As we bid farewell to 2023, it is a time to reflect on what has IEEE Region 10 achieved, Challenges, and Plans for the future.
IEEE Region 10 has maintained a strong membership growth throughout 2023.
The October 2023 Membership statistics showed an overall growth of more than 26,000, or 17.7% compared to the same month in 2022. At the time of writing on 15th December, 40% of IEEE members are residing in the Asia-Pacific Region (R10), and a similar percentage for the Society Members. Based on the October figures, out of the over 175K members in R10, 47.3% are High-grade members, 15.4% are Graduate Students, and Student Members made up 37.3%. This is reflected in the high percentage of Student Branches (48.4%), SB Affinity Groups (54.5%), and SB Chapters (53.8%), in R10 as compared to the rest of IEEE.
These spectacular results are mainly due to the efforts of all the volunteers and leaders within the Region, who have worked tirelessly in running many activities and projects, providing services and programs for IEEE members, as well as the community. Many of such activities are reported in this, as well as previous editions of the R10 Newsletter. However, there are many more that were run locally, and are unknown to others!
On the other hand, a strong membership number is also associated with Challenges. The retention and renewal rate of R10 membership do need to be improved, in particular, among the Graduate Student and Student Members. In addition, many student branches and organization units (OU’s) associated with the SB’s are under consideration to be dissolved, due to the drop of memberships, or lack of activities over a few years. This is highly undesirable, reflecting a waste of resources and opportunities. The Region will need to focus in 2024 on the issue of membership renewal/retention, in addition to the maintenance of the momentum of recruitment.
As regards Plans for the future, the IEEE Region Realignment for R10 will lead to many major activities in R10 in the next few years. The Realignment is due to occur on 1st January 2028 and much work will need to be done on the Election, Regional Offerings, Financial arrangement, Future Management and Governance framework, as well as the need to increase the pool of volunteers and leaders for various roles in the future R10 (North Asia), and R11 (South Asia and Pacific).
We are thankful that 2023 has been successful, judging from the number of members and activities within the Region. I’d like to thank every member of the 2023 R10 Executive Committee, who has put in their weight and achieved the goals and objectives of their respective portfolios.
While we acknowledge and recognize the names and faces of every ExCom member from the IEEE R10 Website, we must not forget all other volunteers and members, who have given their time and efforts in helping or executing the activities within the Region. They are the real heroes, who contributed to the Mission and Vision of IEEE, advancing technologies for humanity! To them, I salute.