|
President's Message |
Joe Butler – President, EMC Society |
The EMC Society Board of Directors is off and running into the new millennium.
In our efforts to act in a more global fashion, we are starting to initiate contact with various international EMC Conferences with the idea of establishing MOU's (Memoranda of Understanding) which would detail the co-operative agreements. These MOU's would cover such issues as the usage of the IEEE EMCS logo, technical paper reviews, EMCS booth space allotment, website links, advertising, exchange of symposium records, etc. At our March Board of Directors meeting in Phoenix, Henry Ott, Vice-President for Conferences, announced the appointment of Elya Joffe as Chairman, Global Conferences Committee. Elya will be responsible for these MOU's worldwide. This will compliment Elya's already busy agenda as he serves as Region 8 (Europe) Membership Chairman as well as Chair of the Standards Advisory and Coordination Committee (SACCom). The SACCom is the committee that serves as the EMC Society's technical liaison to other EMC Standards Development organizations.
In the Membership Services arena, our Vice-President for Member Services, Todd Hubing, is now worried about his budget for his stable of Distinguished Lecturers (DL's). It seems that even more chapters around the world have realized a DL can mean a larger than normal chapter meeting attendance. Lee Hill, Chair of the Distinguished Lecturers Committee, has been busy coordinating these activities.
Len Carlson, our Vice-President for Communications, and Janet O'Neil, Newsletter Editor, have made real progress on their plans to move this newsletter up to formal magazine status. At present we are looking at waiting to start up in 2002, so as to ensure we have lined up a reasonable number of sources for quality technical material. By the way, do you like the new look?
It's time to think about nominations for this year's election of positions on our EMCS Board of Directors. Dan Hoolihan, Chair of the Nominations Committee and Past President, is soliciting interest.
Hopefully, you are starting to make plans to attend this year's EMC Society Symposium in Washington, DC on August 21st through 25th. From all preliminary information I have seen as I write this column, the affair looks like another in our string of successful symposia. Speaking of symposia successes, Bill Gjertson, Chair of the 1999 Seattle EMCS Symposium and current IEEE Division IV Director, reported a surplus of $291K from symposia activities – a new record!
Andy Drozd, Membership Chair and Internet Committee Chair, AKA, webmaster, has been busy working on websites for the nine Technical Committees and our own www.emcs.org Society website. We will soon start to display commercial advertising on our website in the form of links to vendors who pay a $1,500 annual fee. Andy is finishing off the memorandum of understanding to document this type of arrangement. Steve Berger, Chair of the Standards Development Committee, has been working hard to bring online the EMC Standards website. By the time this newsletter is distributed, you should be able to access the site through either the IEEE or the EMCS websites.
Award Nominations Requested!It's time to start thinking about nominations for awards to be presented at the Awards Luncheon to be held at the 2000 IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatability, August 21-25, 2000 in Washington, DC.Consider nominating a fellow co-worker or others whose IEEE volunteer work deserves recognition! Visit the EMC Society web page at www.emcs.org to see the list of award categories and past recipients.Nominations must be submitted by July 1, 2000 to Henry Benitiez, Awards Chairman, at phone 503-627-1217 or e-mail at henry.w.benitez@tek.com. |
You may be receiving an important survey in the mail from IEEE concerning our Society operations. Dick Ford, Chair of the Survey Committee and Society photographer, with help from Mark Montrose, and input from many others, has developed an important membership survey to provide the Board of Directors with the information they will need to guide the Society into the years ahead. If you are one of the few chosen to participate in the survey, please complete and return this in a timely fashion.
In the area of awards, the Board of Directors voted at our March meeting to participate in the financial support and selection process for the awarding of the annual IEEE Electromagnetics Field Award which includes a $10,000 honorarium to recognize significant accomplishments in the field of electromagnetics. Todd Hubing, VP Membership Services, will represent the EMC Society in this endeavor. Todd, or more properly our awards chair, Henry Benitez, is also seeking recommendations for awards of several types to recognize the many members who make our Society as successful as it is. Please take the time to think about those individuals at all levels in our Society who should be publicly thanked for their efforts. These awards will be presented at the symposium in Washington DC.
Future EMCS Board of Directors meetings will be held in Montreal, Canada (site of the 2001 EMC Symposium) on Friday, June 9th, in Washington, DC on Sunday, August 20th, and in Tampa, Florida on Thursday, November 16th. We have also tentatively chosen Friday, February 23, 2001 in Zurich, Switzerland for a Board meeting following the Zurich EMC Symposium.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to write or call me at my workplace: Chomerics, Division of Parker Hannifin Co., 77 Dragon Court, Woburn, MA 01801, telephone 781-939-4267 or e-mail me at j.e.butler@ieee.org. EMC