IEEE R10 Director’s Message April 23

First quarter (Q1) of 2023 has come and gone, what have you achieved in the past months?

For most of the IEEE Organizational Units (OU), the months of January to March have been a busy time with planning, budgets, meetings, and projects rolled out. Within the same period, the schedules of most volunteers are filled with various either online or in-person meetings, regional AGM’s, and may also include a range of sub-committees, working groups and Ad-Hoc Committees.Amidst their busy schedules, the contributions of the R10 volunteers are greatly appreciated.

A commonly used quote is, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” This is particularly true for all organisations that success can only be achieved through good planning, adequate support, careful execution, such that benefits will be brought to the targeted recipients. Hence, Q1 is the most important time for all IEEE volunteers and leaders.

I am grateful for the participation and support by IEEE leaders and volunteers who take their time to attend the R10 Annual Meeting held on 4th and 5th of March at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Over 100 delegates attended the two days meeting, plus a pre-meeting workshop held on the 3rd March at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, with the support of the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO).

The list of delegates attended the R10 AGM included IEEE President 2023, Professor Saifur Rahman, IEEE President-Elect, Mr Tom Coughlin, IEEE-VP MGA, Jill Gostin, IEEE Executive Director, Sophia Muirhead (online) and Region 2 Director, Andrew Lowery. In the meeting, three R10 Vice Chairs, Preeti Bjaj, Zia Ahmed, and Takako Onoye presented the reports and plans from their respective committee chairs, under three main areas – Members Activities, Professional Activities and Technical Activities.

Chairs of the R10 committees also interacted with the delegates through their presentations and during the poster session. In addition, two training sessions were presented by SM Sameer, Michael Ong and Amit Kumar on Technical Program Management, and Section/Chapters Formation and Reporting. In the evening of the first day, a banquet dinner with cultural show and Awards presentation was held.

On the second day, two invited guests, Peter Nagy and Mousmi Ajay Chauarasia, spoke on National Societies Cooperation, and Volunteer Upskills with IEEE CLE, respectively.

Their presentations were followed by organisers of the three R10 Flagship conferences – TenSymp, R10 HTC and TenCon. Reports for 2022 events, and forthcoming 2023 and 2024 events, were presented as reports or updates on the preparation of the conferences. As there was no further business, the 2023 R10 Annual meeting was adjourned by noon and followed by an off-site bonding activity and dinner at the Deck Restaurant.

Success of the two days 2023 IEEE R10 AGM was due to the careful planning and preparation by capable IEEE Staff at the Asia-Pacific Office – Ewell Tan and HC Leo, and dedicated volunteers. Through their good hands, the 2023 R10 annual meet was completed smoothly and to every delegate’s satisfaction.

Similarly, it is believed that projects proposed in the R10 Annual Meeting will bring success and benefits to the community, through good planning and execution by the volunteers and leaders in R10!