ExecCom Transacts November 2011
1. Call for Action Plans of 2012-13 and remainder of 2011-12: The President Mr. M.D. Agrawal has appreciated the contributions of the members across India and their elected representatives at various levels. With a view to prepare action plans for the year 2012-13 and the remainder of 2011-12, the President and ExecCom have called for specific proposals (including programmes- tentative dates, hosts/venues, expected outcomes and resources requirements) from chapters, student branches and members at large. The proposals can be submitted by e-mail to hq@csi-india.org with cc to secretary@csi-india.org. The proposals after compilation and scrutiny will be submitted by the HQ to the President and Vice President for their perusal and subsequent discussion by the ExecCom.
2. Conference Management: The CSI Vice President and Chairmain, Conference Committee Mr. Satish Babu has strived to formulate/revise conference management guidelines for CSI programmes such as conferences, seminars and other events. Apart from providing guidance in hosting programmes/events, he drafted a comprehensive set of software requirement specifications for conference management system. He presented the revised conference manual and general guidelines during the ExecCom meeting held during 23-24 July 2011. The same were approved by the ExecCom.
3. Appointment of Chief Operating Officer at HQ Mumbai: The ExecCom in its meeting held during 23-24 July in Bangalore authorized the President and Office Bearers to identify and appoint a senior professional for the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) to strengthen the operations and managerial responsibilities of the society and execute various plans and schemes for meeting objectives and mission of CSI. Mr. Deepak Agnihotri was selected out of 6 candidates who attended the interviews on 10th September 2011 whose appointment was approved by the Execom through conference call held on 3rd Oct 2011. Mr. Agnihotri joined CSI and reported for duty on 18th October 2011. Apart from the general administration of HQ at Mumbai and impart guidance to staff for effective service to the regions, chapters, members and other constituents, the immediate priorities for Mr. Deepak Agnihori would be to increase institutional membership base from the Business, Industry and Government sectors, at least 200 institutional members within 6 months.
4. Financial Management: Mr. V L Mehta, Hon. Treasurer presented the revised Budget 2011-12 for HQ Mumbai and Education Directorate Chennai during the ExecCom meeting held on 23rd & 24th July at Bangalore. The ExecCom discussed and debated on the Budget proposals presented by Mr. Mehta and later on approved them with a review in the next ExecCom meeting during the 46th CSI Annual Convention at Ahmedabad.
5. Education & Research: Several new initiatives for promoting education and research activities are being taken up for implementation by the Director-Education under the guidance of Prof. P. Thrimurthy, the Immediate President and Chairman, Academic Committee. With regard to the revenue generation, the Education Directorate has almost reached the set target for the year 2011-12. Mr. Ranga Rajagopal, National Student Coordinator, Prof. Mini Ulanat, National Skill Development Convener and Wg Cdr Murugesan, Director-Education have been able to reach out to more than 1000 potential colleges across India.
6. Regional Conferences, State IT Conventions and Chapters Level Activities: It is noteworthy that every Indian region, state and territory occupies a unique position in terms of its vision and mission, roadmap, growth potential, infrastructural and human resources, grass-root level ICT needs, frameworks and policies for governance of public and private sector. As such, the Regional Conferences, State IT Conventions and Chapters level activities are to be strengthened. The Regional Vice Presidents and Hon. Secretary have been working hard to reach out to several potential chapters and institutional members across India. For the current year, four regional conferences are being proposed for hosting hosted at Dehradun, Bhubneshwar, Nasik and Puduchery. A generic framework and guidelines for hosting State IT Conventions were proposed by the Hon. Secretary and a few of these conventions were hosted during 2010-11 for the first time. Several chapters are planning to host these conventions during 2011-12 and 2012-13. A few chapters could be hosting the chapter level annual conventions – a step beyond the Annual General-body Meetings. The Hon. Secretary and the membership committee members have received several suggestions from members at large – for building an Ecosystem for chapters, especially for the tier-II and tier-III cities. The collated set of suggestions and recommendations will be discussed during the National Council Meeting, 1-3 December 2011 at Ahmedabad.
7. Divisional Conferences, SIG and IFIP Activities: CSI Divisional Chairpersons presented the activities report and action plan during the ExecCom meeting held on 23rd and 24th July 2011 which were approved by the ExecCom. Mr. Satish Babu, Vice President and Chairman, Conference Committee Reviewed SIG functioning and emphasized on collaborative model for Divisional, SIG and IFIP programmes.
8. Student Conventions and Skill Development: Mr. Ranga Rajagopal, National Student Coordinator (NSC) outlined several student-specific programmes and initiatives like Quiz Programmes, National, Regional and State Student Conventions etc. The President Mr. M.D. Agrawal appreciated the initiatives proposed by the NSC and the Execcom approved financial support/grants as proposed.
9. Publications: Mr. S Mahalingam, Chairman and Prof. S V Raghavan Executive Editor of CSI Publications are working towards completion of documentation with Registrar of Companies. The simultaneous follow ups are being made on Editorial Boards and Springer to expedite the process for selection of papers/articles for publishing. Launched in April 2010, The CSI Newsletter edited by Mr. H.R. Mohan has become one of most important value add to our members of all categories. Whereas, the Education Directorate, Chennai launched an exclusive publication CSI Whizkidd (http://www.csi-india.org/whizkidd) for our student members in June 2011. There has been good feed back and appreciation from the student community to this new publication of CSI.”
Prof. H R Vishwakarma
Hon. Secretary, Computer Society of India
secretary@csi-india.org