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President's Message |
Joe Butler – President, EMC Society |
Well, I hope this issue of our Newsletter finds you happily reflecting upon your experiences at our annual IEEE EMC Society International Symposium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. As I write this column for the summer issue, Chairman Beno�t Nadeau and his committee have been working very hard to ensure its success.
During June, the EMCS Board of Directors sent a delegation consisting of Board members Jose Perini, Elya Joffe, and Mark Montrose to represent the EMC Society as well as help conduct a technical workshop entitled, "EMC Aspects in the Analysis and Design of Printed Circuit Boards (PCB's)" at the IV International Symposium on Electromagnetic Com-patibility and Electromagnetic Energy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Professor D.V. Puzankov, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, graciously embraced this workshop as a part of the symposium.
In parallel with the St. Petersburg symposium, the EMCS Board of Directors met in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, site of the 2002 IEEE International Symposium on EMC. As a part of
the meeting agenda, we were able to tour the Minneapolis Convention Center to inspect the
meeting rooms and exhibition hall. The venue looks excellent from both an exhibitor as
well as attendee perspective; for example, several of the nearby hotels are connected to
the convention center by an elevated, enclosed walkway.
In case you haven't noticed, the EMCS has become a member of the IEEE Sensors Council,
IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Council, as well as the IEEE Nanotechnology
Committee, which itself is moving toward IEEE Council status. For those of you not
familiar with an IEEE Council, it is an organization formed by the merger of two or more
Societies and whose membership consists of members of those Societies. The EMCS, having
recognized the potential relationship to EMCS activities, supports these three councils
via appointed liaison personnel. Andrew Podgorski supports the Sensors Council, Mark
Montrose and Dan Hoolihan support Nanotechnology, and Andy Drozd supports Intelligent
Trans-portation Systems.
I should note that we recently decided not to pursue elevating our Newsletter to magazine status. The reasons for this are several. The recent financial analysis performed by the IEEE Technical Activities Board Financial Committee endorsed, in our view, not only excessive editorial and advertising commission fees, but also required that we raise EMC Society dues to $25 per person starting in 2002. However, I think one of the more important factors that convinced us not to proceed was the fact that in the intervening time from when this movement toward a magazine began to present day, the Newsletter has been significantly upgraded to more or less look like a magazine. The clincher was the fact that we have concluded that we can sell advertising space in the Newsletter. We shall start this activity as soon as policies can be developed and approved. In the interim, we are beginning to sell space for corporate advertising on our web page as well.
While we recently did vote to raise Society dues from $15 to $20 (our first increase since 1997) for 2002, we did so in order to meet recently mandated IEEE financial surplus guidelines. The IEEE continues to try and sort out its budgeting process and in the near term has elected to mandate surplus levels by organizing unit. At the recent TAB meetings in New Brunswick, New Jersey, there was much discussion on financial matters with the general feeling that the IEEE is finally moving towards more responsible fiscal practices in terms of balanced budgets. There will be more to come on this.
After the Montreal Symposium, the EMCS Board of Directors moves on to San Diego, California where we will convene on Tuesday, November 13th. At this meeting we will formally install Todd Hubing as President of the EMC Society, thank outgoing BOD members and welcome the newly elected members. Peter Staecker, IEEE Division IV Director, will attend our meeting as well.
I look forward to seeing and hearing from you. Feel free to call me at 781-939-4267 or send an e-mail to me at j.e.butler@ieee.org . EMC