IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc)
Wireless Communications Technical Committee (WTC)

Policies and Procedures (P&P)

(Revised in November 2022)

1. WTC Charter

The mission of WTC is to sponsor publications, conferences, technical sessions, workshops, and other information exchanges on architectures, applications, systems, terminals and technologies to provide wireless, mobile, location-independent communication and computing in voice, data and visual media. Its areas of interest include techniques for achieving portability, ubiquity and transparency using mobile and wireless cellular networks ranging from physical layer, MAC layer, network layer to application layer. The committee also assumes the duty to nominate suitable candidates for ComSoc and IEEE awards, propose distinguished lecturer candidates, endorse deserving candidates for the election to IEEE Senior Member and Fellow grade, make contributions to standards in an organized for.

2. Membership Requirements

Anybody can be a member of WTC. To become a member it is necessary to subscribe to the WTC mailing list as specified on the WTC web page. A member becomes an active member if he/she has attended (physically present or by teleconference) two or more of the prior five regularly scheduled WTC meetings. The WTC officers shall maintain an attendance list for each such meeting. All meetings of the WTC are open to the general public.

3. Elected and Appointed Officers

The technical committee (TC) has three officers: Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary, each of whom must be an IEEE Communications Society member. Student Members are not permitted to serve as elected TC officers.
All the three officers are elected positions. The TC Chair reports directly to the Vice President of Technical and Educational Activities (VP-TEA), in accordance with the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Bylaws. The Chair represents WTC to ComSoc Technical Activity Council (TAC). The Vice Chair assumes the duty to support the Chair and taking responsibility of the Chair in his/her absence. The Secretary takes a role to assist the Chair and Vice Chair.
If a TC officer position becomes vacant before normal conclusion of his/her term, the remaining term shall be filled by special election of the TC. If such a special election is not held before or during the next regularly scheduled meeting, the VP-TEA, in consultation with the President, shall appoint someone to serve the remaining term. Positions filled shall be for completion of the interrupted term.

4. Nomination and Election Procedures

Term: The nominal term for Chair, Vice-chair and Secretary shall be two years. WTC discourages an individual seeking more than one nominal term for the same position. However, a TC officer can be elected to a different officer position within the TC for a nominal term.

Nomination and Election Committee: Chair: Current WTC chair; Members: Past WTC Chair, 2nd Past WTC Chair, 3rd Past WTC Chair, a WTC member representative, who is appointed by the current WTC chair

Nomination: At the second year of their nominal term, the current officers are responsible to announce first call for nominations at the WTC semi-annual meeting at ICC. The second call, which is also final call, for nomination is announced, via WTC email list, at least four weeks before Globecom starts (usually before November 5). The open call for nomination is closed about two weeks before Globecom starts. The Nomination and Election (N&E) committee shall collect nominations of individuals for the three officer positions. Nominated persons shall be active members of the WTC and shall indicate willingness to serve if elected. The N&E committee shall discuss (either by teleconference, or through email, or in person) and possibly vote to select a slate of candidates for the three officer positions. For each elected officer, there must be at least two candidates on the ballot. If there are not enough nominations, the N&E committee shall identify additional candidates. Only TC voting members are eligible to run as elected TC Officer.  The candidates who are not selected to be listed on the official slate will be listed as eligible contender(s) for specified position(s). The slate of candidates and other possible candidates shall be announced one week before the election is to take place normally at the WTC meeting at Globecom.

Election: The election of new officers is to be administered by the current/outgoing WTC chair and is to take place at a WTC semi-annual meeting at Globecom or electronically when virtual or hybrid attendance model is allowed by Globecom policies. The candidate with the highest votes from the members wins the election for the position. As per ComSoc’s P&Ps, Elected Officers shall not serve for more than six consecutive years in any position within the same TC. A TC Chair is ineligible to serve concurrently as Chair for more than one TC.

Voting member: A WTC voting member shall be an active member of the WTC, or a past WTC officer, or a winner of WTC Recognition Award. In addition to the above, a WTC voting member must be an IEEE Communications Society member, or an IEEE Communications Society student member.

Post Election: The current/outgoing WTC chair shall keep a list of the members who attended the meeting. The outgoing WTC chair shall report the results of the election to the WTC membership, Director-Technical Committees and the VP-TEA within two weeks. Election results shall be ratified as soon as approved by the TEA Council, with notification to the WTC Chair within four weeks after receipt of the Election Report. If the TEA Council does not approve the election results, the Director-Technical Committees shall organize a new election for the Technical Committee.

5. Conduction of WTC meetings

The WTC meetings are held twice a year, one at ICC and the other at Globecom. The WTC chair is responsible to schedule with ComSoc for the time and place of the meeting. The meeting agenda items should be sent to the membership via WTC email list at least one week prior to the meeting. Meetings are open to any conference attendees. The WTC secretary or a designated substitute will take minutes. The meeting presentation slides and meeting minutes shall be made available on the WTC website after the meeting. Should voting occur at the WTC meeting, only members physically present or attending by teleconference have voting rights, and simple majority rules apply. If voting involves changes to the Policies and Procedures (P&P), then a two-thirds majority of members physically present or attending by teleconference is required.

6. Supporting Activities

As appropriate, WTC will be active in all of ComSoc’s activities. This will include ComSoc conferences (such as ICC, GLOBECOM, WCNC, PIMRC, etc.) by providing representatives to their respective Technical Program Committees, by providing for professional review of submitted papers (by soliciting such assistance from among its membership) and by organizing mini-conferences, symposia, panels, short courses, tutorials, etc., as deemed appropriate by the Society and the WTC. Further, the WTC can individually organize workshops and conferences. Also, because of the broad nature of committee activities, collaborative sessions with other committees will be sponsored and heartily encouraged. As new technologies and application areas emerge, the WTC will seek to address aspects of these topics relative to its charter, and work with both the Strategic Planning Committee and Emerging Technologies Committee. The WTC will further support ComSoc journals, magazines, and standards activities by soliciting volunteers as authors and editors, submitting proposals, and identifying committee members from its membership. The WTC will seek ways to increase active participation of its members in information exchange related to the charter of this Committee, such as: stimulating Feature Topics and Special Issues of ComSoc journals and magazines; and by sponsoring workshops, tutorials, short courses, panel sessions, etc. on special topics.

7. WTC Awards

WTC Award Committee: As per ComSoc P&Ps, the WTC Award Committee shall be composed of a Chair and four-to-six members, chosen among the TC members, with at most one member possibly chosen among the elected WTC Officers, except the WTC Chair. All committee members shall be elected by the TC and are subject to approval by the TEA Council. No WTC Committee member shall serve simultaneously on more than two other TCs’ award committees. The committee members’ term limit shall be two years concurrent with the nominal term of the TC Chair, with reappointment to at most one additional two-year term.

Nomination and Selection: Nominations are solicited from WTC members. The nomination should include a (short) sentence for “what service or accomplishment” the person is nominated for and a one page supporting material. Additionally, letters supporting the nomination may be sent to the WTC Award Committee Chair (together with the nomination or separately). Award Committee members may not be nominated. The call for nomination is announced, via WTC email list, around 15th September each year, and the nomination is closed about 30th September. The Award committee will make its selection from all the received nominations and announce the awardee(s) by about 10th November. The Award will be presented to the Awardee(s) at Globecom or ICC. The TC Chair shall send the Awards Selection Report to the Technical Committees Director for approval. The Technical Committees Director shall approve the Awards Selection Report within two weeks of receipt. If the Director does not approve the report, the TC Chair shall be contacted to discuss the issues raised. A revised report may be submitted to the Director for approval. If the outstanding issues are not resolved between the Director and the TC Chair, the VP-TEA shall bring the matter to the TEA-C for a final decision.

The following three awards are supported:

WTC Recognition Award: The WTC Recognition Award is established to recognize a person with a high degree of visibility in and contribution to the field of “Wireless and Mobile Communications Theory, Systems and Networks”. The award will be given once a year and no more than two awards will be given per year.

WTC Outstanding Young Researcher Award: The WTC Outstanding Young Researcher Award is established to recognize a person who has achieved early career visibility in the field of “Wireless and Mobile Communications Theory, Systems and Networks”. At the time of nomination, the nominee must be an IEEE ComSoc member and an active WTC member, and be within 10 years since completion of his/her doctorate degree. The award will be given once a year and no more than two awards will be given per year.

WTC Service Award: This Service Award is established to recognize the WTC members who have demonstrated exemplary service to WTC, its members and to the WTC community at large, including taking on leadership roles, organizing symposia and workshops in WTC-related areas, and promoting activities of interest to the WTC research community. The award will be given once a year and no more than two awards will be given per year.

8. WTC Information Dissemination

The WTC will maintain an Internet Web page. This Web page will be accessible from the main ComSoc Web page. Announcements distributed to the WTC’s membership, notably meeting agendas and meeting minutes, opportunities for membership participation in WTC-sponsored activities, as well as election-related issues, will be made available on their Web page. The WTC will also provide at least one email exploder as an alternative for timely dissemination of information, and to welcome useful information from others.