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IEEE Ethics in Internal Affairs

I am an active member of the IEEE and I am starting to become disillusioned with the local sections. Being involved at the section level and chair of an affinity group I have seen some actions that I find to be worse than "questionable". Last year I was on the cusp of reporting an issue and I read the IEEE ethics complaint process. It seems that they require a complainant to provide all the required evidence to prove an ethics violation and then be willing to attend a hearing in Piscataway, NJ, no matter the location of the complaint.

I find this to be an onerous burden. It appears clear that they are not very proactive in weeding out problems within their organization. I'm not claiming that anyone has embezzled money or anything of that nature. This is more an issue of elections being "managed" and section business being conducted by the chair without an executive committee vote as required by the by-laws of the specific group. The local sections seem to feel that the chair is an executive with powers like a president while by-laws define what is more like the leader of the house running the meetings only and little or no other authority.

Anyone here see similar behavior in other parts of the IEEE? Is this just how the group works and I am expecting too much from a bunch of volunteers?

Rick

Reply to
rickman
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I would doubt that it is an IEEE issue as such, rather a characteristic of how people self-organize. Some tend towards consensus, others towards authoritarianism. Some hew to the rules, others consider rules to be only opinions to may ignored when inconvenient.

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

I mostly agree with Rich that groups don't always follow the letter of the rule. As a fellow IEEE member, what's more important to me is whether you've witnessed anything that could materially damage the reputation of the organization. Manipulating elections - even at the group level - is a very serious charge and if you have first hand knowledge I would encourage you to act on it.

WRT unilateral action by the chair, I consider that a group local issue ... he or she may be acting with support from the executive committee. Even though the rules say otherwise, they may trust that the chair will act responsibly in many cases without taking a formal vote or they may, in fact, be discussing things offline without convening a meeting and votes that are not on record.

If you think you are witnessing cronyism or actions that are not in the best interests of the organization, again I encourage you to act on it by filing a complaint.

However, if what bothers you is simply the manner of doing business then I would speak to other members of your section and see if you can get signature support for a letter to the executive committee. I would *not* frame anything as an ethics violation as that will simply put them on the defensive ... I would just make them aware that the signatories are bothered by the appearance that the chair is operating unilaterally and *politely* suggest that the group should be operating formally according to the governing rules.

If you get no adequate response, then you try to get member support to overturn the committee at the next election. Democracy is a lousy form of government ... it's just that all the other forms are worse.

George

Reply to
George Neuner

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