Why I'm Running for IEEE Computer Society President

Dear friends and colleagues,

If you are a member of the IEEE Computer Society, I am asking for your vote for my campaign for President. The election opens on Monday, 5 Aug, at https://www.computer.org/election2019. In advance of the election opening, I’d like to tell you a bit about my candidacy, and invite you to visit my campaign website at https://www.forrestshull.com.

We rely on our Society to keep ourselves competitive, regardless of whether we are researchers or practitioners. In over a decade of volunteering with the Society, I have found it immensely rewarding to work with volunteers and staff to make our offerings better suited to the needs of our fast-moving field. It hasn’t always been easy, but I’ve been pleased to have done this for some of our best publications, working with other energized volunteers. Going forward, we need more bridges to industry and practitioners to help keep our content relevant, a renewed focus on our chapters and technical communities, and a more inclusive focus on all of our members, especially young professionals, who represent the computing workforce of the future. My position statement has more information on my plans if elected.

My career of volunteering for the Society makes these plans feasible. Most importantly, I’ve built the connections to fellow volunteers who have the skills and the expertise to make this happen, together. I've been endorsed by over 50 Computer Society volunteers - the men and women who give of their time to keep the Society running. I hope you will take a few minutes to peruse some of their endorsement messages. They come from around the world and represent a true cross-section of the Society: Leaders in Society publications, conferences, education, standards, technical communities, chapter activities, industry advisory boards, podcasting, and Young Professional initiatives. They include 5 past presidents, 6 past VPs, 9 other Board of Governor members, 11 IEEE Fellows, 7 Editors in Chief, and numerous other leadership roles throughout our Society. I am grateful to them for their support and for the reminders of the great work we have already done together.

The Society belongs to all of us. I hope you will take the time to vote this year and to consider casting your vote for me.

Forrest