What do we want from Nationals?

[chri...@gmail.com]

Hi all,

We have not yet heard a solid plan on what Nationals plans to do with
the IEEE merger money. If the merger passes, HKN should have the
resources to financially assist smaller chapters.

But regardless of how the merger proceeds, now is a good time to re-
evaluate exactly what Nationals does. Mu Chapter has drafted a list of
things that Nationals could potentially provide.
(Note that this is just a brainstorm list and NOT a list of things we
want from Nationals)

Money
* Scholarships
* Subsidizing chapter events and/or chapter budgets

Intra-Society
* Invite speakers
* Soft skills workshops (i.e. TBP's Engineering Futures program)
* More conferences
* Member database
* The Bridge Newsletter
* Grants to start chapters (internationally)
* Infrastructure (website-in-a-box)

Inter-Society / External
* access to IEEE benefits
* professional consulting
* academic journals
* grants / sponsorship (i.e. tutoring program, or a program to expose
pre-college students to ECE)

Networking
* legitimize / publicize the HKN name
* Inter-societal networking at national level
* Job networking (e.g. Experience.com)
* Alumni network

What services would be most important to your chapter? What would you
like to see Nationals focus on in the future?

Regards,
Chris Lay
Mu Chapter -- Recording Secretary

[Rahul Yargop]

Hi all,

Chris has the right idea, we need to reach a consensus on what we want
from the money and monitor its implementation.

As far as I can tell, the biggest issue is making HKN self-supporting
using the added money. I say this because if the reserves are
actually depleting, then we will start having to apply for funding
through IEEE's Educational Activities Board. Once this happens, we
will need to tailor our activities to the EAB, and hence will lose our
ability to function in a completely autonomous. A one-time sum of
money is nice to have been given, but it will not last very long if we
continue as we were and just spend more.

So, we need to focus on the activities that will boost our funding
over time. As far as I can tell, the few major pipelines for funding
are a boost in membership, alumni donations, and corporate funding.

If we can have our members agree on what our objectives are from this
IEEE merger money, we can start evaluating possible ideas. As far as
I am concerned, increasing yearly income is the highest priority, and
if we agree on that, we can start trying to predict how well a
particular activity helps us increase membership, alumni involvement
and corporate involvement.

Best,
Rahul Yargop
Alpha Chapter -- Member