In early September, VTS Chapters from all over the States and Canada converged to San Francisco for the VTS North American Region chapter chairs meeting.

Co-located with VTC 2011-Fall, this full day meeting was an opportunity for chapter chairs to network, exchange ideas and to report to the Society on their chapter's activities and best practices. It is the second of a series following the successful meeting held in 2009 in Chicago.

Several VTS Board members, including President Jae Hong Lee and Prof. Pingzhi Fan, Chair of the Beijing Chapter joined for a portion of the meeting.

Presentations from individual chapters lead to discussions about the Society's identity and branding, the nuts and bolts of successful chapter meetings or the recruitment of speakers. In this latter area the new VTS Distinguished Lecturer Programme was very well received as a source of high-quality speakers of international stature.

The meeting, hosted by the VTS Chapters Committee was also an opportunity for chapter chairs to learn about tools and resources available through IEEE to make their volunteering experience easier.

Among the concerns expressed by some of our chapter chairs is the difficulty to recruit new volunteer members to keep chapter activities going - so if you are interested in getting to know VTS members in your area and in participating in a unique leadership experience, you can simply contact your local chapter to volunteer some of your time.

Local chapter contacts can be found HERE.