A Productive AdCom Meeting and Retreat

The 2025 March AdCom general meeting and retreat (March 6^th – 8^th) was held in New Brunswick, NJ at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and at IEEE Headquarters. The Finance and Communications meetings were held on Thursday afternoon at the Hyatt, the Retreat was at IEEE Headquarters on Friday, and the general meeting was once again at the Hyatt on Saturday. Total attendance for the meetings was around 86% of AdCom (in person plus virtual).

The annual retreat on Friday was an opportunity to welcome new members of AdCom and for the entire committee to engage with IEEE representatives at the headquarters in New Brunswick. These are folks who AdCom works with regularly but generally not in person. It proved to be a unique and productive day for all parties, and we are very grateful for the excellent support provided by the local IEEE events team in a very full day of meetings.

New President Sara Pozzi laid out several priorities for 2025, including an update to the NPSS Strategic Plan, and the five-year NPSS Constitution and Bylaws review which is being managed by Lorenzo Fabris. The primary focus of the retreat, however, were several discussion topics where AdCom members worked on developing a better understanding of and a blueprint for what the priorities of NPSS should be. The topics included: 

• How to better support affinity groups (YP, WIE, Entrepreneurship) within the society?
• What are the effects of new IEEE finance management changes and how NPSS should adapt to best take advantage?
• What are some ways that NPSS can develop more impactful initiatives (now called projects) in the future?
• And finally, what is NPSS’s role in the rapidly developing landscape of SMRs and other nuclear reactor technology?

At the general meeting on March 8^th Ralf Engels, NPSS Treasurer, presented the current society financials which are now forecasted to provide a $329K surplus for 2024. He is expecting to be able to support up to around $1M for new initiatives/projects. There were still four 2024 conferences which have not been officially closed, and a reminder for all conferences that they should be making every effort for closure within six months of the end of the conference. Additionally, Ralf clarified that conference treasurers should actively update their budgets in the NPSS budget tool whenever there are changes or actuals coming in. This is important for accurate forecasting.

Publications all reported meeting their page count forecasts for 2024, with TNS amazingly matching it exactly at 2676 pages. Ralf noted that despite these numbers we are still seeing a slow steady decline in total revenues from publications in recent years most likely associated with growing open access.

In other news from the general meeting, John Verboncoeur, our TAB liaison, gave details on the new IEEE budget process. The old 50% and 3%/1% spending rules on operations and reserves have been eliminated. Initiatives/Projects have now been moved into the operational budget. In general, there is now much more flexibility in access to funds including our reserves. Awards Chair Steve Meikle, commented on a weak nomination process this year. Deadlines had to be extended for 10 days. The Birdsall Award will incur an inactivity fee this year due to no nominations. We need to do a better job making various NPSS awards known to our community.

There were several motions brought before the committee, initially including three motions to approve TC Constitution and Bylaws (C&BL) changes for PSAC, FTC and PPST respectively.  PPST elected to withdraw their motion and will bring it back for consideration at the June AdCom meeting.

Our IEEE Division IV Director, Charles Jackson, who was in attendance closed the general meeting with some comments and observations. He advised paying attention to the IEEE budget process and to coordinate with Division IV.  He suggested engaging with the TryEngineering program in some way and to consider submitting IEEE Spectrum articles. He also sees fusion technology as something with a high and growing interest.

Actions taken at the March 8^th, 2025 AdCom general meeting

• PSAC moved to have AdCom approve their updated C&BL. The motion passed, 18 yes, 1 opposed.
• FTC moved to have AdCom approve changes to their C&BL. After some discussion, there was a subsequent motion to postpone the vote on the changes. The motion was seconded. The subsequent motion was approved by consensus.
• REC moved that AdCom approve technical co-sponsorship for the 2026 RADECS Conference (location and date to be announced). Approved by consensus (1 abstention).
• REC moved that AdCom approve payment of the technical co-sponsorship fee ($1450) for the 2026 RADECS Conference. Approved by consensus (1 abstention).
• FinCom moved that AdCom approve an increase in the amount of support offered for YP and WIE events at NPSS financially sponsored conferences starting in 2025 from up to $5000 to up to $7000 for each YP and WIE event. This is to account for recent inflation. Approved by consensus.
• Sara Pozzi moved, seconded by Lorenzo Fabris, that Professor Gian Franco Dalla Betta be approved by AdCom as the new Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. Approved by consensus.
• Vesna Sossi moved, seconded by Marty Shaneyfelt, that AdCom approve the 2025 Nominating Committee. The committee is defined by Vesna as chair plus all current chairs of the eight NPSS technical committees. Approved by consensus.

David Abbott, NPSS Secretary, can be reached at [email protected].