Region 4 Section Reports

1. Region 4 Section Reports 19. Red River Valley Section

2. Red River Valley Section Report IEEE Region 4 Meeting - Oct 16/17, 2004

3. Red River Valley Section Demographics • Total Members: 267 • Members 158 • Student members 67 • Senior members 16 • Life members 13 • Affiliates 13 • Meetings • Section meetings per year 6 or 7 • Format Dinner & talk and/or tour • Type 80/20 technical/PACE • Section vs Chapter Section Only • Excom meetings were by phone only • % quorum Excom meetings 80%

4. Red River Valley Section Demographics • Section Leadership for Red River Valley Section • Term: Calendar Year 2004 • Chair – Ken Lien, kenlien@prtel.com , 701-671-7682 office • Vice Chair – Jodi Bullinger, jbullinger@kwh.com, 701-356-4475 • Secretary/Treasurer – Saleh Faruque, saleh_faruque@mail.und.nodak.edu, 701-777-4428 office • Neighboring Sections • North: Canada • South: Siouxland • East: Arrowhead, Twin Cities • West: Missouri Slope • Joint Meetings Held with Neighboring Sections - None

5. Red River Valley Section Demographics • Section Organization • Subsections - None • Society Chapters - None • Affinity Groups - None • Student Branches/Joint Activity • NDSU Student Section (ND State Univ.) • UND Student Section (Univ. of ND) • No joint activity but we support student sections by: • providing opportunities to attend all IEEE Section Meetings @ 1/2 cost • providing financial support for student trips • holding a student presentation contest with cash prizes every April

6. Red River Valley Section Vitality • Meetings/attendance during the last year • Oct03 => Regional Transmission in the RRV by Jason Weiers and Ryan Retslaff, Ottertail Power Engineers/13 • Dec03 => Annual Meeting/Election of Officers/12 • Jan => Cellular Communication by Saleh Faruque, UND Professor/15 • Feb => Power Off Receptacle by Chris Skarie, CEO & President of Power Off Products/18 • Mar => Graduate Education in New Product Development by Richard Schultz, UND Professor/21 • Apr => Student Project Contest - 3 projects each from NDSU and UND/21

7. Red River Valley Section Vitality • Meetings/attendance during the last year • Sep => Distributed Generation by Brad Schmidt, Cass County Electric Engineer/20 • Oct => Tour of EERC (Energy & Environmental Research Center) at UND • Nov => Annual Meeting (election of Officers, budget, etc.)

8. Other Section Activities • PACE - • Hosted Internet Conference on topic of Wind Generation by Dennis Woodford, Chairman of IEEE HVDC and FACTS Subcommittee. Dennis is with the Electranix Corp. in Winnepeg, Manitoba. We received a lot of support from IEEE-Regional Activities - Attendees 22 • Membership Upgrades/2 • New This Year - Section Website

9. Successes/Best Practices • Providing a variety of programs for a diverse membership in a vast area where there are no society or affinity group meetings. • Providing a variety of meeting locations at 3 different sites • Fargo (80 Miles to GF, 60 to FF) • Grand Forks • Fergus Falls (its 140 Miles from GF)

10. Successes/Best Practices • We get good results when we get several people involved from across the entire region in planning meetings and other activities. • Because of the vast distances, we are good at organizing things by phone or e-mail.

11. Lessons Learned • Internet Conference was a success and provides us with an important option for future PACE activities. • 20% of the Internet Conference attendees did not attend a meeting in past year (more involvement). • Internet Conferences can be an avenue for continuing education in a rural area.

12. Lessons Learned • Members are very busy (Membership upgrades are difficult) • Engineers in our section see the section as an avenue to network with other engineers in the area.

13. Goals for Next Year • Initiate GOLD Group if feasible • Recruit more members • Identify Members for Grade Advancement • PACE and/or Internet Conference • Organize Interesting Programs

14. Goals for Next Year • Support Student Participation and the Student Sections • Increase Participation by Membership in planning Section Activities

15. Region 4 Could Most Help My Section By… • Continuing to provide lists of Distinguished Lecturers for conferences (PACE or Internet) • Communicating announcements of PACE activities in neighboring sections • Region & National Activities

16. Region 4 Could Most Help My Section By… • Since it was the first Internet Conference, R4 Regional Activities helped a lot. Future conferences would require an instruction manual if goal of less involvement from R4 is to be achieved. Technical help by a conferencing hosting group would still be needed.

17. SUMMARY • Our section covers a vast area about 250 miles across in both directions. • Providing services to members is, thus, very challenging • We find meeting and working with other engineers in our area to be very supportive to us in our profession.