Operations Guide

For IIE Divisions

Institute of Industrial Engineers | 3577 Parkway Lane, NW | Suite 200 | Norcross, GA 30092

Phone: 770-449-0461 or 800-494-0460 ext. 116 | Fax: 770-263-8532 | Web site:

Updated 9-12-06

Table of Contents

Quick Start GuidePage 3

Leadership Structure and Organizational ChartPage 4

Role of Divisions in the InstitutePage 5

Role in Membership

Role in Education and Publications

Role in Honors & Awards

Roles and Responsibilities of Divisions LeadersPage 6

Resources available through IIEPage 6

Newsletter production and distribution

Web site creation and maintenance

Email broadcasts / Communication

Survey/poll capability

Budget & funding

Membership statistics

Volunteer Leadership Training

IIE Annual Conference Involvement

Leadership and ElectionsPage 8

Budget Request Process and TimelinePage 8

Division StrategicPlanningPage 9

Guidelines for Forming or Revitalizing a DivisionPage 11

ImportantDates and DeadlinesPage 12

Appendix A – NLC Contact InformationPage 13

Appendix B – Newsletter ManualPage 15

Appendix C – Draft Division BylawsPage 24

Quick Start Guide

If you are starting a new division – or revitalizing an existing one – this is your starting point! While this Operations Guide is full of information, it may be overwhelming at first, so here are the high points. (We’ve hyperlinked some items to more detailed information you can find throughout this document.)

  1. Get a group of volunteers together. This will be your first-year leadership team. Three to five people is enough to start a leadership team. Find out more about what the leadership team does in the Roles & Responsibilities of Division Leaders section. (You don’t need to tackle budgets or elections until your second year.)
  1. Contact IIE’s Networking Associate, Heather Bradley, so she can connect you with the Technical Vice President who will help you get started.The Resources Available through IIE section will give you an overview of the kind of support available to your leadership team.
  1. Meet (by conference call) to decide what the purpose of your group is. The Division Strategic Planning section is a good place to start. You need to define your:
  1. Mission
  2. Goals
  3. Bylaws

* Click on the links for samples of each of these items you can use as-is or modify to fit your needs.

You don’t need anything extravagant. You just need to think about how you tie into the overall IIE mission and pick a couple of easy things to accomplish in your first year. There are some ideas to get you started in the Division Strategic Planning section or you can talk to your TVP or Networking Associate. More details can be found in the Guidelines for Revitalizing or Creating and IIE Division section.

That’s it. Everything else in this Operations Guide will help you take the steps to become a growing, thriving division.

Leadership Structure

The Networking Leadership Council NLC represents the Societies, Divisions & Chapters in the IIE leadership structure (see organization chart below). The NLC meets in person twice per year, in May at the annual conference and in October at IIE Headquarters. They also meet by conference call throughout the year. For a list of NLC members and IIE staff members serving the Societies and Divisions, please see the Networking Leadership Council contacts sheet (Appendix A).

1

Role of Divisions in the Institute

Divisions are key operating entities within the IIE organization, which serve a broad base of all members. These groups provide a networking vehicle and resource center for members with common technical, industry, or other interests.

The structure of the Divisions provides the Institute with a special “outreach” capability by extending the Industrial Engineering profession to groups outside of the Institute. Divisions are a strong attraction to new members and an improved liaison with other related societies and constituencies.

Role in Membership

The Divisions are a key vehicle for the delivery of topical content to the membership. Because Industrial Engineering is such a broad field, these technical groups play a critical role in providing the focus on specific disciplines and industries within that broad spectrum. Each Division is expected to be the “owner” of its discipline, fostering the sharing of knowledge, serving as a resource hub, and facilitating discussion among members of that discipline. Division leaders are encouraged to guide the group and work with IIE leaders and staff in the development and deployment of value-added benefits for their members. Each technical group is strongly encouraged to host an event or activity for its members at the annual conference (membership meeting, networking reception, etc.).

Role in Education and Publications

Each Division is strongly encouraged to become an active contributor to IIE’s educational offerings and publications. Divisions can help insure that their particular discipline is well represented by:

  • Suggesting topics/speakers for seminars; developing or hosting educational offerings in their discipline
  • Providing names of possible speakers to the program committees of the various conferences
  • Recruiting authors to submit articles or papers for publication in magazines/journals or for presentation at the conference(s)

Information about all of IIE’s educational offerings, including program and track chairs and other important contact people, can be found on the IIE web site at about IIE publications, including author guidelines and appropriate contact people, can also be found at under “Periodicals.”

Divisions are also encouraged to host a networking session during the annual conference. This allows leadership and membership an opportunity to meet in person and work on future proposals and goals. Interested parties should contact the Networking Associate at IIE headquarters six months prior to the date of the event.

Role in Honors & Awards

Professional recognition is a key component of any professional membership association, and one extremely important role played by the Divisions is to participate actively and fully in the Institute Honors & Awards process. Each technical group is strongly encouraged to carefully review the slate of Institute honors and awards and submit nominations from among its membership for as many awards as possible.

The deadline for all Institute honors & awards is December 1, with the exception of the Pritsker Doctoral Dissertation Award, which has a deadline of October 1. Full details of all the Institute honors and awards, including descriptions, eligibility criteria, and nomination information, can be found on the IIE web site at

In addition, some Divisions have their own individual awards recognizing members’ achievements in their particular areas of focus, for example:

  • Engineering Economy – The Wellington Award
  • Lean – Teaching Award
  • Operations Research – Teaching Award
  • Quality, Control and Reliability Engineering – The Golomski Award

Roles and Responsibilities of Division Leaders

  1. The leaders should first and foremost develop goals and objectives for their Divisions. Each technical group should foster their own directions, organization, and purpose in order to develop meaningful and achievable direction. This, of course, needs to be done with the oversight of the Institute, who will provide a general framework, along with purpose and motivation that will allow the volunteer structure to be successful in their interests. See the Division Strategic Planning section for more information.
  1. Serve as the primary point of contact for members and insure that regular (at least quarterly) communications are sent to the members (newsletter; email broadcasts; election information; group activities; award nomination information and announcements).
  1. Serve as the liaison between the group and IIE leaders and staff; maintain good channels of communication with Headquarters and the Networking Leadership Council.
  1. Provide input and feedback to the Networking Leadership Council on ways to improve the technical groups’ effectiveness, ways to provide more member benefit, ways to improve communication, etc.
  1. Insure effective leadership development and succession from one administration to the next; workto involve as many members as possible in the leadership and operations of the group.
  1. Prepare and submit an annual budget request, and insure the responsible expenditure of budgetedfunds for maximum member benefit.
  1. Send at least one representative to the Volunteer Leadership Training held during the annual conference.

Resources Available Through IIE

Newsletter Production and Distribution

Members expect an in-depth newsletter that provides current, timely information on a regular basis. The responsibility for publishing the newsletter is generally assigned to a Newsletter Editor (member of the Division) who gathers and formats the content using the Newsletter Templateand then forwards it to the Networking Associate at IIE. The Networking Associate handles the distribution of the newsletter. The newsletter and the information from it are posted on IIE’s website and members are notified of the posting by email broadcast sent from IIE.

Web Site Creation and Maintenance

Your Division is encouraged to host a website that will serve as a clearinghouse of resources on the discipline, as well as a center for information about the technical group, your members and activities. Division web sites are maintained on the IIE server and linked throughout the IIENet site. A Web Editor is needed to serve in roughly the same role as the Newsletter Editor – to coordinate Division news and seek out resources and information to post. IIE provides staff assistance to postthe materials you provide. Providing content to be posted on the site is the responsibility of your Division Web Editor, ideally with assistance from a group of interested members to serve as “track chairs” or interest area coordinators.

Email Broadcasts/Communications

The best way to quickly and easily contact the majority of your members (those who have email addresses on file in their member record) is by email broadcast. When you want to communicate to your members, compose the message and send to the Networking Associate at IIE and the broadcast will be sent to membership for you. You may also occasionally have a need to do a hard copy mailing for some important message that you want to make sure reaches every one of your members. Staff can handle production and mailing for you in those instances, upon request.

Survey/Poll Capability

IIE has the capability to create and conduct a basic online poll or survey for your Division – this is an excellent way to engage your members in the group and increase interest in Division activities. In order to create a survey you should contact the Networking Associate to set up the parameters and provide the list of questions you want to ask. Responses can be sent via email to someone in your group, or can be saved to a database that staff can forward to you.

Budget and Funding

Active, healthy Divisions are eligible to receive an annual budget from IIE to fund activities and programs that will provide benefit to their members. Please see Division Budget Processfor more information.

Membership Statistics

A complete roster of your current members is available upon request through IIE staff.

Volunteer Leadership Training

VOLT, IIE’s Volunteer Leadership Training, is offered every year during the IIE annual conference and is a great opportunity for your Division to share in the insights and successes of other IIE group leaders from around the world. The intent of the workshop is to rejuvenate Division leadership. You are guided through innovative exercises that will yield the development of strategies to take back and implement. Speakers from IIE’s most successful groups share their experiences and ideas in membership and marketing strategies, mentoring, and strategic planning. There are ample personal and professional networking opportunities for leaders.

IIE Annual Conference Program Involvement

Any Division interested in working with the program committee at the IIE annual conference should contact the Annual Conference Manager at . Your request to participate should be presented approximately 12-14 months prior to the date of event.

Conference Call Scheduling

You can set up sub-committee conference calls without having to work through IIE. The chair of the committee (or their designee) will find a time that works for everyone in your group. Then call the 24/7 APC Reservation line at 800.294.1193 and reference Heather Bradley’s account number of 50512. They will schedule your conference call. Be sure to let them know you want a temp code. This code will only be good for that actual call. We can have as many calls going on as needed becauseeach call will have a different code. Once you have the codes from APC, you will send an email out to the group (make sure to cc ) with the code and the date/time for your call.

Leadership and Elections

There are a number of different leadership structures used by Divisions:

  • Three year commitment for the chief officer (President-elect; President, Immediate Past President), with a new President-elect elected each year
  • Planned succession pattern, with new leaders added into the “pipeline” each year.

Each Division is free to determine the method of leadership succession most suited to its own individual preferences. However, one of these models (or another of the group’s choosing) must be selected and maintained in order to insure continuity and consistency in the direction and leadership of the group.

Terms of office for Divisions should either

  • Coincide with the IIE Board of Trustee terms from April 1 through March 31.
  • Or, with the IIE Annual Conference with terms from June 1 to May 30 each year

For terms that begin April 1, elections should be held no later than February in order to allow sufficient transition time. For terms that begin June 1, elections should be held no later than April 15 each year.

Outgoing officers and leaders have a responsibility to:

  • Pass along any and all materials, documents, and correspondence to the incoming leaders
  • Insure that the new leaders are given a full orientation regarding responsibilities and status of current projects or initiatives

Division Budget Process

Budgeting and financial management for divisions must be in accordance with Institute policy and with the division’s bylaws. In addition, all funds for division operations must be processed through the IIE accounting system and included in the Institute’s annual audit.

Divisions are expected to provide a variety of services to their members, many of which may have a financial impact. As a result, the officers of a Division seeking financial support from IIE for activities should review and follow the instructions included in this section.

Active, healthy Divisions are eligible to receive an annual budget from IIE to be used to fund activities and programs that will provide benefit to their members.

Budget Request Process and Timeline

IIE’s budget process operates as follows:

  1. The Networking Associate will notify all elected officers of the call for budget and business plans for each Division or Interest Group in October.
  2. Each Division & Interest Group will prepare a budget request, along with sufficient background information and detail to explain and support the request.
  3. The business plans are forwarded to the Networking Leadership Council for consideration in December. Each plan is evaluated with respect to past activity and future milestones. Division leaders may be contacted by NLC members for clarification, additions, or other revisions.
  4. These draft business plans are used to formulate a budget and plan for all of the Societies andDivisions of IIE. These financial planning goals are then incorporated into IIE’s overall target budget, which is presented to the IIE Presidents in February.
  5. The budget is finalized at the March Board of Trustees Meeting and each group will receive confirmation of its approved budget by April 1.

Note: IIE’s fiscal year runs from April 1 – March 31 st .

Division Strategic Planning

IIE’s Technical Vice Presidents and Management Team have been working on ways to provide our Societies and Divisions with a framework for operating that affords them maximum flexibility while maintaining alignment with the Institute’s Mission and Vision. The result of our efforts is the information you see here – a model mission statement, some expected goals, and some potential tactics to get you started.

You should work with your Technical Vice President and your Division leadership team to:

  • Review the essential elements present in the model Mission statement,
  • Discuss the development/implementation of your group’s Mission statement, and strategic plan,
  • Review a minimal set of goals that is expected of all groups,
  • Achieve common ground regarding these essential strategic elements.

Each Division is responsible for adopting a Strategic Plan that consists of the following: