The reality is that our government will impact an engineer’s career and this impact can be positive or negative, yet few of us take any time other than voting to influence this process. Learn how you can influence your government to protect and enhance your profession and career prospects, with little effort and maximum impact.

Our elected leaders vote on legislation that will affect engineers all the time. For example, in 2007 the U.S. Congress voted on legislation that would:

• Dramatically increase federal spending on basic research,
• Create new scholarship programs for engineering students,
• Invest in alternative energy sources,
• Expand high-skilled immigration,
• Reform the patent system, and
• Expand and restrict NASA’s manned mission to Mars (in the same bill.)

IEEE-USA Legislative Representative Russ Harrison will be here to explain how Legislators decide which way to vote on issues, and which communications they listen the most to. Then we will discuss ways that we can influence these decisions before the bills become law. Time permitting, we will discuss these and other pieces of federal legislation that could affect you, your career, your profession, and other things that Congress is trying to do for science and engineering.

Speaker:

Russell Harrison is the Legislative Representative for Grassroots Activities for IEEE-USA. In this capacity, he is responsible for helping members of IEEE-USA interact with, and ultimately influence, elected officials.

Prior to joining IEEE-USA, Mr. Harrison directed grassroots programs at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries and the American Iron and Steel Institute. During his tenure, he actively raised campaign contributions through both of the associations’ political action committees. Mr. Harrison also represented the recycling and steel industries on Capitol Hill, and in state capitols on a variety of issues as a professional lobbyist.

Mr. Harrison has a BA in Political Science, with minors in History and Communications, from Allegheny College, and a MS in Public Policy for the University of Maryland.

About PACE:
PACE promotes the professional interests of IEEE's U.S. members and provides a mechanism for communication of members' views on their professional needs. Section and Chapter activities include workshops on career issues (networking, career planning, career transitions, personal financial planning); skill training workshops (entrepreneurship, effective speaking, technical writing), and Government Policy as it affects Engineering and Technology.
More information on local activities is available at
http://ieee-jbdavid.blogspot.com or http://www.ieee.org/scv/PACE

Labels: events, government, IEEE

¶ Permanent Link to This Post 2:16 AM