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The Reflector, March 2022
Volunteering is Something you can Learn, my Path into it. Maira Samary, IEEE Boston Section Secretarey/Treasurer
This is my first time writing an Editorial, I was scared of the challenge, and I did exactly what I say to my students not to do: to procrastinate. While I was procrastinating, I started perusing past editorials of Reflectors. I saw that the procrastination issue is common and I also saw that many of the editorials talk about one topic in particular, participation/volunteering at IEEE. I think that the topic is even more relevant now, since many of us have to juggle with working from home, kids, work overburden, health issues and concerns, among other things. But I also have to tell you my story, so you can understand how different things are, depending on where you are.
I updated my address at IEEE, and I started receiving a lot of emails and communications that I never received while I was in South America. I started seeing that IEEE here, was something completely different than what it was there.
I joined IEEE 8 years ago, while I was starting my PhD in Computer Science in Chile. The main reason I joined was that I wanted to submit a paper to a conference that was affiliated to IEEE, and there was a huge discount on conference registration to IEEE members. At that time, the situation of IEEE in Chile was somewhat precarious. We did not have a chapter in Chile, no community, no visibility.
Since then, I’m working at WIE and now I’m also IEEE Boston Section Secretary/Treasurer. IEEE and WIE people received me into the Boston community with open arms. I had the opportunity of meeting a lot of interesting, intelligent people and I’m grateful for that. While volunteering my work, I have learned how relevant being part of a community is. I am not alone.
The conference was really good, and I decided that I would keep my IEEE membership because of conference discounts. The world kept spinning and almost 4 years ago, I moved to Boston, MA. And one of the major things that shocked me here, was the culture of volunteering. At my kids’ school I saw that all the extra school activities were provided by parents volunteering and that this was expected, but not explicitly mentioned. Watching American movies we may see parents volunteering, but I always thought that this would be exceptions, not a common thing. In South America, in general, we don’t have a culture where people volunteer this much.
I needed to do something to create my path here, in Boston, my new home. So, I thought that my way of meeting people, making friends, being part of something could be through volunteering at something. At the end of 2019, I answered one of the IEEE calls for volunteers and I had the pleasure to meet Denise Griffin and other great women that were part of WIE.
My first year at WIE was amazing. We were running meetings with WIE New Hampshire and with SWE and we had a great group and great ideas. But the pandemic arrived and everything went downhill. I don’t need to say that our affiliates were/are really affected by the pandemic. And our events stopped and participation dropped. Now, that we see things are getting back to normal it is time to resume our activities. It is time to build the community back. After so much social distancing, being part of the IEEE community can help you to reconnect, discover new areas of work and diverse groups of people. That is why I encourage all to renovate our commitment to IEEE. Reach out to officers of your group, propose ideas for talks, social events for this summer.
Resuming our life in Boston with my husband and kids was tough. I didn’t know anyone, other than my hus- I am very excited about the possibilities for this year. I band’s boss that brought us to Boston. After the move, expect to see you all there!
