our sister societies in Division II, Industry Applications and Instrumentation and Measurements, were reviewed in February. I will be coordinating information from the PELS officers and committee chairs in preparation for the upcoming review. A copy of the review report will be placed on the PELS WWW homepage for inspection.
AdCom Report
The AdCom meeting in Atlanta covered many items, but highlighted technical committee reports. The technical committees are actively planning upcoming workshops and symposia, continuing development of standards, and publishing a special issue of the Transactions on Power Electronics (Computers in Power Electronics Committee).
,The AdCom meeting in Atlanta at APEC `97 was presided over by President Jerry Hudgins
Several conferences in Regions 9 and 10 were approved for cosponsorship or cooperating status. These include: the 4th Brazilian Power Electronics Conference (COBEP '97) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil in December 1997, the 6th International Power Electronics Congress (CIEP '98) in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico in October 1998, the International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS '97) in Singapore in May 1997, and the 2nd International Conference on Power Electronics, Drives, and Energy Systems for Industrial Growth (PEDES '98) in Perth, Western Australia, Australia in November 1998.
The IEEE Applied Superconductivity Committee (PELS is one of eleven sponsoring IEEE Societies) is asking each sponsor for endorsement to petition TAB for a change in status from a Committee to a Council. The Committee has been publishing a Transactions since 1990 (generating a small surplus of funds) and associated itself with the Applied Superconductivity Conference (ASC). Several Committee members are on the board of ASC and the Committee publishes referred papers from that conference in the Transactions. The question of endorsement was raised at the PELS AdCom meeting, but no action was taken pending further information being supplied to the AdCom. Any thoughts or comments on this are welcome.
A joint caucus of the PELS AdCom and the IEEE Industry Applications Society Executive Board was held on the Sunday afternoon following the PELS AdCom Meeting. This was to foster a closer working and coordinating relationship with each other through our common interests. Coordination between the two Societies will only improve both entities, and therefore, benefit the membership. I am very excited about the spirit of cooperation between our two Societies and foresee great days ahead for us all.
International Society Cooperation Meeting - IAS President Paolo Tenti is organizing an International Society Cooperation Meeting being held in late May. The PELS has been invited to attend, in cooperation with IAS, as representatives of IEEE in power electronics related technologies. The groups will meet with representatives of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), the European Power Electronics Association (EPE), and the Italian Association of Industrial Electronics (AIE), to discuss coordinated conferences and other technical activities. This will be a good opportunity to work closely with IAS in developing relationships with European power electronics Societies.
Information and Collaboration - Other items acted upon at the caucus were establishment of information exchange between the IAS and PELS Meetings, Membership, and Chapters Development Chairs. Regular and routine information and messages concerning opportunities for collaboration in joint chapters or cosponsorships of technical meetings has been formalized and will be developed further. This should avoid overlap of effort and the possible situation of each Society separately sponsoring a meeting in competition with the other, particularly in Regions 8, 9, and 10.
As a final note, I would like to thank Tom Wilson, Jr., Conference Chair of the 1997 Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC '97), and his organizing committee for the fine technical meeting in Atlanta February 23-27 (details of the conference are discussed in another article in the Newsletter). The Westin Peachtree Hotel was a great backdrop for the administrative, tutorial, and technical sessions held. APEC fosters an atmosphere of cooperation and excellence that spills over into the administrative aspects of the sponsoring societies, and helps create the camaraderie necessary for other joint activities.
Jerry Hudgins, PELS President
Dept. of Elec. and Comp. Engrg.
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208 USA
TEL: +1-803-777-5174
FAX: +1-803-777-8045
e-mail: hudgins@ece.sc.edu
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