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From: "Howard L. Funk" 
Reply-To: "Howard L. Funk" 
To: Internauts:;
Subject: Introduction
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1993 15:00:20 -0400
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Message-Id: <9307011459.aa22328@CNRI.Reston.VA.US>


All,

I am delighted to have the opportunity to serve ISOC as interim Executive
Director, thereby filling the gap left by Mike Roberts' resignation,
until such time as the Search Committee and the Board of Trustees have
completed their selection process for a permanent Executive Director.

Professional society participation has been an important part of my life
since my undergraduate days at Washington University, where I served as
vice-president and president of the student chapter of the AIEE, the
precursor, along with the IRE, of the IEEE, for which organization I have
since reviewed papers. Currently, I am a vice-president of IFIP with
special responsibilities for marketing and conferences. I still serve
on their Finance Committee and Activities Management Board.

I have been a member of the long-range planning committee for the
Imaging Science and Technology Society (formerly the Society for
Photographic Scientists and Engineers) and of the advisory committee of
their conferences, which I also served as program chair and
general chair.

For the Society for Information Display's conferences, I sat on the
executive committee and served as chair for seminars, best-paper awards,
and programs, and acted as general chair. I also wrote a regular monthly
column as their contributing editor and served for the past six years as
SID director, a position from which I have just resigned to allow me to
devote the maximum amount of time to ISOC. In addition, I have served
the American Federation of Information Processing Societies as director,
chair of government relations committee, vice-president, and president.

In most of the above positions, I have had experience with publications
and exhibitions and participated in the hiring process of several
executive directors. For SID, the innovation of which I am most proud
is the development of a new organizational structure. My objective to
make SID a truly international society was realized by creating the
positions of regional vice-presidents, which significantly broadened
the representation of the society's governance.

My trade association experience has been limited. I chaired a standards'
committee for the Electronics Industries Association, and I have been a
contributor to the Computer Systems Policy Project in Washington, an
active promoter of the NII and the HPCC initiatives.

My many years of experience in industry includes some significant
technical achievements in data communications. The experience of most
value to ISOC will be my management experience at IBM, which spanned 25
of those years. I have managed budgets and projects valued up to
$50,000,000 and worked intimately with several corporate vice-presidents
and division presidents. My international experience includes a
4-1/2-year assignment to the IBM headquarters in Paris and the successful
transfer of technology to Japan in the course of 18 trips to that
country.

Several trustees have commented in this forum about the role of the
Executive Director. Many of those comments echo my own sentiments. I
would like to share some of my views with you about the role of the
Executive Director as well as what I see as some of ISOC's possible
short- and long-range objectives. The Executive Director is a servant
of the Board of Trustees, having operational responsibility for the
conduct of the society, providing continuity for its operation, and,
when appropriate, serving as its spokesperson. The Executive Director
implements activities, policies, and procedures approved by the Board
and often recommends such actions. The Executive Director keeps the
Board informed of significant potential impacts on their fiscal and
program plans as well as of external factors that may have an effect on
the society. To enhance my effectiveness as your interim Executive
Director, I have just joined the American Society of Association
Executives to benefit from the 'networking' with other members of the
Executive Director community and the myriad of information services
offered by the ASAE.

For ISOC to realize its growth opportunities, it is important to develop
programs to interest a more general audience, such as users, and to
develop a wide range of membership services. One of the ideas that have
come to mind is to negotiate discounts for ISOC members with providers of
Internet connectivity. To help achieve growth, before signing on and with
Vint Cerf's approval, I have made arrangements for the ISOC membership
form to be bound in the new editions of 'The Internet Companion' and 'The
Internet Navigator.' I have just received confirmation from O'Reilly
Associates that they will provide a similar service.

For the present, the Washington area location for the ISOC headquarters
seems to be a good choice, particularly because of the current U.S.
administration's interest in the communication's infrastructure.
The Society is now too small to have multiple offices; however, I
believe that it has an enormous growth potential, which will in the
future create a need for a larger staff and geographically
dispersed offices.

The Society is currently dependent upon corporate and other donations. I
would like to see the balance shift to ISOC's generating more revenue via
conferences, exhibitions, advertising, and dues. However, since we are
still highly dependent upon external sources, I have been working with
Vint on proposals to improve our marketing to potential financial
supporters. These proposals will be further discussed at our meetings
in August.

Needless to say, your suggestions for activities, membership services,
and other areas will be welcome. I'd like nothing better than to
build a backlog of programs for implementation as permitted by resource
availability.

I look forward to working with you and meeting you in San Francisco.

Howard Funk

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