Your Student Branch falls under your local Section. You can locate your Section by rosters.ieee.org and selecting Organizational Units.
To ensure success of any Branch program, careful planning is crucial: assess the state of your Branch; identify major goals and objectives for the year; identify activities that will allow you to meet these goals and objectives. For each activity, develop an action plan.
In planning your Branch programs for the year, it is important to keep in mind that events where students are highly engaged are critical to your Branch’s success. Ask your members what their interests are and invite them to participate in a subcommittee that interests them. When choosing an event, you should ask several questions to evaluate the potential of that event:
- Will this event attract new members?
- Do we have the resources to carry it through (e.g., time, people, funding)?
- How will it satisfy the needs of existing members?
- Does it meet a specific need for your Branch?
- Will you need to undertake a fundraising effort to hold this event?
Once you have decided on Branch programs for the year, you need to organize the subcommittees and ensure the commitment is there. These committees will gain valuable leadership experience. Be sure to involve as many members (and non-members) as possible in order to ensure the growth of your Branch.
The following is a list of some activities that Student Branches have undertaken in the recent years:
- Host an annual “Welcome Back” or “End of School” event to welcome and farewell your members
- Collaborate with other IEEEE Student Branches, Young Professionals, IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN), and Women in Engineering groups
- Schedule speakers on technical or professional subjects. See SPAx for more information
- Enter design competitions
- Organize field trips to industry
- Give tutorials to non-members
- Raise funds for charity or Student Branch projects
- Participate in IEEE conferences
- Publish a Student Branch newsletter
- Participate in engineering awareness programs