Policies and Procedures

TAOS observes and complies with ComSoc Policies and Procedures (P&P) as they apply to Technical Committees (TCs), i.e. IEEE Communications Society Policies and Procedures, Sec. B.6.4.4. Technical Committees. TAOS Chair reports to ComSoc’s VP-Technical and Educational Activities. TAOS Policies and Procedures (P&P) are detailed in the document:

Transmission, Access and Optical Systems (TAOS) Policies and Procedures

available for download. The P&P document was first released in August 2006, then reviewed and renewed without changes in January 2013, updated in December 2014 and December 2019, and finalized to the current version, approved in January 2021, which is aligned to the updated ComSoc P&Ps.

Election of Officers

According to ComSoc policies, TC officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary) are elected for two-year terms. Election takes place in TAOS meetings, which are usually held twice a year at ICC and GLOBECOM conferences. Candidates for these positions are ComSoc members nominated by the TAOS steering committee. Nominations are selected from among the community of TAOS activists who participate in the activities of the TC and its meetings, and are recognized by contribution(s) thereto.

Typically, upon completion of his term, the TAOS Chair retires, the Vice-Chair steps up to the position of the Chair, the Secretary steps up to Vice-Chair and a new Secretary is elected. The Steering Committee is composed of the current officers and past Chairs who are still active members in TAOS. Voting in officers elections is restricted to Active TAOS Members, who are individuals that have attended (physically or by teleconference) two or more of the prior five regularly scheduled TC meetings. In addition, each TAOS voting member must be an IEEE Communications Society Member, IEEE Communications Society Affiliate Member, Sister Society Member, or IEEE Communications Society Student Member. Further details are provided in the P&P document.

Click here for the list of current Active TAOS Members.

The list of past TAOS Chairs who are still active members includes:

  • Stefano Bregni (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)
  • Tarek El-Bawab (Nile University, Egypt)
  • Jaafar Elmirghani (University of Leeds, UK)
  • Steve Gorshe (PMC-Sierra Inc, USA)
  • Michael Kincaid (MSK & Associates, USA)
  • Ahmed Kamal (Iowa State University, USA)
  • Athanassios Manikas (Imperial College London, UK)

Meetings

TAOS meetings are usually held twice a year, at major IEEE ICC and GLOBECOM conferences. These meeting are public and open for any member of the community to attend. Minutes of the meetings are available on the TAOS web site.

Subcommittees

TAOS has had more than one subcommittee over the course of its history. Currently, the TC hosts the TAOS Awards Subcommittee and the historical Subcommittee on Telephone Instrument Testing (STIT). The STIT subcommittee, which is chaired by John R. Bareham (MichTel Communications, USA), is only active in terms of maintenance and decision-making of certain testing and instrumentation telephone IEEE standards.