C9. Industrial Relations Liaison Report

My primary objective was to establish that professionals engaged with IEEE activities (not just members, not just reading our pubs) displayed a higher level of innovation than folks who were not engaged.  (evaluating things like volunteer rolls, participating in conferences on one hand and  patents, perception of innovative contributions, published papers, etc. on the other side) ..

Unfortunately, the correlation appears to be very slight … positive, but not significant.  So that path as a “Data Based” campaign won’t fly.

In this world of alternate facts, spin and such, it’s probably a viable message anyway, if IEEE could find a way to communicate a message.

#2 Engaging at the State level –

NH had a program kickoff in January for “NH Tech Talent Partnership” (more info at: http://www.nhworks.org/Sector-Partnership-Initiative/Information-Technology-Sector/ )

Basically, NH (and some other R1 States) is short on tech workers. There were many interesting interactions.  One of my focal points is that professional societies like IEEE can help with the critical continuing education of employees (I’m not sure folks “got it”) and also that H1B visas were displacing/discouraging tech employees and we should push to get green cards for promising STEM graduates rather than toss them out of the country. (part of IEEE-USA’s perspective) — 

I encourage our Sections to get involved with their local/state “Technology Councils” — the NH High Tech Council is one of the sponsors of the above Partnership activity.   By offering programs to members (and beyond to other professionals & students) that align with needs perceived by the folks in the Tech Councils you can establish the critical visibility for IEEE in industry.

Jim Isaak, R1 Industry Liaison