PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

Colleagues:
In January of this year I began my tenure as President of CPMT. I would like to note that I am inheriting the fine work of prior administrations and I would particularly like to commend the most able work of the prior CPMT President Ralph Wyndrum.
Last year the CPMT membership grew 4.6% and is considered one of the fastest growing societies in the IEEE. At this time the finances of CPMT are in good shape and the society has a healthy financial reserve.
We now have a full slate of officers and committee chair persons. At the last Board of Governors meeting in January, a number of programs were initiated to look at our society to determine, "are we providing the best value to our membership?"
Under the leadership of our Vice President -Technical, Dr. Rao Tummala, the Technical Committees (TC s) began the process of looking at ways of restructuring to better serve our membership and insure CPMT is at the cutting edge of technology. Our Vice President-Conferences, Dr. Jim Morris, is also going to undertake a study of our conference structure to insure it meets our membership needs. Meetings and workshops in both these areas will be held during the 48th Electronic Components and Technology Conference to be held May 25-28, 1998 in Seattle, Washington. Your society is also working to provide an e-mail alias as a privilege of IEEE membership.
One of my goals during my term of office will be to work to continue the growth of our local chapters in all areas of the world. Strong local chapters can provide the focus for technical enrichment of its members and also be a nucleus to address the other professional issues that effect our membership today.
During 1997 I was privileged to be appointed an IEEE Congressional Fellow serving in the office of Senator Alfonse D Amato of New York. This experience certainly made me aware of how important it is for the technical community to have an input to the policy process which impacts
us directly and indirectly. When possible I plan to share my experiences with the membership and work with local chapters on policy awareness.
John W. Stafford, President CPMT Society