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President's Message |
Joe Butler – President, EMC Society |
Many of you have already heard the sad news. EMC Society Board of Directors member and long time IEEE EMC Transactions editor, Moto Kanda, passed away on June 12, 2000 after a long battle with cancer. This is a sad story – Moto was a kind, caring person who worked very hard for our Society. Moto was global long before it was fashionable to do so. He was rigorous in his review of EMC technical material – protecting our EMC technical heritage from dilution. Moto will be missed by his family and friends as well as by the entire EMC Society.
As President of the EMC Society, it is my honor and duty to appoint someone to fill out the unexpired term of Moto Kanda on our Board of Directors. After some thoughtful introspection and consultation with trusted advisers, I have selected Carlos Sartori of Brazil to join the Board of Directors. As it turns out, Carlos had already been nominated and would have been placed on the ballot for our Board of Directors election for this year. I am very happy that Carlos has agreed to join us and by doing so becoming the first EMCS Board member from IEEE Region 9 (Latin America). Carlos's bio appears elsewhere in this newsletter. I look forward to working with Carlos on membership development in the region along with current board members Jose Perini and Todd Hubing.
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While in Montreal for the Board of Directors meeting, EMCS President Butler managed to set aside time to sample Bonaparte, one of the fine French restaurants in town. Shown left to right are Barry Wallen, Janet O'Neil, Dan and Rosemary Hoolihan, Joe Butler and Todd Hubing. |
The EMC Society Board of Directors held its second meeting of the year on June 9th in Montreal, Canada, the site of the 2001 International EMC Symposium. Besides addressing the normal business of the Society, this was an opportunity for the Board of Directors, the local Montreal EMC chapter, and the members of the 2001 symposium committee to get together and meet one another. To effect this, an informal reception was held which was followed by an interesting technical presentation on the use of decoupling capacitors on PC boards by EMCS Board Member Todd Hubing. Plans for the August 13-17, 2001 Montreal symposium are in full swing. The venue for the symposium, the Palais des Congres de Montreal, convention center, is a very large and attractive building that is easily accessible on foot from nearby hotels. Symposium Chair Benoît Nadeau and his committee have made much progress since the first part of this year.
As regards activities on the Board of Directors, we are moving ahead with the concept of offering paid advertising on our EMC Society website. This will be in the form of company logos that can be used to link directly with the respective company website. Issues remaining to be resolved involve legal and contractual terms. Website development among the Society technical committees is progressing as well as that of the EMC Society Standards Committee. Soon it will be possible to easily access information about Society technical committee activities and EMC standards development.
One of the major thrusts on the Board of Directors this year, besides concern over globalization, is that of EMC Society chapter support. Last month, Henry Benitez reported on his activities at the IEEE Chapter Coordinators retreat. The board has supported several other initiatives in this area. Janet O'Neil has promoted the highly successful concept of Regional Colloquia in various cities, including Portland, OR, Phoenix, AZ, Dearborn, MI, and Orange County, CA, among others. The scenario consists of a one day technical session track comprised of high quality speakers along with continental breakfast, lunch and an after hours reception with the speakers. Financial gain is realized by charging a modest registration fee and a modest tabletop booth rental fee to several EMC product vendors. Ghery Pettit, Chapter Coordinator, has developed a chapter chair reflector so as to allow chapter chairs to electronically post information to share with other chapters. Todd Hubing continues to let his budgeted expenditures for Distinguished Lecturers run at full power. EMCS Board members are being encouraged to visit local chapters in the course of their normal business travels. Takeo Yoshino, Todd Hubing, Jose Perini are all actively pursuing new EMCS chapter development in IEEE Regions 9 and 10 (Latin America and Asia Pacific). On October 1, 2000, I plan to participate in an IEEE Divisions I & IV Region 8 Chapters meeting to be held in Paris, France. These two IEEE Divisions encompass some 12 Societies while Region 8 includes Europe and the Middle East. We remain committed to supporting the development and the growth of EMC Society Chapters worldwide.
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