(1) Support for publishing research materials appropriate for each research stage.

• Transactions fitted to the new age
　January 2017, ISS started the complete open access of Transactions D (in English), providing new and all the previously published papers through the Web. The experience and results will be shared in IEICE, and they will contribute for future improvements of our communication and publication. We continuously recruit reviewers from oversea for improving the quality of the transaction and inviting new members from oversea. For Transaction D in Japanese, we continue the evaluation of reviewers by the editors for further improvement of the reviewing process and for increasing the number of the registered reviewers.

• What the Technical Committees should be and how they can be invigorated
　Nowadays, contents of technical reports are possibly regarded as “already published”, which causes serious problems. ISS is now examining two solutions: (a) publishing abstracts only, and (b) setting non-disclosure term and giving people the chance to read reports under NDA. Moreover, for visualization, it is planning to upload to the WWW page the number of workshops held by each Technical Committee, the number of submissions, and so on. We are discussing a new style of Technical Committees fit to the new age, e.g., replacing the subscription charges to the participation charges will lower the barrier among committees and increase the freedom of joint workshops.

• What the IEICE General Conference and FIT should be and how they can be invigorated
　ISS is now carefully reviewing the FIT steering system and carrying out reforms for profits. We decided to discontinue the category of refereed papers, and to provide a new system for recommending excellent papers to the transactions. Student Poster Session in the IEICE General Conference is prosperous, and ISS will also make continuous efforts on selecting widely acceptable Excellent Poster Award.

• How the ISS Society Magazine should be invigorated
　ISS will aggressively introduce the activities both outside the ISS and inside ISS. It will also upload the articles to J-Stage so as to introduce the activities widely.

• Contribution to I-Scover
　ISS will contribute to I-Scover, examining cost-performance.

(2) Broadcast information on social issues
　As a community of professionals, ISS will actively reply to the government’s request for public comment. Moreover, it will build up a system expressing our opinions to the social problems.

(3) Reinforce services to members
　By continuing to update the ISS website both in Japanese and in English, ISS will widely and deeply transmit information and reinforce services to members. In association with the Communication Committee, it is examining the new strategies of the homepage management and including the possibility of outsourcing.

(4) Reinforce the operation system of ISS
　In fiscal year 2017, ISS will regularly hold the Steering Committee meeting where members will make global discussions on each activity, including cost-performance issues. In addition, in all ISS activities, we will be seriously conscious about the profitability and make the ISS a fairly sustainable society.