During March 9 -12 the 2022 the IEEE Region 9 Regional Meeting was held in Mexico City at the Barcelo Hotel, Reforma in Mexico City.

The meeting counted with the majority of members of the Regional Committee including 31 out of 35 Sections Chairs, 3 out 5 Council Chairs, all Committee Chairs except Ethics Committee Chair, Members of invited Committees (Industry Engagement, Membership Development, Section Vitality, Technical Activities and Education Activities) , Special guests including IEEE President Ray Liu, Executive Director Steve Welby , Vice President of MGA David Koehler and Vice President of PSPB Lawrence Hall, IEEE Societies Presidents and Representatives from Power & Energy Society, Computer Society, Electron Device Society, Industry Applications Society, Computational Society, Signal Processing Society, Circuits and Systems Society, Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, Standard Associations and companions.

The meeting included multiple sessions where we had the opportunity to provide training to our volunteers, know about societies programs and opportunities and to have an important interchange with all participants.

Day 1 Sections Chairs Training, Committee Meetings and Operations Committee Meeting

Section Chairs Training

Training for Officer included:

  • Section Duties & Compliance
  • Awards and Recognitions
  • vTools Officers Reporting and IEEE Roster, eNotice, Events & Best Practices, Voting, Doodle
  • IEEE Web Hosting FAQ
  • IEEE OU Analytics
  • Senior Member Nomination Process
  • Membership Cycles Strategies
  • CONCUR and Reimbursement Process
  • Sections Vitality

Presentations from IEEE Societies

  • IEEE Power & Energy Society Jessica Bain, PES President
  • IEEE Electron Devices Society Edmundo Gutierrez, EDS Representative
  • IEEE Signal Processing Society Athina Petropulu, SPS President
  • IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Manuel Delgado, CAS President
  • IEEE Computer Society William Gropp, CS President
  • IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Ernesto Rayas, MTTS Representative
  • IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, Carlos Coello Coello, CIS Representative
  • IEEE Industry Applications Society Pia Torres, IAS R9 Representative
  • IEEE Communications Society Andres Navarro, Communications Society Representative

During lunch, open tables for the interact with the participants societies representatives where available for the members of the Regional Committee to interact with them.

Day 1 Committee Meetings

During Day one, invited Committees met during the morning to work on plans and new ideas to implement in the Region.

In the afternoon each Regional Committee Chair presented their plans and objectives for the period. After that, a working session with all committees was held concluding with very interesting proposals to be developed in the Region. Those were the following:

  • Virtual Fair for IEEE members where different fields of Engineering and countries in Region 9 are connected
  • To organize a presentations series to establish a better understanding of the IEEE HKN Honor’s Society
  • To organize a workshop to educate volunteers in the process to apply and prepare their nominations for IEEE positions.
  • To organize the 2023 International Humanitarian Technologies Conference
  • Repository in Collabratec.
  • To Consolidate the outreach of community and societies in the social networks in order to access the TOP 5 events keeping a history to share it (best achievement award of the region)
  • Create a link to directly show the benefits of each society
  • Consolidate the promotional codes of memberships and societies in the webpage of the region
  • Create an award of Friendly Companies to link the industry and scale the Peru’s initiative to reply to it (MOU COLEGIO DE INGENIEROS AWARD)
  • REVITALITY OF OUs that are trending to disappear. First steps, identify them. Second step, find the champions.
  • Strategic plan to renew membership
  • Develop a career plan for volunteers, and train the leaders of committees 6 months earlier before taking over the position.

Day 1 Dinner

During the night we had the welcome dinner with the traditional gift interchange activity between the participants and the presentation of new IEEE pins for new officers. This dinner was held at the Barcelo Hotel.

Gustavo Juarez and Alberto Sanchez
Jenifer Castilo and Israel Troncoso
Elizabeth Hernandez Ruelas and Tania Quiel
Alejandra Salinas and Juan Carlos Chavarria
Ray Liu, Pablo Realpozo and Steve Welby

Day 2 Regional Meeting

During Day 2 of activities, we had the following

  • Director’s Remarks Enrique Tejera, Region 9 Director
  • Introductions Diana Valadez, Region 9 Secretary
  • IEEE in 2022 Ray Liu, IEEE President
  • IEEE Programs Steve Welby, IEEE Executive Director
  • MGA Programs & Opportunities David Koehler, MGA Vice-President
  • IEEE Finances – Next Gen Gerardo Barbosa, MGA Treasurer
  • Publications and Services Products Lawrence Hall, VP PSPB
  • IEEE Standards Associations James Matthews, IEEE SA President
  • IEEE Your Professional Home Barry Tilton, YPH Ad Hoc Committee
  • IEEE MGA GUOS Committee Activities Magdalena Salazar Palma, Vice-Chair IEEE MGA GUOS Committee
  • IEEE Foundation Francisco Martinez, IEEE Foundation Secretary
  • Region 2 Presentation Barry Tilton, Region 2 Director
  • Region 8 Presentation Antonio Luque, Region 8 Director
  • Region 10 Presentation Deepak Mathur, Region 10 Director

Region 9 EXCom

Augusto Herrera-Treasurer, Diana Valadez-Secretary, Enrique Tejera, Director, Alberto Sanchez Past Director and Jenifer Castillo Director Elect

At lunch, the group picture was taken at the “Monumento de la Revolucion”

and later we had the city tour with the attendance of all participants

During this day, there was a parallel meeting of regional representatives of the Computer Society led by Computer Society President William Gropp.

During the night, the Mexico Section offered to all participants of the Regional Meeting the Gala Dinner to celebrate the 100 Anniversary of the Mexico Section.  This event was held at the Club de Industriales where they presented Commemorative medals of the 100 Anniversary to all Sections participants and special guests.

A dinner and Mariachi presentation made this a memorable event

Day 3 Regional Meeting

During Day 3 of activities, we had the following

  • Call to Order, Enrique Tejera, Region 9 Director
  • Roll Call, Diana Valadez, R9 Secretary
  • Approval of Consent Agenda Enrique Tejera, Region 9 Director
  • Approval of Agenda Enrique Tejera, Region 9 Director
  • Director’s Remarks Enrique Tejera, Region 9 Director
  • Refresh: Robert’s Rules of Order Gerardo Barbosa, MGA Treasurer
  • Section Best Achievement Award Presentations Teofilo Ramos. ARC Chair
  • Region Awards (Executive) Teofilo Ramos, ARC Chair
    • Region 9 Outstanding Section Award – Panama Section
    • Region9 Outstanding Student and Young Professional Activities Support Award – Tania Abrego, Cesar Pineda, and Waldir Ventura
    • Region 9 “Oscar C. Fernandez” Outstanding Volunteer Award – Betania Gomes da Silva
    • Best Achievement of the Year Award – Panama Section with Project Star
    • Region 9 Eminent Engineer Award – Norberto Lerendegui and Rodrigo Calderón Rico
    • Region 9 Meritorious Service Award – Javier Magaña
  • VOLT Program Ruben Barrera, VOLT Coordinator
  • Membership Development in Region 9 Jenifer Castillo, Region 9 Director Elect
  • Women in Engineering 2022 Jenifer Castillo, IEEE WIE Chair
  • Empowering IEEE Leadership Through Humanitarian Technologies, Pia Torres. HAC Committee Member
  • R9 Voluntary Contribution Fund Report (VCF) Alberto Sánchez, Region 9 Past Director
  • Status of Latam Transactions Ilse Cervantes, EiC Latam Transactions
  • Project MOVE, Caribbean Jenifer Castillo, R9 Director Elect Abigail Teron, PR & Caribbean Section Chair
  • Collabratec Ruben Barrera, R9 Collabratec Coordinator
  • Resolutions in memory of Ciro Vivas from Colombia presented by Andres Navarro, Colombia SetionChair; and  Tapan Kumar Sarkar, from India-USA presented by Alberto Sanchez, Past Region Director
  • Motions passed
    • Nominations Committee appointments
    • Chile Section Name Change
    • REAC logo adoption
    • Region 9 Support for WIE Pledge
    • Humanitarian Activities Committee change to Standing Committee
    • Resolution for Mexico Section support for Regional Meeting Organization
  • Call for Interest for 2022 and 2023 Regional Meetings Venues Enrique Tejera, Region 9 Director
    • Panama Section showed interest to be the venue for the 2023 Regional Meeting.

During the night we had the Closing and Region 9 Awards presentation Dinner, held at the Barcelo Hotel.

In this event Commemorative banners for special sections anniversaries were presented.  Mexico 100, Panama 50, and Bolivia 25.

Israel Troncoso, Enrique Tejera, Julio Garcia, Ray Liu and Pablo Realpozo

The Bolivia Section presented a recognition plate for the 100 anniversary of the Mexico Section and the Region also presented a recognition plaque for the support received from the Mexico Section for the Organization of the Regional Meeting 2022.

Alejandra Salinas, Israel Troncoso and Pablo Realpozo
Pablo Realpozo and Enrique Tejera

During the dinner, all wards for the Region were presented and also the Region Director Directional Awards that were presented to Pablo Realpozo, Diana Valadez and Augusto Herrera for their dedication and support for the organization of the Regional Meeting 2022.

Augusto Herrera, Enrique Tejera, Diana Valadez
Enrique Tejera and Pablo Realpozo
  • Region 9 Outstanding Student and Young Professional Activities Support Award – Tania Abrego, Cesar Pineda and Waldir Ventura
Tania Abrego, Ray Liu and David Koehler
Cesar Pineda, Ray Liu and David Koehler
Waldir Ventura, Ray Liu and David Koehler
  • Region 9 Outstanding Section Award – Panama Section
Julio Garcia, Tania Abrego, Fernando Bouche, Ray Liu, Susana Lau, David Koehler and Tania Quiel
  • Best Achievement of the Year Award – Panama Section with Project Star
Tania Abrego, Enrique Tejera, Susana Lau and Julio Garcia
  • Region 9 “Oscar C. Fernandez” Outstanding Volunteer Award – Betania Gomes da Silva, received by Reiron Lopes
Reiron Lopes, Ray Liu and David Koehler
  • Region 9 Eminent Engineer Award – Norberto Lerendegui (Argentina), received by Gustavo Juarez and Rodrigo Calderón Rico (Guadalajara), received by Erick Castellanos
Gustavo Juarez, Ray Liu and David Koehler
Erick Castellanos, Ray Liu and David Koehler
  • Region 9 Meritorious Service Award – Javier Magaña, received by Jose Juan Alfaro Rodriguez
Jose Juan Alfaro Rodriguez, Ray Liu and David Koehler

Special thanks to:

  • Pablo Realpozo, for his outstanding contributions and dedication for the organization of the Regional Meeting.
  • Diana Valadez, Region 9 Secretary and Augusto Herrera, Region Treasurer for the dedication and efforts to make this an outstanding meeting.
  • The whole Region 9 ExCom for providing guidance and ways to make this meeting a productive and efficient one.
  • For the support received from the Mexico Section Board and Staff. It was fundamental to make this meeting a success.
  • Juan Velazquez, Ana Quintana and Michele Kassandra Francisco Juarez, young volunteers form the Mexico Section for their support during the meeting activities.
  • Lorena Ramos from Puerto Rico for contributing with the art for the Regional Meeting logo.
  • Tania Quiel, our Information Management Chair who was very diligent communicating information related to the meeting and also documenting it as our official photographer.
  • All volunteers who were willing to share presentations, opportunities, and ways to make our job as IEEE volunteers easier.
  • And to all who participated in the meeting. Without your presence this meet would not have the positive results and outcomes we had.

 

Respectfully yours,

 

Enrique Tejera
Region Director
IEEE Region 9