Nothing could stop the CPMT Board of Governors from leaving the cold of the Winter and the drought of El Nino to meet in the warm rain of West Palm Beach Florida. The meeting continued the Board's focus on strategic investments in our Society's future.
President Rao Tummala welcomed the new members-at-large to your board: Rolf Aschenbrenner, Rao Bonda, Rajen Chanchani, Corey Koehler, Connie Swager, and Naoaki Yamanaka. Rao restated the CPMT Vision to clearly become THE global society for our technologies.
He then announced several new appointments:
Constitution and Bylaws Chair -- Tony Mak
TC-10 Optoelectronics & Photonics Chair -- Frank Shi
TC-17 MEMS and Sensor Packaging Chair -- Eric Jung
Rao also announced continuing leadership roles for
Ron Gedney -- Secretary
Merrill Palmer -- Treasurer
Technical -- Phil Garrou
Global Chapters -- Ralph Russell
Global Awards -- John Segelken
Publications -- Paul Wesling
Vision Statement -- Rao Tummala
Conferences -- Jim Morris
Education -- Al Puttlitz
Student Programs -- Bill Brown
Industry Programs -- John Stafford
CPMT Marketing -- Connie Swager
ECTC & CPMT Liaison -- C. P. Wong

Rao has a reserve platoon of 6 Board members for new assignments: Alina Deutsch, Corey Koehler, Johan Liu, Koji Nihei, Ephraim Suhir, and Naoaki Yamanaka.
"Our challenges are before us with the Global Economic Downturn that has particularly hit the technology companies of our members, and the Central IEEE financial red ink which is quickly draining the CPMT's financial reserves. These reserves are a measure of our ability to strategically invest. However, we still have the momentum of many accomplishments on our side."
*Established 26 CPMT Chapters around the world
*Started 2 Student chapter
*Grown to 4111 Global members
*5 Archival publications
*28 Global conferences and workshops
*46 Years of publications on 9 CD-ROMS
*18 Technology & Education committees
*125 IEEE Fellows
*1 Nobel Laureate

As part of the move to strengthen chapters, Ralph Russell, Chair of Chapter development, has begun accepting Mentors for each of the existing Chapters. A Mentor is a Board member that can easily bring CPMT knowledge, networking, and resources to their Chapter. In a flurry of volunteers, 25 Chapters now have at least 1 mentor.
C. P. Wong described the success of several Asian and European meetings.
· APAC 2001 in August at Beijing China server 120
· First International Adhesives Conference in Potsdam Germany reached 140
· EMAP in November in Seoul Korea worked for 90
· APACK in December at Singapore served 90
· There was a 30 year IEEE Chapter celebration in Hong Kong in December
Treasurer Merrill Palmer clarified the lien that Central IEEE has on our Society funds and how the TAB is trying to wean the IEEE administrative establishment from this easy money. He also discussed the valuable income from the CPMT share of the IEEE Book Broker Program. Adding subsequent data, Merrill showed income of
1997 -- $62K
1998 -- 79
1999 -- 144
2000 -- 143
2001 -- 219
2002 -- $250K (estimate) (definitely not small potatoes)

The upcoming ECTC event was discussed from many angles. There is a great selection of papers with the need to have 5 or 6 simultaneous sessions. There will be 2 poster sessions and 14 short course. The Board must help get the word out on this meeting to the members, particularly in the face of the uncertain world economy. President Tummala took on as an action item the forging of a stronger continuing partnership with the ECA for the benefit of future strong ECTCs.
There was some confusion as to the projected Transaction budgets in 2002 which Merrill Palmer agreed to nail down. VP Paul Wesling is open to suggestions for the soon to be open Transaction Editor position. (On March 18 Paul announced the new Editor, see article.)
Since CPMT Chapters often initiate their own local and International meetings, Chair Ralph Russell will work to incorporate these events into our CPMT website calendar. Our members need more advanced notice to make distant meetings and avoid conflicting CPMT schedules.
In a similar effort to keep the full strategic force behind CPMT meetings, VPs Phil Garrou and Jim Morris will coordinate our TC contribution to each CPMT meeting.
Ellen Lepper of Potomac Communication Group will provide Power Point Templates for all CPMT Society presentations. This will help build a brand identification for our multi-armed activities to our many members and potential members. They see us but they don't see us.
Chair Ralph Russell reported that the CPMT was the fourth fastest growing Society among the 31 societies in the IEEE last year. He agreed to report on the recent membership growth by global region. This information should help the Board direct meeting places and lecturers in an optimal way.
Rolf Aschenbrenner and Johan Liu led a discussion on the meeting plans in Europe for 2003 and beyond.
VPs Phil Garrou and Al Puttlitz led a lively discussion on increasing the number of CPMT distinguished Lecturers perhaps by tapping into the 125 active IEEE Fellows in our Society.
Phil and Naoaki Yamanaka also agreed to find a Chair for TC-6, our High Density Circuit Board Committee. This important position has been vacant too long. Phil is also constantly leading the debate on expanding and consolidating the number of Technical Committees. A proposal is on the table for an Optical System Performance TC; vigorous opinions were given by everyone not back at the snack table.
Bill Brown, Chair of Student Chapters, is following up on the status of Hong Kong Branch Chapter formation. Paul Wesling has agreed to help Bill establish a CPMT website for students.
VP Anthony Chan and Executive Director Marsha Tickman again pulled off the complex logistics needed to handle these important Board meetings. Our thanks to them and everyone that attended.

-- submitted by the Fly on the Wall