June 22, 2006 at the The Enterprise Network (TEN)
Santa Clara Venture Accelerator 2953 Bunker Hill Lane, Suite 400
Santa Clara, CA 95054

Total Attendance: 24

GENERAL

President Ron Kane opened the meeting with introductions at 7:00 PM.

AGENDA

No Changes

MINUTES

No Changes

TREASURERS REPORT

Felicita Saiez gave the Treasurer’s Report in the absence of Treasurer Ed Kaminski. A detailed budget spreadsheet itemizing income and expenses was distributed to those present. We presently have just under $40,000 in all accounts and we finish the 2005/2006 Fiscal Year with approximately a $6,000 loss based on the budget estimate. The loss was attributed to the additional costs associated with the change in venue from SEMI to the Tech Museum for the Open House. An electronic copy of the detailed budget spreadsheet is available from Ed Kaminski at kipski @ prodigy.net upon request.

OLD BUSINESS

President


• Ron reported that we are still investigating insurance policies to protect the Officers and Board of Directors from liability.
• Ron reported that the Engineering Banquet is being planned for Friday, February 23, 2007 this fiscal year. Barbara is still negotiating contracts between the Hyatt and the Marriott, both on Great America Parkway in Santa Clara.
• AIChE Symposium Manesh reported that the AIChE Symposium was extremely successful. The AIChE will return $1800 to the SVEC as their share for the seed money provided up front.

  Vice-President
  No report.

NEW BUSINESS

• AISES Petition for Full Membership in the SVEC Renita Brien petitioned the Council for full membership of AISES in the SVEC. She introduced Mike Liu from NASA who is the current President of the AISES Chapter. Mike reported that AISES presently has a membership of about 20. They have had a membership as high as 30 in the past but like most of the professional organizations nationally, they too have had a decline in membership during the past few years. Ron stated that SVEC has a minimum membership requirement that’s greater than 20 members. He recommended that we waive the minimum membership requirement in this case before we vote on the petition for full membership.
  Motion to Waive Minimum Membership Requirement — Ron Second — Felicita
  Unanimously Approved Motion to Covert AISES from a Student Membership to a Full Membership — Ron Second — Manesh
  Unanimously Approved

  Elections
  

• Election of Officers and Board of Directors for FY2006/2007 Felicita Saiez handled the election duties in the absence of Nominations Committee Chair Richard Chung.
  • She verified that we did have a quorum present
  • She handed out the ballots to the society representatives present (10)
  • She opened the floor to nominations from those present (none)
  • She asked the candidates to stand and talk about their qualifications and make a policy statement:
    • Barbara Roberts, candidate for President, was not present.
    • Prasada Gogineni, candidate for Vice President, was not present but Rick Kwan spoke on his behalf.
    • Connie Fang, candidate for Secretary, spoke.
    • Ed Kaminski, candidate for Treasurer, was not present.
    • Dhaval Brahmbhatt, candidate for Board of Directors, spoke.
    • Elise Engelhardt, candidate for Board of Directors, spoke.
    • Jack Jew, candidate for Board of Directors, spoke.
    • KRS Murthy, candidate for Board of Directors, spoke.
    • Manesh Shah, candidate for Board of Directors, spoke.

  The following Officers and Board of Directors were elected:

• President — Barbara Roberts
• Vice President — Prasada Gogineni
• Secretary — Connie Fang
• Treasurer — Ed Kaminski
• Board of Directors:
  Dhaval Brahmbhatt
  Elise Engelhardt
  KRS Murthy
  Manesh Shah
  

• Open Discussion — Drop in Professional Society Membership
  • Ron stated that IEEE SFBAC membership is down.
  • Manesh stated that AIChE is down from 1500 to 900 locally. They started a program whereby you can become a local member for 2 years for $30/yr. and then become a national member for $200/yr. They also offer free events for students.
  • Steve Sherman stated the ASCE is bucking the trend and is actually growing.
  • Lee Colby stated that he attended an ASME luncheon recently in which it was stated that the ASME Auxiliary gives out $2M in scholarships each year.
  • Rick Kwan stated that the AIAA had about 1200-1350 members about 5 years ago but now they’re down to about 1100. He thought is was probably due to the downsizing in the aerospace industry locally, mostly in the Mountain View and Sunnyvale areas.
  • Felicita stated that Ohlone College eliminated their associates Degree Program in Engineering recently. The Dean of Engineering saved it by integrating it into the School of Technology. The Dean is trying to leverage the program off the robotics craze among young folks today.
  • Steve Sherman stated that SFSU almost lost their entire engineering program and they could not even find one graduate of the program to step up and support it. Do you wonder why universities want to eliminate their engineering programs?
  • Rendee stated that Mission College is emphasizing their robotics and environmental studies programs which are big with students today.

  Society Announcements
  

• Nanotechnology — See website for next event.
• IEEE — next Section Meeting, Wednesday, September 6th at Cogswell College.
• AIChE — No Announcements.
• ASME — No Announcements.
• AIAA — No Announcements.
• SAMPE — No Announcements
• CETA — No Announcements.
• SEMI — No Announcements.
• SVEC — Engineering Banquet, February 23, 2007.
• SME — No Announcements.
• SWE — No Announcements.
• ASMI — No Announcements.
• CSPE — No Announcements.

  Motion to Adjourn the Meeting: Ron
  Second: Manesh
  Meeting Adjourned at 8:35 PM

NEXT COUNCIL MEETING
Tentatively: September 28th at TEN.

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