[802SEC] We need a staff
I never proposed that we have some one else write our
rules for us. Where did this notion come from?
Please put that thought aside.
What I am proposing is that we hire some one to
act as the administrator for the LMSC, and by this
I mean some one who has skills and responsibilities
similar to those of the administrators who assist
the SASB and it's committees. These people are not
merely clerks or secretaries. They provide organization
and follow through for the decisions and actions
of the committee.
The individual will have a bachelor's degree, though
not necessarily in a technical field. The individual
will have experience in secretarial and administrative
work, and be adept with office automation tools. The
individual will receive training in governance and process
matters from the IEEE-SA staff.
This person would not write our rules for us. Rather,
they would organize and track rules changes and other
matters, allowing us to carry out our business in a
more efficient fashion, and unburdening our volunteers
from grunt work. Frankly, I think that it is a waste
of our resources to have our Vice Chairs doing an
administrator's job. That model may have been suitable
back when we were a couple of hundred people doing
a handful of projects, but now that we are over a
thousand people doing dozens of projects, the model
no longer makes sense, and it's time for us to retain
the resources that will allow us to keep up with
the volume of work and run an efficient organization.
As to logistics and cost, I would recommend that this
person actually be employed by the IEEE, and not by
the SEC. We would not be responsible for the entire
cost of this individual on a full time basis. Rather,
we would receive a guaranteed percentage of this
person's time, and be responsible for paying the
same percentage of their burdened salary & expenses.
Note that the services provided by this person are
above and beyond the services normally provided to
sponsors by the IEEE-SA. I also think that this
arrangement will result in closer cooperation between
the LMSC and the IEEE-SA staff. For instance, if
the LMSC administrator is responsible for project
status tracking, they will be able to feed this
information directly to the appropriate resources
among the other IEEE-SA staff (e.g. balloting,
editorial, governance).
I am not trying to put any of our volunteers out
of an (unpaid) job. Rather, I am hoping to apply
our resources in the most effective and efficient
manner. Highly trained, experienced senior engineers
should not be buried under a mound of administrivia.
They should be able to devote their volunteer efforts
to providing guidance and direction to the work of
the LMSC.
Howard Frazier