It is my pleasure to welcome you to our spring conference. The geographic diversity of our conferences has been a great success not only in terms of paper submissions and total conference attendance, but also in terms of the overall quality of the VTC experience. Our site selection committee has been bold in their choice of locations and all of us have benefited from the opportunity to go places that we might not otherwise visit. Birmingham, Alabama certainly qualifies as one of those wonderful places that conferences like VTC do not often visit. This year alone we will have an opportunity to visit the southern US in the spring, and the Canadian Pacific Northwest in the fall. What a great contrast of scenery, people and culture! I hope you fully enjoy these two wonderful locations, and take advantage of all the entertainment available in the area.

As some of you may know, the organization of a large technical conference like VTC is a major endeavor that involves a very large number of people, mainly volunteers who are members of the local IEEE Vehicular Technology Society chapter. The continuing success of our conferences depends heavily on the quality work of these committed members of VTS. I must tell you how impressed I am with the enthusiasm of the local members who are responsible for organizing this conference. I thank them for their generous gift of time and energy, and hope that it may inspire some of you when you return to your communities to consider sponsoring a future VTC. Our conference committee led by Mel Lewis is ready and willing to listen to your proposals and to provide you with all the support needed. We invite you to become an active participant in VTS and experience the joy of being a member of a winning team.

The final word on the success of this conference depends heavily on the breadth and quality of the technical program and on the interchange of ideas that takes place during the sessions and outside the meeting rooms. We ask for your participation as presenters and as participants, and look forward to stimulating discussions in the various sessions that were carefully designed to bring into focus the state-of-the-art research in our fields of interest. We continue to be the leading conference on mobile communications, while expanding our coverage of other aspects of mobility such as vehicular electronics and transportation systems. Our byline Connecting the Mobile World best encapsulates the VTS commitment to all aspects of mobile technology.

Those of us who have attended VTC for the past year have gotten to know the Chairman of this IEEE 55thVehicular Technology Conference, Preston Jackson, for his eloquent and passionate invitations to visit his beloved city of Birmingham. It is my pleasure to thank Preston and his conference committee for their excellent implementation of this elaborate conference.

Finally, I wish you a pleasant and safe stay in Birmingham.

J. R. CRUZ, President
IEEE Vehicular Technology Society