Radio Communications Committee (RCC)

IEEE Communication Society Technical Committee

Policies and Procedures (P&P)

(Version 9, approved at the RCC meeting held in Kansas City, USA, May 23, ICC 2018)

1) Membership Requirements
Anybody can be a member of the Radio Communications Committee (RCC, it is noted that in the text followed we shall use TC in short to represent the RCC). To become a member it is necessary to subscribe to the TC mailing list as specified on the TC Web page. A member becomes an active member if he/she has attended (physically present or by teleconference) two or more of the prior five regular scheduled TC meetings or has provided significant service to the TC defined as follows: served as past Officer of the TC; served as TC representative for IEEE Communications Society’s flagship conferences (ICC and Globecom); and have been recipient of this TC award. The TC Secretary shall maintain both an attendance list for each of such meetings and a list of Active Members. All meetings of the TC are open.

2) Definition of Elected and Appointed Officer Positions
The committee has three elected officers: Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary. The term of each position is for two years. The Chair reports directly to the Vice President of Technical Activities (VP-TA), in accordance with the ComSoc Bylaws. The Chair represents TC to the Technical Activities Council (TAC), and to any ComSoc committee or board, and provides endorsement for technical conferences that require technical co-sponsorship to ComSoc. The Vice-Chair supports the Chair and takes responsibility of the Chair in his/her absence. The Secretary will take care of membership list and keep meeting documents and meeting minutes.
If a TC officer position becomes vacant before normal conclusion of his/her term, the remaining term shall be filled by special election of the TC. If such a special election is not held before or during the next regularly scheduled meeting, the VP–TA, in consultation with the President, shall appoint someone to serve the remaining term. The positions filled shall be for completion of the interrupted term. At the discretion of the TC, there may be additional elected or appointed (non-officer) positions. In no case shall there be more than eight elected officers; there may be as many appointed positions as necessary for proper operation of the TC.

3) Nomination and Election Policies and Procedures

Term: The nominal term for Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary shall be two years. Any officer can be elected to the same position for one additional, contiguous term (i.e., continuously serve in any particular officer position for a maximum of four years). TC officers can be elected to a different officer position, but in no case shall one person continuously serve as a TC officer within the same TC for more than eight consecutive years.

Nomination: To facilitate the election of new officers, the TC establishes an ad-hoc Nomination and Election (N&E) Committee, made up of Active Members of the TC. The N&E Committee consists of past chairs and other TC members assigned by the current TC Chair and the number of the N&E Committee members should be from three to five. The N&E Committee is chaired by the current TC Chair. The purpose of the N&E Committee is to offer candidate names for officer positions. It is desirable that the N&E Committee identifies at least two candidates for each officer position.
The N&E shall collect nominations of individuals for the officer positions who are Active Members of the TC and who have consented to the nomination and have indicated a willingness to serve if elected. Once a slate of candidates has been identified, biographies of the candidates will be made available to all N&E Committee members for review. The N&E Committee will then meet (either in person, by teleconference, or through email) to select a single nominee for each officer position. The N&E committee will select that nominee by vote. In the case of two candidates, a simple majority vote will be used. In the case of three or more candidates, a first vote will determine the top two candidates followed by a second vote (simple majority) to select between only those two. The N&E Committee will then announce its candidate for the Chair through the TC mailing list at least two weeks before the election is to take place at the general TC meeting.

Election: The election of a new chair is to be administered by the TC Chair and is to take place at a general meeting of the TC (normally during Globecom). In the event that the current TC Chair has been nominated to continue in that position, then the election will be administered by the Vice-Chair. The Chair of the N&E Committee will present its nominees to the members present at the general meeting. At that time, nominations will also be accepted from the floor. Any nominees brought forth at the meeting must meet the criteria for holding the officer positions. That is, they must be Active Members of the TC who have consented to the nomination and have indicated a willingness to serve if elected. All nominees must be present at the TC meeting where the election occurs. It is desirable that extemporaneous, from-the-floor nominations, receive support from three or more members at the meeting.

Voting: TC elections shall be administered by the TC Chair, or in his/her absence, any other elected officer. To vote, one must be an Active Member of the TC and must be present at the TC meeting. In the case of two candidates for a position, election is by simple majority. For the case of more than two candidates, selection proceeds through a series of elections: at each stage, the individual garnering the fewest votes is eliminated, until only two remain. In the event of a tie, votes shall again be cast until the tie is broken. If that is not possible, the TC person who is running the election shall cast a tie-breaking vote.
Voting will be conducted through a simple show of hands unless a secrete ballot is requested. Votes will be counted by at least one officer of the TC and any other member (officer or not). A record of votes cast must be retained for post-election audit purposes.

Post Election: A TC officer shall keep a list of the members who attended the meeting as well as a tally of the votes cast. An officer shall report via email the results of the election and the appointments of the new officers to the TC membership, the VP-TA, the Secretary of the Technical Activities Council, and ComSoc headquarters. The new officers will take office on January 1 following the election at the Globecom meeting (typically in late November or early December).

4) Conducting TC Meetings
Meetings are usually scheduled during ICC/Globecom, twice a year. Meetings are open to any conference attendee. The meetings are advertised at least six months in advance on the web and again via the email list shortly before ICC/Globecom.
The TC Chair or a designated substitute, typically another TC officer, will chair meetings. Any TC member can suggest items for the agenda. The TC secretary will takes the minutes. These minutes should be made available within one month of the meeting. Their availability is announced on the TC mailing list. Minutes are posted on the TC Web page and are open to public. Should voting occur at the TC meeting, only Members physically present or attending by teleconference have voting rights, and simple majority rules applies. If voting involves changes to the Policies and Procedures (P&P), then a two thirds majority of Members physically present or attending by teleconference is required.

5) Maintaining Membership List
The TC Secretary maintains the RCC TC membership list. Entries in the list are generated from two primary sources: 1) the attendance sign-in list at TC meetings at ICC and Globecom conferences, 2) e-mail received from links at the TC web page. The TC does not actively protect privacy since the membership list is available to all at the TC web page. Anyone who does not wish to have his or her information listed on the web site may have it removed promptly by notifying the TC Secretary. Updates to the list are generated mainly by the same method as the initial entries. Periodically the TC Secretary may request assistance from IEEE ComSoc staff to update e-mail addresses through IEEE membership records.

6) Supporting Activities
As appropriate, the TC will be active in all of ComSoc’s activities. This will include ComSoc conferences (such as ICC, GLOBECOM, WCNC, INFOCOM and MILCOM, etc.) by providing representatives to their respective Technical Program Committees, by providing for professional review of submitted papers (by soliciting such assistance from among its membership) and by organizing mini-conferences, symposia, panels, short courses, tutorials, etc., as deemed appropriate by the Society and the TC. Furthermore, the TC can individually organize workshops and conferences. Also, because of the broad nature of committee activities, collaborative sessions with other committees will be sponsored and heartily encouraged. As new technologies and application areas emerge, a TC will seek to address aspects of these topics relative to its charter, and work with both the Strategic Planning Committee and Emerging Technologies Committee.
The TC will further support ComSoc journals, magazines, and standards activities by soliciting volunteers as authors and editors, submitting proposals, and identifying committee members from its membership. The TC will seek ways to increase active participation of its members in information exchange related to the charter of the TC, such as: stimulating Feature Topics and Special Issues of ComSoc journals and magazines; and sponsoring workshops, tutorials, short courses, panel sessions, etc.
The TC shall also be actively involved with various IEEE standard activities. All members are encouraged to participate the IEEE standard activties. If a TC member needs any further information about the IEEE standard activties, he/she could contact the officers of the TC.
The recognition and proposal of candidates for ComSoc and IEEE Best paper and Career Awards nominations, as well as distinguished lecturer candidates, and candidates for the election to Senior Member and Fellow degrees is also part of the RCC activities.

7) Budget and Expenses
Any officer shall make a proposal for an expense when he or she thinks that the TC needs budget to accomplish its mission. The proposal should contain sufficient detail about the activity for which funds are sought and justification for funds being requested. If the proposal was seconded then the TC Chair solicits discussions among TC members. Such discussion can also be carried out via the TC’s email list. If there is no objection, the proposal will pass the TC discussions. If there is any objection, TC members vote and simple majority is adopted as a policy of decision. If the TC agrees to the proposal, it will be submitted to the VP-TA for his/her approval. If approved, funds will be used in accord with ComSoc procedures. The Secretary of the TC will maintain a record of expenses. Invoices are sent to the VP-TA for approval, and then to ComSoc headquarters for payment or reimbursement. Expenses will normally be incurred for maintaining the TC’s information infrastructure (e.g., volunteer maintenance of its website) or showing appreciation for volunteer support. Recognition will not include awarding money, nor are TC funds to be used for travel purposes.

8) Procedures for Internal TC Awards
As a part of the TC activities, the Technical Recognition Award, the Outstanding Service Award, and the Early Achievement Award, are established to recognize those ComSoc members who, respectively, have made their significant contributions to the radio communications technological advancement, have distinguished record of service to the TC, and have achieved early career visibility in the field through research and service. Each award will be announced and given once a year during the IEEE ICC and Globecom conferences.
Nominations will be solicited by e-mails from the TC members. All nominations must be sent to the TC Secretary. The applications can be from individual researchers on a self-nomination basis, or nominations by other people or research groups. The nomination should include a concise description of the candidate’s accomplishments as related to the TC. The nominations cannot be from the members of the TC Awards Committee. No TC Awards Committee members can be nominated while they are in their service. The TC Awards Committee consists of the TC officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary) and two other TC members nominated by the TC Chair, and amongst all received nominated candidates the TC Award Committee will make the final decisions for the RCC Outstanding Service Award, RCC Technical Recognition Award, and RCC Early Achievement Award, each year.

9) Information Dissemination Activities
The TC will maintain an Internet Web page at
http://www.comsoc.org/socstr/org/operation/techcom/radio.html.
The secretary or other designated member maintains it. This Web page will be accessible from the main ComSoc Web page. Announcements distributed to the TC’s membership, notably meeting agendas and meeting minutes, opportunities for membership participation in TC sponsored activities, as well as election-related issues, will be made available on their Web page. The TC will also provide at least one email exploder as an alternative for timely dissemination of information, and to welcome useful information from others.