| | | | 1. An eventful year 2010-11, Creating New Records: We are approaching completion of the year 2010-12, which has indeed been an eventful year. We acquired new HQ premises at Mumbai, formalized new national/international collaboration, revived many of past best practices and created avenues for new service offerings. Our membership increased from 46,913 (31st March 2010) to 63,493 (31st January 2011) - an increase by 35%, the highest ever membership count and percentage increase in the history of CSI. We have had over 50 programmes (at the state/regional/national/international level) during the year– i.e. almost one event per week. The 46th CSI Annual Convention attracted huge number of participants, resource persons and event sponsors. The CONSEG series completed its 20 years in Bangalore, since its launch in the year 1991. As we begin compiling the annual report of 2010-11 and prepare ourselves to plan for the year 2011-12, the chapters and other entities are requested to submit their event reports and action plans. An appeal for this purpose is available on our CSI website at http://csi-india.org/c/journal/view_article_content?groupId=11302&articleId=922392&version=1.0
2. Special drive for enrolling PG Scholars as CSI Associate Members: With a view of creating the next-generation membership base of CSI and mentoring young researchers, a special drive for enrolling postgraduate scholars (including research scholars) as CSI Associate Members has been proposed across India. These associate members and new college graduates joining CSI will be assigned mentors from the vast pool of senior members of CSI. These new members will also have an opportunity to work/ interact with the IFIP TC Representatives and Hon. Research Directors nominated by the CSI President as well as join/form CSI Special Interest Groups in emerging technological domains. These members will also be encouraged to contribute technical papers, articles, case studies and project outcomes in various CSI Publications. There is also a proposal under consideration for PG/Research Fellowships.
3. Chapters and Members Development: The CSI Chapters along with Student Branches and Institutional and Individual Members are the real torch bearers of CSI Programmes and Activities across India – striving to cater to the ICT needs of the stakeholders and public at large. The Productivity, Quality and Reach of CSI programmes and service offering entirely depends on the Chapters and members in a given geographical area and user sector. The voluntary services of members and pluralistic spirit of CSI have made it possible to grow from 14 founding members in 1965 to more than 63,000 strong members’ professional society today. There is a need to further strengthen the chapters as the centers of excellence in ICT profession and the members themselves as distinguished ICT professionals. A call for volunteers is available on CSI website at http://csi-india.org/c/journal/view_article_content?groupId=11302&articleId=922411&version=1.0
4. Joint Programmes with CSI Partners: It is a matter of pride that CSI’s collaboration/ interaction with international/national professional societies and other organizations such as- IFIP, SEARCC, IEEE, PMI, ECI, IE(I), IETE, CDAC, DOEACC, eWIT and Microsoft Corporation - has reached a new zenith. A few more such initiatives are in pipeline. The Chapters, Student Branches and members at large are requested to take this collaboration/interaction forward through joint programmes and activities at various levels and locations. The specific proposals for joint programmes may be sent to director.edu@csi-india.org with cc to vp@csi-india.org.
5. Strengthening Divisional, SIG and Collaborative Activities: As per the CSI Constitution and Byelaws, the technical areas and topics of special interests have been grouped into Five Divisions and many SIGs. It is highly desirable that the CSI Divisions and SIGs draw strength from and associate with the programmes/ activities of IFIP, IEEE, SEARCC and other national/international organizations. There is an urgent need to strengthen functioning of these entities using voluntary services of CSI members, which are themselves a vital reservoir of knowledge and skills. A call for Volunteers is available at CSI website http://csi-india.org/c/journal/view_article_content?groupId=11302&articleId=922400&version=1.0
6. School Student Outreach Programmes: CSI has created a niche for itself among the engineering college students by providing professional development opportunities to students through its student branches. The Society, a founding member of SEARCC, has also been reaching out to the School students in the South-East Asian region through the SEARCC International School Software Competitions. In order to reach out to a larger section of students, the 1st CSI National ICT & Science Quiz programme has been concluded successfully after several regional rounds of the programme.
7. Excellence Awards for Academia and R&D: There have been a few suggestions from senior members and eminent personalities for instituting excellence awards to recognize the significant contribution of members in education and research. At this juncture, an overwhelming majority of the CSI members belong to these sectors. Moreover, it is also essential to enhance the visibility and reach of their contributions – which would surely motivate many other members. In fact, a few of CSI partner societies already have instituted such awards long ago. Further suggestions regarding this may be sent by e-mail to director.edu@csi-india.org with cc to secretary@csi-india.org.
8. Formation of New Chapters: Based on the interaction among the membership committee members, fellow and senior members across India, an achievable target has been suggested as 100 chapters, 1000 student branches and 1,00,000 members – within next 5 years. In fact, we must aim reaching this target before hosting of our 50th CSI Annual Convention at Hyderabad in 2014. Many suggestions have also been received for opening New Chapters immediately - in the unrepresented regions and states, thereby reaching the un-reached. The strategically important suggestions are about forming (a) the D (District) level CSI Chapters even with 50 members (of any categories) and up to 75 members (b) the E (Entry/ Exploratory) level CSI Chapters with as little as 15 members and up to 50 members. These suggestions may be worthwhile, considering that about 15 out 35 Indian states and union territories have either insignificant or no presence of CSI programmes and members. Further, there are suggestions towards creating manageable and lean chapters from the existing mega chapters- thus enhancing accessibility of CSI programmes to a much larger segment of the society. Further suggestions and strategies may be sent by e-mail to secretary@csi-india.org for compiling these suggestions and for subsequent discussion in the ExecCom.
9. Regional Meets, Chapter and Institutional Visits: The Office Bearers and Regional Vice Presidents will be planning shortly for the regional meets, chapter and institutional visits for the purpose of stock taking, activities planning, resource allocation and budgetary purposes. Any specific suggestions and proposals from the chapters, student branches and member institutions may be sent by e-mail to president@csi-india.org with cc to secretary@csi-india.org.
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Prof. H R Vishwakarma
Hon. Secretary, Computer Society of India
E-mail: secretary@csi-india.org
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