Chairman’s Column

By Siri Varadan

Well here we go on a new year. Our goal for this year is to receive the PES High Performing Chapter Award. That will be doubly appropriate because 2004 is also the 100th Anniversary of the San Francisco Section.

We have planned some meetings around interesting topics: Superconducting Cables on February 4 and an Overview of the East Coast Blackout at the Spring Banquet on April 15. Other topics being considered are Fuel Cells, Wind Power, and Modular Substation Design. If you know a good speaker on these or other topics, please let me know.

I am excited to announce that Fred Henderson, Curt Irwin, and Dan Kline have joined the Administrative Committee (ADCOMM). The ADCOMM plans the activities that PES produces. This dedicated group of volunteers plan the technical meetings, short course, banquets, and all other events associated with SF PES. Please join me in welcoming Fred, Curt, and Dan to the ADCOMM. In addition, I would like to thank all the other members of the ADCOMM for their years of service to PES. We easily have over 50 years of combined experience in vo1unteers experience on the ADCOMM. A roster listing all the ADCOMM members is included in this edition of the PEN. Don’t think we cannot use more volunteers. Fresh ideas and energetic people are always welcome. Please contact me about opportunities to volunteer.

We plan to serve our younger members by sponsoring more GOLD (Graduates of The Last Decade) activities in San Francisco. To learn more about about local GOLD activities, visit www.ieee.org/sfgold.

If you weren’t aware of it, let me be the first to tell you that the 2005 PES General Meeting will be held in San Francisco. In January, we started planning for the meeting. Although the meeting will occur until June 12-16, 2005, it is not too early to start working with PES and IEEE Conference Service. It takes a lot of work to put one of these meetings together. We will need at least 200 volunteers to work at the meeting, so if you want to be involved let us know now.

If you have 10 years of professional experience, consider applying for the grade of Senior Member. We can help you get the necessary references and it will also help the Chapter. We started a membership upgrade drive last fall and we are continuing it into the new year.

We are off to a good start in 2004. Let’s all pull together to keep our momentum and make this the greatest year San Francisco PES has ever had.

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