Global Chapter Chairs Community Program and Congress 2022, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

By Ricardo Veiga - Director of Member Services

After more than 20 years from the last Global Chapter Chairs Congress (GCCC), we launched a special Global Chapter Chairs Community Program.

GCC Program Goals

It was envisioned as a community-focused multi-month program to teach, train, and share among chapter leaders while providing valuable feedback and input on ComSoc products and services. The ultimate goal was to increase engagement and membership for chapters and ComSoc as a whole.

The program was 50% focused on product and service development/review and 50% on chapter training, succession planning, and recruitment/retention education. The format was interactive, creating engagement, buy-in, and accountability. The work started in June 2022 via discovery meetings, committee formation, training program development, and product/service analysis. It included a Chapter Survey with a feedback analysis, and five one-hour virtual meetings with Small, Medium and Large chapters.

Umair Ahmed Korai (at right), receiving the 2022 Membership and Global Activities Contribution Award from Ana Garcia Armada, Vice President, Member and Global Activities, and Ricardo Veiga, Director, Member Services.

GCC Congress 2022

As part of this process, we organized an in-person Congress held in December 2022 at Globecom 2022, where chapter leaders and invited guests met in person to continue community education and connection opportunities, bringing together learned elements from the previous months’ discoveries, and create actionable plans for 2023 for chapter and ComSoc success.

It included:

  • 18 Sessions

  • 40 Chapters

  • 56 Participants

  • 30 Countries represented

We started with a welcome introduction by ComSoc President, Sherman Shen. The first session was on Chapter Feedback and Needs Review, followed by Breakout sessions.

Chapter Training included the following sessions:

  • Establishing the year’s plan

  • Higher Grade Recruitment & Student Recruitment/Best Practices

  • VTools

  • Pre-University STEM programs

  • Engaging Young Professionals - Best Practices

  • Mentoring Program

  • Volunteer Recruitment & Succession Planning

  • Chapter Funding

  • Internet for All

  • Sister Chapters Program and Student Branch Chapter matching

  • Distinguished Lecturers

  • Membership Development Cycle (Terminator/Half Year Dues, Student elevation cycle, Senior member elevation

Group photo. Participants: Raed Abdullah, Sana Abou-Shaaban, Pedro Aguilera, Wafeeq Ajoor, Wahab Almuhtadi, Nauman Aslam, Esmeralda Asurza, Kashif Bashir, Tuncer Baykas, Fawzi Behmann, Fredy Campos, Fabricio Carvalho, Sumit Chakravarty, Periklis Chatzimisios, Prashant Chugh, Paul Cotae, Kapal Dev, Gidy Flores, Luca Foschini, Ana Garcia Armada, Natalia Gaviria, Devon L. Gayle, Gustavo Giannattasio, Michele Girolami, Sandra Hidalgo, Larry Horner, Tao Huang, Umair Ahmed Korai, Pradeep Kumar, Doohwan Lee, Dan Lewis, Pascal Lorenz, T. S. N. Murthy, Andres Navarro, Aleksandar Neskovic, Alon Newton, Tamar Omer, Virginia Pilloni, Héctor Poveda, Diego José Rátiva Millán, Claudia Rivera, Yessica Saez, Luca Sanguinetti, Besma Smida, Reza Soleymani, Zafar Taqvi, Julia Upton, Julia Urbina-Pineda, Jesús Vázquez Bustos, Ricardo Veiga, Romeo Velarde, Newman Wilson, Zhensheng Zhang.

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