Region 8 Director, Rolf Remshardt, introduced the region consisting of over 260 chapters and 35 different countries. He and Tony Davies, who is the Region 8 Chapter Coordinating Committee Chair, reported on the great success that the region has had in the last several years in creating new chapters. The concern is that some of the new chapters need to be more active to be effective. Guidelines to identify and help inactive chapters for chapter rejuvenation are being set-up. The minimum need for a chapter to be active is to hold 2 meetings a year.
Most active chapters do much more to bring in DLs and to organize seminars and other events.
All of the societies reported on the specific efforts to get more society influence into the chapters and all have a strong interest in globalization. Chapters can get significant support from each of the societies for activities. Peer Martin Larsen of the Denmark Section, discussed the member development on the chapter level. He made the point that each chapter is sponsored by both the society and the section. The sections coordinators can help the chapters in regional issues for the recruitment, retention, recognition and recovery of members.