CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS

Cooperation between the Northern California IEEE/LEOS and OSA Local Chapters

During the LEOS annual meeting, it was announced that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of LEOS and the Optical Society of Northern California (OSNC) has been signed, to enumerate and formalize areas of cooperation. “This cooperative effort has met with wide approval, not just with the officers of OSNC but with our membership and the various optical related groups within Northern California” said Paul Robb, Chairman of the OSNC. Areas of cooperation in the MOU include:

• Coordination and co-sponsorship of our monthly meetings. This in effect doubles the number of meetings available to the members. Efforts were made to not conflict with other events, and use the same day of the week. For example, OSNC meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of the month in Palo Alto, and LEOS meets on the 4th Tuesday of the month in Milpitas.
• Cross-linking our web pages with hyperlinks to each other’s www calendar listings. The SCV LEOS web page is www.silicavalley.com and the OSNC uses www.osnc.org.
• Make available each other’s flyers, calendars, membership info, and other items at our respective meetings. For example, LEOS announced and distributed registration materials and programs for the OSA annual meeting, which was being held in Santa Clara. Likewise for the LEOS annual meeting surprisingly, many of the attendees weren’t aware that the other society was holding a meeting in their own back yard!
• Cover for each other in case of emergency, such as a speaker’s untimely cancellation or a venue being suddenly unavailable for an announced event.
• Share speaker prospects lists with each other, and generally team up to secure speakers. “This has been of extreme value to OSNC where a number of leads and potential speakers have been provided to OSNC by the IEEE/LEOS SCV Chapter and resulted in significant and timely presentations to the OSNC community,” said Paul Griffiths, OSNC Program Chairman.
• Cross-post each other’s event announcements on our respective e-mail lists. This is evolving into a monthly newsletter sent out to both Chapters’ membership. The first issue of “Light News” was 11 pages long and contained nine announcements for meetings in November 1999 alone (submissions can be sent to editor@silicavalley.com).
• List the OSNC meetings in the IEEE San Francisco Bay Area Council magazine “The Grid.”
• Expand our network and work with other societies, schools, and organizations in the local area that are interested in optical science.
• Pool our ideas for student outreach, entrepreneurship, and secondary education. “This activity has significantly improved both our reach and the support we can provide to potential High School and Junior College students that are looking for possible fields to enter,” said Paul Griffiths.
• Commence discussions to hold a Northern California Optics Workshop in 2000. There is a large list of local groups willing to team up to form the organizing committee: SPIE, Stanford OSA Chapter, IEEE Communications Society, American Opthalmology Association, Laser Institute of America, California Laser safety Officers Association, California Astronomy Society, and the American Society for Laser Surgery & Medicine.

It is hoped that by the teaming up of SCV LEOS and OSNC, lecture quality will improve and up of SCV LEOS and OSNC will minimize Duplication of effort. “Given the strong correlation noted between promotion and meeting attendance, this should increase both the numbers and broaden the audience of the monthly meetings,” said Vipul Badoni, Vice-Chairman of SCV LEOS.

For a list of meetings for the 1999-2000 season please contact:

Robert Dahlgren,
Chairman
IEEE/LEOS Santa Clara Valley Chapter
PO Box 60845,
Sunnyvale, CA 94088
bob.dahigren@ieee.org

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