What Is the Division Directors' Forum?

The Division Directors' Forum is a governance body within IEEE's Technical Activities Board (TAB) that brings together the ten Division Directors and the IEEE Vice President of Technical Activities, who serves as chair. The Forum provides a dedicated venue for Division Directors to discuss matters of common concern, coordinate policies affecting the technical societies and councils within their respective divisions, and conduct elections and appointments for key TAB committee positions. It reports its committee selections to TAB and functions as a peer coordination layer within the broader IEEE governance hierarchy.

IEEE's technical activities are organized through ten divisions, each grouping a set of related technical societies and councils. Division Directors serve on the IEEE Board of Directors alongside the three IEEE Presidents, the Vice Presidents and Presidents of the six major boards, Region Directors, and other officers. This structure places Division Directors at the intersection of the society-level technical community and the corporate governance of IEEE, giving them responsibility for representing the interests of their constituent societies at the highest organizational level.

Structure and Composition

Each of the ten divisions encompasses one or more IEEE technical societies and may include one or more technical councils, grouped by broad technical affiliation. The Division Director for each division is elected by the member societies within that division and serves a term on the IEEE Board of Directors. The Forum meets regularly as part of the TAB meeting cycle, and its deliberations cover topics ranging from financial policies affecting society operations to the selection of individuals for standing committees responsible for publications, conferences, and products and services. The IEEE Technical Activities Operations manual governs the procedures and responsibilities of the Forum within the TAB framework.

Role in IEEE Governance

The Division Directors' Forum occupies a specific niche in IEEE's layered governance. Individual societies manage their own technical conferences, publications, and membership programs within policies set by TAB and the Board of Directors. Division Directors serve as a communication and coordination channel between the society level and the corporate level, raising issues that span multiple societies or require Board attention. The Forum's authority to make appointments to committees such as the TAB Periodicals Committee and the IEEE Conferences Committee gives it direct influence over policies that shape how IEEE technical content is published and disseminated. The IEEE Board of Directors membership page describes the full composition of the Board and the role that Division Directors play within it alongside Region Directors and elected officers.

Technical Activities Coordination

Beyond individual appointments, the Forum serves as a deliberative space for questions about how IEEE organizes and supports its technical community. Topics such as the formation of new societies or councils, the merger of adjacent technical areas, and the allocation of resources across divisions may be raised in the Forum before being escalated to TAB or the Board. The ten-division structure of IEEE Technical Activities reflects the broad technical scope of the organization, spanning electrical engineering, computer science, communications, aerospace, and biomedical engineering, among other fields.

Applications

The Division Directors' Forum is relevant across a range of IEEE organizational and community contexts, including:

• Governance of IEEE technical societies and their conference and publication portfolios
• Policy coordination between society-level operations and IEEE corporate governance
• Committee appointments affecting publications standards and conference quality
• Representation of technical community interests on the IEEE Board of Directors