Content Gazette - July 2020 - 1

Several principles were adopted by
large financial losses through our insurthe Society while working on these virance policies. The turning point came
tual events. The Society will not benefit
on 8 March, when the organizing comfrom any surplus from these events. In
mittees selflessly recommended that the
normal times, the surpluses support
physical meetings be canceled. I was
you through our activities and member
very happy to receive the overwhelming
benefits. This year, we will refund all
support and approvals of our executive
registrations not covering papers and
committee, staff, and board of goverstrive to issue some credit for registranors of these decisions in the emergency
tions covering papers. The mechanics of
meetings that were called on short nothe refunds are being worked out. The
tice that week. The ISBI and ICASSP
conference will be open to all, providing
organizing committees, our conference
an opportunity to all our members and
board, Society staff, and VP conferences
others to sample what ICASSP has to
deserve our utmost appreciation for their
offer. We will be offering our sponsors
hard work and quick reactions under a
the opportunity to rerapidly deteriorating
cover all their funds
situation that repeatWe will all dedicate our
edly sent them back
efforts to assist all those as they struggle to
handle the financial
to the drawing board
in need across the globe
costs of COVID-19
within hours of comin the coming weeks
and a dark financial
pleting a given task.
and months.
outlook. Again, these
I will personally be
decisions may seem
eternally be grateful
obvious but were very difficult as they
in particular to our ICASSP 2020 cowill deprive the Society of the funds it
chairs Ana Pérez-Neira and Xavier Mesuses to sustain our volunteers and actre, our VP of Conferences Fernando
tivities. I will update you in my next
Pereira, our SPS Senior Manager for
column on the financial implications of
Conference Strategy and Services Carthe crisis and our plans to handle them.
oline Johnson, and our SPS Executive
The crisis also put on hold several
Director Rich Baseil for the tremenambitious plans that we had articulated
dous effort and the countless hours that
in February. These include a novel disthey have dedicated to managing the
ruptive innovations conference that was
COVID-19 emergency and for what I
to be held in the San Francisco Bay Area
am confident will be a successful set
in October. This new conference will
of virtual conferences.
offer a novel format meant to create an
We continue to work on the virtual
innovative ecosystem that consists of
conferences, and I hope that by the time
venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, inyou read this column you will have both
dustry, government, and academia. Our
attended the virtual conferences and
plans also include innovative educationconcluded that they were a success gival initiatives and offerings now that we
en the circumstances. The challenge is
have for the first time a vice president of
real: Holding a virtual global event such
education. We also developed outreach
as ICASSP is an unprecedented move.
activities tailored to different locales and
Time is short, and most of us are shelindustries. I plan to discuss these initiatering in place or experiencing more
tives in my virtual ICASSP opening talk
stringent lockdowns. However, I have
assuming that situation will allow me to
no doubt that our volunteers and staff
do so, and in a future column.
will succeed.

IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE

www.signalprocessingsociety.org

May 2020

[1]

JULY 2020

While dealing with the COVID-19
crisis, we still stand ready to serve you.
Our publishing operations continue, our
new IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing is ready to accept your Plan-Scompliant and other submissions, most
of our smaller conferences and workshops are continuing in virtual mode,
and most of our other membership support functions are still available.
Let me conclude by going back to
the title of this column. Many of you
have undoubtedly recognized this title
as the title of Christopher Koch's 1978
novel The Year of Living Dangerously.
The novel was subsequently made into
a film with the same title. The phrase
comes from "Tahun Vivere Pericoloso," the title of a speech given by Indonesia's first president in 1964, a year
before a coup attempt that threw the
country into a period of intense violence. I understand that the phrase is
used to refer to people living in danger
because of a disaster that could recur,
an apt description of what we are all
experiencing. If anything, this crisis
has demonstrated that we're all in it together, we will succeed together to the
extent that we work together, regardless of nationality, gender, religion,
political inclination, or other characteristics that are often used to separate
us. As we recover from the crisis and
immediate fear, we shouldn't forget the
less fortunate who will still be suffering
from the consequences of this crisis. I
hope that individually, as communities
and as a professional IEEE Society, we
will all dedicate our efforts to assist all
those in need across the globe in the
coming weeks and months.

http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org

Content Gazette - July 2020

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