Hello Everyone!!
I would like to take a moment to thank all of the members for the opportunity to be Chair of the Huntsville Section. This year is off to a great start! I want to express my thanks to Keith Jadus for his superb leadership over the past two years. He’s left the Section in such a viable position my job will be almost too easy.
We’ve been super busy over the past month! We’ve approved the 2007 budget and hosted the 2007 Alabama Region Future City Competition (ARFCC) in Huntsville. I would like to thank Sonya Hutchinson, the Alabama Regional Coordinator, for her outstanding leadership and organization of this year’s competition after a one year hiatus for Alabama. In Sonya’s words – “We’re back!” Sonya was extremely diligent in recruiting a Planning Committee consisting of volunteers in various capacities including Engineer-Mentor Recruiter, Competition Judging Recruiter, Corporate and Financial Sponsor Coordinator, Public Relations/Media, etc. These volunteers enlisted services of many other volunteers that made the 2007 ARFCC a grand success. I had a great experience serving as the Engineer – Mentor Coordinator and IEEE Special Award judge for the event and can’t wait until Sonya kick-off the planning for ARFCC for 2008. I’m sure with all of the excitement from this year’s event and the outstanding media publicity we can expect more team entries, which means we’ll need even more volunteers. You can see Sonya’s article and the link to the ARFCC Competition for more reports and photos of the AFRCC event.
As Keith mentioned in the January LiveWire, the last two years have been great! I’m challenging the Section to do even more to make this the best Section in the Region. We will need the help of each of you in ensuring the vitality of the Section and each Chapter by hosting more technical meetings; taking advantage of the Distinguished Lecture program to help increase attendance at our technical meetings; encouraging more members to apply for elevation from Member to Senior Member. We had 11 Members elevated to Senior Member last year and could have easily doubled this number based on the number of qualified candidates within the section. We also need your help in identifying candidates for nomination to Fellow.
The month of February is always busy for us since it the month we celebrate Engineers Week. This year as always we will recognize the Section’s Outstanding Engineer and Outstanding Educator, We are also in the final preparations phase for our participation in SoutheastCon 2007, which is being held in Richmond, VA during March 2007. You may visit the link to the Richmond website to gain more information on the 2007 SoutheastCon. We will again be sponsoring the UAH Student Branch and classroom robotics projects at the 2007 SoutheastCon. February is also the time we need to identify volunteer judges for the Alabama State and North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fairs. See the article on these events provided by Frank Parris. We will also be supporting the Alabama State and North Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fairs in both Sponsorship and special awards judging.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and get busy!
Sincerely,
Willie J. Fitzpatrick, PhD
Chair, IEEE Huntsville Section
wfitzpatrick@ieee.or