Reengineering the IEEE-USA policy organization

Members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that reside in the US have funded IEEE-USA, an organization with mandatory membership fees that are included in the annual IEEE membership dues. Supporting the development of national policies that serve the special interests of IEEE-USA members has been one of the responsibilities of IEEE-USA. The policy proposals developed by IEEE-USA are formulated by committees composed of US technical representatives from the various technical societies that make-up the overall international component of IEEE. The author proposes to reorganize IEEE-USA so that the Washington, DC office is retained to provide an interface with the President and the Congress, but the current policy committees would be restructured. The author also recommends changing the goals of IEEE-USA from supporting member interests to providing the costs and benefits of various policy alternatives of interest to IEEE-USA members. Finally, policy analysis and synthesis by IEEE USA committees would be published in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and other IEEE journals in parallel with their distribution to Congress and the President. Funding support for IEEE-USA would be retained as a condition of membership for US members.