IEEE ComSoc Latin America Regional Chapter Chair Congress 2016, Medellin, Colombia

By Carlos Andres Lozano-Garzon - IEEE ComSoc Director of Latin America Region

The 2016 Latin America Regional Chapter Chair Congress (LA-RCCC 2016) of the IEEE Communications Society was held in Medellin, Colombia on 14–15 November 2016, in conjunction with IEEE LATINCOM 2016.

LA RCCC 2016 Working Session (Stefano Bregni presenting ComSoc MGA initiatives).

In this edition of the congress, we had the participation of: Stefano Bregni, IEEE ComSoc Vice President of Member and Global Activities; Susan Brooks, IEEE ComSoc Executive Director; Zhensheng Zhang, IEEE ComSoc Director of Membership Service; Scott Atkinson, IEEE ComSoc Director of North America Director Region; Javier Gozálvez, President of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society; five members of the ComSoc Latin-America Board; and 17 Chapter Chairs of the Latin America Region.

According to the Regional Chapter Chair Congresses (RCCC) aim, the agenda encouraged the information sharing, feedback, and networking among chapter chairs, staff, and ComSoc officers. As a result of the work done by the participants, it was possible to establish a work plan for our region focused on the following points:

  • Promote the nomination of regional candidates to the Distinguished Lecturer Program. At this moment there is only one Distinguished Lecturer in the region.
  • Increase the diffusion of the ComSoc LA Regional Awards, in order to increase the members’ participation.
  • Develop a virtual Regional Student Chapter meeting to identify the main problems and propose a support plan to its activities.
  • Create a ComSoc Student Congress co-located with the IEEE Latincom with the aim of training our young members and increasing their participation in society activities.
  • Set up an Industry Committee LA Board, with the main objective to increase the interest of industry professionals to participate in ComSoc activities. The first task proposed is to conduct a survey in LA ComSoc chapters to identify potential industry relations field.
  • Promote the development of communication projects with a higher social impact, partially supported by ComSoc chapters.
  • Continue with the development of ComSoc–Computer Webinars for the LA region, with the goal of at least one webinar per month.
  • Start a cycle of talks for non-engineers to demystify technology.
  • Promote the member elevation of at least 50 Senior Members and one Fellow Member.
  • Establish a joint work plan with other Societies in the LA Region, e.g. Computer, VTS, Signal Processing, PES, among others.

On the last day of our congress, Eng. Carlos Eugenio Martínez Cruz received the Latin America Region Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding contributions to the development of IEEE Communications Society activities in the Latin America Region.

More information about the LA-RCCC 2016 may be found at: http://www.comsoc.org/about/chapters/rccc