To State your opposition to the 2016 Constitutional Amendment, please reply at:
https://ieee2016blog.wordpress.com/who-is-opposed-to-the-constitutional-amendment/
Time has passed to add your name to the list of IEEE Members Opposed to the 2015 Amendment. Note: You can qualify your opposition using the comments, some folks are opposed on specific grounds and may not agree with all of the points made on the “Home Page” or by others with objections. However, the ballot is yes-no on all points, presumably a future amendment might have less points of concern, or none.
Join the community: Send an email to ieee2020-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to get on a managed email list (you can digest to daily or less messages), with related links, files, and discussion threads as things progress.
To State your opposition to the 2016 Constitutional Amendment, please reply at:
https://ieee2016blog.wordpress.com/who-is-opposed-to-the-constitutional-amendment/
| Name | Member Status | Past/Current IEEE Leadership Roles |
| John Vig | Life/Fellow | 2009 IEEE President, TAB VP, Division Director, Society President |
| Lew Terman | Life Fellow | 2008 IEEE President, Past TAB VP, Past Society President |
| Michael Lightner | Fellow | 2006 IEEE President, TAB VP, PSPB VP, EAB VP, Division Director, Society President |
| Cleon Anderson | Life/Fellow | 2005 IEEE President |
| Ray Findlay | Life/Fellow | 2002 IEEE President |
| Marc Apter | Life/Senior | RAB(MGA) VP/Director, IEEE-USA President, Regional Director |
| Janina Mazierska | Fellow | Region 10 Director (2007-2008) and a member of IEEE Board of Directors |
| Deborah M Cooper | Senior | Division Director, Society President |
| Ed Perkins | Senior | Past: Regional Director, VP IEEE-USA, Current: Nanotechnology Council Secretary |
| Peter Clout | Life/Senior | Division Director, Member of TAB, Audit Committee, TAB Finance etc. |
| Charles W Turner | Life Fellow | Region 8 Director, IEEE Secretary |
| Steven Hillenius | Fellow | Past Director and Past EDS President |
| Anthony C Davies | Life Fellow | Formerly T8 Director and formerly a VP in CAS Society, etc. |
| Juan Carlos MIGUEZ | Life Senior | 1998/9 Region 9 Director, 2006/11 PES Board |
| Doug Zuckerman | Life/Fellow | Society President, Division Director |
| Larry Hamerman | Life Senior | Region 6 Director 2001-2002 |
| Jim Isaak | Life/Senior | Division Director, CS President, SSIT VP, SA BoG, |
| Frank Hegeler | Senior Member | 2014/15 President, IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society |
| Emily Soepsnky | Senior | Chair, RFID; ITSS BoG |
| Dennis M. Briggs | Senior Member | Chair, Coastal Los Angeles Section, R6 |
| Deepak Mathur | Senior | Chair IEEE India Council |
| Elie Track | Fellow | Council past President |
| Ljiljana Trajkovic | Fellow | 2014-2015 President, IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society; 2007 President, Circuits and Systems Society |
| Keith Grzelak | Senior | Past IEEE-USA VP for Government Relations |
| Laura Jacob | Senior Member | 2013/2014 President, IEEE SSIT; Member, TAB SPC and IEEE Humanitarian Committee |
| Bruce C. Wheeler | Fellow | Past President, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |
| Christina Schober | Senior | IEEE CS BOG 2014-2016, IEEE Sensor Council Past President, Twin Cities Section Past Chair |
| Vladimir Lumelsky | IEEE Life Fellow | Past President, IEEE Sensors Council |
| Murty Polavarapu | Senior Member | IEEE-USA Vice President for Communications and Public Awareness, Past MGA-Vice Chair for Geographic Unit Operations, Northern Virginia Section Chair 2005 |
| Alfredo Herrera | Senior Member | Past chair Ottawa chapter SSIT/TEMS/PCS, Founder/Past chair Region 7 Humanitarian Initiatives Committee |
| Frank Hegeler | Senior Member | 2014/15 President, IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society |
| Thomas Tierney | Senior Member | IEEE-USA Vice-President for Government Relations, IEEE-USA Member-At-Large, 2009 IEEE-USA Engineering Diplomacy Fellow |
| Alfredo Herrera | Senior Member | Past chair Ottawa chapter SSIT/TEMS/PCS, Founder/Past chair Region 7 Humanitarian Initiatives Committee |
| John Eldon | Senior (almost Life) Member | |
| Henry Louie | Senior Member | IEEE Power & Energy Society VP of Membership & Image |
| Ken Edwards | Senior | IEEE PES VP of Technical Activities |
| Stanley C. Koski | Life Senior Member | Twice Former Maine Section Chairman, Presently Maine Section Treasurer |
| Fabrice Labeau | Senior | President, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society; Section Chair, Montreal Section |
| W. Ross Stone | Life Fellow | Honorary Life Member, AP-S AdCom; 30+ years Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine |
| Robert A. Ray | Senior Life Member | Life affinity group Treasurer |
| Ali Abedi | Senior | Section, Chapter, Region, Society, MGA |
| Ronald O. Brown | Life/Senior | Past Section Chair, Current/Past Section Vice Chair, Past Chapter Chair, Current/Past Chapter Vice Chair |
| Richard Wilkins | Senior | Maine Section Chair, Past Seattle Section/C-16 Chair |
| Andrew Laine | Fellow | President, IEEE Engineering in Biology and Medicine Society |
| Ming Lin | Fellow | Current IEEE CS BOG Member, ExCom of Pubs Board, Chair of TOC |
IEEE Constitution Amendment 
This is a bad amendment that goes against the fundamental principles of IEEE’s culture and empowerment of its constituency. That many leaders were not even aware of its existence is an early warning of where its passage might lead.
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Almost everything has been said but I do have to add a personal note. Being on the TAB Finance Committee and reporting to TAB and TAB Management on a number of issues, I am stunned that this issue, which has been around since last August, is only now known outside the Board, even among very senior volunteers. If passed, the constitutional amendments open the door to massive changes in IEEE with no further member or volunteer involvement.
I am also deeply insulted that the proposers even thought that I was too stupid and inexperienced to see the power-grab and that these changes, with all the dangers described on this site, could even gather a few votes, let alone the electorate enthusiasm such that the required 10% of members voted at all and 2/3 rds of these voted for it!
If passed, these amendments could, within 2-3 years by the board voting on bylaw changes, have IEEE with a board of professional paid board members none of which know the difference between a volts and an amps. Members and volunteers would be powerless to do anything about it.
I urge the board to remove these changes from the ballot for the sake of the Institute – we have too much to do to spend our time on a knock-down drag-out internal fight.
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An idea that is simply not in the long term best interests of the IEEE and its membership.
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In addition to the preposterous amendment, what truly irks me it that a considerable amount of money has, and is being spent on the 2030 IEEE initiative. This effort was probably the birthplace of the amendment with the goal of making the IEEE a more nimble and flexible organization. Which of course, is easier done without principles and volunteers. Does anyone remember the Branding initiative. Thanks to Cleon, it was nipped in the bud and it only cost lots of bucks
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Looking at the proposed Constitutional changes, it seems to me to be either an opening for a Staff grab for power or for a chance for a small group of volunteers to gain power by changing the time-tested and hard-fought constraints in The Constitution, and Bylaws, put there to keep the organization volunteer and member driven. The members should not give their Professional Organization away, not in this manner, not ever.
You can use my name as strongly against all of the proposed changes. They are all nonsense when presented in this manner. IEEE members should be angry to have their good graces for The IEEE, used and taken for granted in such a blatant manner.
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I fully agree with these remarks. This is nothing but a power grab that will leave the members without any say in what the IEEE stands for or how it is run.
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Too many senior volunteers with high-level experience of IEEE are speaking out strongly against the Constitutional Amendment for it to be credible that we are all mistaken and that all is well. Clearly all is not well, and the vote on the Amendment needs to be withdrawn before the ballots are printed.
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[Posted with permision of Michael Lightner – 2006 IEEE President]
The proposed changes in the constitution fall in two categories. The first category is clean-up and modernization of language. I have no concern about these. However, the bulk of the changes are in the second category and give essentially all the power over the affairs of the IEEE to the Board of Directors. The rules will be in the Bylaws, which the Board can change. Additionally, the Assembly is reduced to a minimum of eight, plus the President. Note that there is no specification that any member of the Assembly, other than the President will also be on the Board of Directors.
In the proposed changes the size of the Board, how members are elected, their terms, additional members such as Corporate Officers are all the responsibility of the Board (although the Assembly will elect certain Corporate Officers). It is clear that we could have a Board of Directors, with no Corporate Officers, where only the President, President-Elect and Past-President had been elected by the members.
(It is fair to acknowledge that, since the only specified members of the Board in the new constitution are the President, Past-President and President-Elect, we could also have a Board with three members all elected by the members.)
I have served ten years on the Board. While not perfect, we did accomplish the required work, we represented the technical and geographic structure of the organization and the constraints under which we operated kept us from doing too much harm.
The proposed changes to the Constitution provide a governing structure that will allow rapid organizational changes, puts the power in the hands of an unknown number of people, selected by unknown means, under rules that this unknown body can change with no review by the rest of the organization.
While suggestions to improve the IEEE are welcome and I have great respect for the IEEE leadership, these changes remove the IEEE from the members in far too many ways and I urge that, as presented, the members reject the proposed changes.
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Mike, you say “we could also have a Board with three members all elected by the members” However the classes and voting of members is determined by the ByLaws and the elections are defined in the ByLaws and so there could be sham elections with a single candidate who does not know the difference between a volt and an amp and picks up a nice salary for his/her advice. Same for the assembly. This can happen under the proposed new constitution. I hope I am wrong.
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I see this amendment as an attempt by a small group to wrestle power from the IEEE membership. The amendment is not in the best long term interests of the majority of IEEE members.
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IEEE India Council convey deep concern over the proposal to amend IEEE Constitution. In the last ExCom meeting of IEEE India Council we unanimously passed the following resolution which I want to formally convey to the IEEE Board of Directors. This is for kind perusal and consideration.
“The members of IEEE India Council Executive Committee which comprises of chairs of 11 Sections in India and their representatives to the India Council express their deep concern about the proposed 2015 Constitutional Amendment of IEEE.
We feel that through this proposed amendment the right of governance is getting transferred to a possible small group of people who might not be technical activities representatives and/or representatives of all the regions. As a result a significant portion of the constitution will move to the bylaws which may thereby be amended by that small group without respecting the current 10% of membership minimum participation. We, therefore, collectively and formally request the Board to withdraw this proposed amendment.”
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I oppose the amendment, and I believe my late uncle, Charles Alfred “Bud” Eldon, would have opposed it, as well. http://ethw.org/Oral-History:Charles_Eldon
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Since the proposed amendment was revealed to those outside the tight little group driving it forward I have yet to see any convincing argument put forward for the change. There is no crisis that would justify hasty action by the Board. Let’s have a full, measured, discussion over the next 12 months, making sure that the widest possible constituency has full access to the facts.
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I, a cousin to Charles Alfred “Bud” Eldon who was a former IEEE President, just became aware of the Proposed Constitutional Amendment and because it would totally eliminate IEEE engaging in Professional Activities, which was approved by over 82% of the voting members in 1972 and added to the Constitution for the first time, totally oppose this change to the Constitution. This looks like a Power Grab and Members better become aware of what some are trying to get control of and take away from them.
Walter L. Elden, P.E. (Ret), IEEE Life Senior Member, former member of the IEEE Member Conduct Committee (1996-98), w.elden@ieee.org
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