Chapter Activities

To better serve the needs for technical interaction of its global membership CSS has established a number of chapters in various parts of the world. These chapters provide resources and opportunities for control engineers from a particular geographical area, thus complementing the several CSS activities that have an international scope.

Chapters have considerable autonomy in their operation. Among the popular activities are the following:

• Holding regular meetings allowing members to meet each other and network.
• Contributing and disseminating "best practices." Dissemination can be done via a Web site, for example, thereby allowing interchapter information sharing.
• Facilitating academic/industry collaboration and soliciting local government/academic support of chapter activities.
• Creating and maintaining a chapter meeting database/speakers bureau with the names of speakers, topics, and other searchable data.
• Organizing joint meetings between chapters and other entities, such as national societies outside the U.S., chapters from other IEEE societies, and other proximate CSS chapters.
• Identifying technical needs of chapter members through survey and interviews.
• Arranging seminars by high-profile speakers on topics of broad interest.

CSS can provide financial assistance for several types of chapter activities. We note two examples here:

• The "Local Area Support System" (LASS) program provides support for a maximum of one event per local chapter per year by offsetting justifiable expenses incurred by the organizers to a maximum of U.S. $1,000 per event. Approval for such events must be granted by the Vice President for Member Activities prior to the event.
• Through the Distinguished Lecturer program, a local chapter and CSS share reimbursement of travel expenses incurred by a lecturer invited by the chapter. CSS can reimburse a maximum of U.S. $1000 for travel within a continent and U.S. $2,000 for intercontinental travel, subject to approval by the Vice President for Member Activities.

A list of CSS chapters is available, sorted by IEEE Region, with names and contact information for chapter chairs included. CSS members interested in participating in the activities of chapters in their areas are encouraged to contact the respective chairs.