Meeting Minutes

IEEE SA Section Executive Committee

Date:		May 19, 2004

Place:		KFUPM B-14, Conf Rm. 257-1

Time:		11:30 – 12:30 pm

Attendees:

Name	Organization	Contact 	
Nabil K. Al-Dabal	Chair, IEEE SA Sec. 	nabil.dabal@aramco.com 	
Dr. M. Deriche	Vice Chair, IEEE SA Section	mderiche@kfupm.edu.sa 	
Khalid Al-Fawaz	Treasurer, IEEE SA	kalfawaz@hotmail.com 	
Jaffar Ibrahim	Secretary, IEEE SA	Jaafar.ibrahim@aramco.com 	
Mohammed Al-Dhamen	Chair, Comms Society	dhamenmid@aramco.com.sa	
Dr. Samir Baiyat	Prev. Chair, IEEE SA	sbaiyat@kfupm.edu.sa 	
Dr. A. Al-Mulhim	Member, 2nd GCC Steering 	almulhem@kfupm.edu.sa 	
Dr. J. Bakhashwain	Chair, 2nd GCC Plenary 	jamilb@kfupm.edu.sa 	
Dr. M. Dawoud	Newsletter editor, IEEE SA	mmdawoud@kfupm.edu.sa	
Majid J. Al-Majid	Chair,  2nd GCC Finance 	Majid.majid.3@aramco.com 	
Hassan Al-Ahmed	Treasurer, Comm Society	Hassan.ahmed@aramco.com 	

Dr. Deriche started the meeting with addressing the update on newsletter progress, and the arrangements to recognize Prof. Asrar for the IEEE fellowship award. Nabil Al-Dabal, Chairman of the IEEE SA Section, joined the meeting and announced that the Engineering Management Society (EMS) is now approved. The EMS will be headed by Ahmad Al-Shwaiheen. Yet another society (Engineering Education) is being formed also and will be headed by Dr. Bakr Hassan. Therefore, need to suggest names from KFUPM to be officers for these societies. These officers shall be new, as much as possible, to avoid overloading the current officers. Action: Dr. Deriche to provide names from KFUPM for both societies.

Below are some of the society updates and the corresponding actions.

Comms Society:  Mohammed Al-Dhamen, chairman of the IEEE-SA comms society, provided an update on the society activities and events. Mohammed first provided an update on the organizing committee progress for 2nd GCC IEEE Conference to be held in Nov 23-24, 2004 in Bahrain. Many activities are ongoing for organization of this conference. Last week’s meeting focused on publicity and technical sub-committees progress (contact Hassan Al-Ahmed if you need this meeting minutes).  Also, the society will have two technical dinner meeting in June. The first one titled "Physical Infrastructure for Critical Networking & Datacenters" will be on June 7, 2004 at the Gulf Meridian Hotel. Nabil commended the chairman & members of the communications society for the great efforts and outstanding progress; and stated that this society is a model to be followed by other societies in the IEEE SA Section.
•	Mohammed Al-Dhamen to resend the invitation for the June 7 Technical Dinner Meeting to all; including other societies. Action: M.Dhamen.
•	Dr. Deriche to invite Dr. Lubna Al-Qasimi to participate with a presentation on e-government at the 2nd GCC IEEE Conference. Action: Dr. Deriche.

Finance: 
•	Khalid al-Fawaz requested a list of all people participated in 11th TEM from Aramco and SCECO. Mohammed Al-Dhamen confirmed that the Aramco list is now verified and duplicates/mistakes have been taken out. Action: M.Dhamen to send list of SCECO participants to Khalid Fawaz to get the payment from SCECO.
•	Need to have breakdown on the SR9K paid by Dr. I. Habeeballah for the local arrangements at the 11th TEM. Action: Dr. Jamil Bakhashwain.
•	The Section officers will post a deadline for receiving invoices on the 11th TEM expenses. All officers shall forward details of their expenses on the 11th TEM to Khalid Al-Fawaz.

Newsletter update: 
•	Dr. M. Daoud stated that he received input from two members only and there is a need for more input from all members. The target date for the first news letter is delayed from May 15 to Jun 15. Dr. Daoud to resend request for input through Nabil. Action: Dr. Daoud.
•	Jafar Ibrahim to provide an article on Comms Society activities. Action: Jafar
•	Dr. M.Daoud to coordinate with Region-8 newsletter editors to publish news about the IEEE SA section activities & events. Action: Dr. Daoud.

General: 
•	Nabil & Dr.Deriche encouraged the society chairs to meet and develop the plan of activities from now on for the next year. 
•	Majid Al-Majid provided a quick update on the meeting held to evaluate lessons learned and areas of improvement for the 11th TEM. These are summarized in attached list. 
•	Dr. Samir Al-Bayat Congratulated all involved in organizing the 11th TEM for the great success. He forwarded an appreciation letter from the KFUPM President to Nabil as the chairman of the 11th steering committee and the SA IEEE Section.
•	Nabil emphasized that this appreciation is really for all who participated in organizing this successful and fruitful event. This is a result of great efforts by all which made it possible to accomplish more than what was expected. There is great confidence within all of us now to go beyond Saudi Aramco and KFUPM boundaries and help provide the honorable exposure to our country.   
•	Nabil emphasized that we should start planning for next year from now rather than wait and press ourselves in the last few months before the TEM or conference events. 
•	There was a question to have one or two conferences per year for the section. Attendees decided to continue with TEM and the GCC conference on a yearly basis, as both are opportunities to bring knowledge and exposure to the country and region. Nabil encouraged that there should be even more conferences to be run by the different societies.
•	Nabil encouraged having members from Aramco, SCECO, KFUPM and other institutions in Saudi Arabia participate in the IEEE Standards Review Committees at the international level. Need to plug in members who are carefully selected in order to eventually lead the effort in region 8. Nabil recommends participating on corporate level, and the section will support in case of finance issue. Action: Majid Al-Majid to coordinate.
•	Nabil commended Rami Mushcab, IEEE SA IRO, for the excellent presentation delivered in the IEEE R-8 meeting in Poland last month. It was well received and showed that we are ahead of other countries in Region 8. The IEEE President was present and he too commended the IEEE SA Section. The IEEE HQ personnel requested a copy of the presentation. 
•	Dr. Deriche informed that he and Dr. Bakhashwain delivered two presentations at the Baha Technical College TEM. New IEEE members signed up as a result of this participation. The participation was commended by Nabil.

•	All Society chairs shall e-mail technical dinner invitations to all IEEE members in SA Section. Action: All Society Chairs to send invitation for technical dinner meetings through Jaafar or Thomas.

Next Meeting will be determined later and confirmed through e-mail.