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Over these two years, the combined efforts of the volunteers on the IEEE VTS Board have been geared toward increasing the value for you to be a VTS member.
We have formed new
chapters—so much so that the formation of our Spain chapter, which is imminent
at the time of writing, will mark the birth of our 50th chapter!
Chapters are the lifeblood of our community all over the world.
Having 50
chapters means that nearly 60% of our members can now participate in
activities organized locally by dedicated VTS volunteers, from seminars by our
Distinguished Lecturers to networking and professional development events.
We have also
created support for our chapters to innovate, through a new project funding
mechanism that allows chapters to develop new local initiatives to better serve
you.
We have created the
VTS Resource Center—an online repository of meaningful tutorials and industry
speeches that touch upon every aspect of our field of interest. Not only did we create this Resource Center,
we also populated it with over 150 such videos, which are all free to access
for our members.
At a time when
overall IEEE membership and IEEE Society membership are going down by 1.5% per
year, VTS membership has been growing by 3.5% in the last year; it is very
reassuring to see that the VTS field is strong and growing and that you, our
members, find it important to stay connected with the society and what we are
trying to offer to our community.
As you can read
between the lines, I am leaving my role of VP Membership Development with a bit
of a heavy heart but also a sense that we have been able, as a Society, to
better meet your needs as members. I am also ending my term with the reassuring
feeling that our members are in good hands with Richard Yu taking over as the
new VP (Membership Development in 2018.
As always, if you have any comments or suggestions about
your membership in VTS, you should always feel free to reach out directly to me
at fabrice.labeau@ieee.org.
I am leaving my position of VP at the end of 2017, but I am
definitely not leaving VTS, so I am looking forward to meeting you all at our
next VTC in Porto! | 
;){kind=small}
