Last year the Communications Committee was established with the charter of promoting the mission and activities of the NPSS by preparing a web site, brochures and displays for membership recruitment, and other promotional tools as required.

The first job of the committee was to prepare a brochure to inform members and non-members alike of the full range of activities of our society. With input from many people associated with the society administration and a professional design company to implement the brochure, the brochure was produced in time for distribution at the first and following meetings of the year. The brochure was also mailed to members of the society and also to IEEE members who were not NPSS members but had an interest profile suggesting that they could be induced to join.

The artwork developed for the brochure was then used to print a poster for recruitment and this poster has been distributed as requests have come in.

For quite some time Vern Price has traveled to NPSS meetings to set up a recruitment booth to recruit IEEE and NPSS members. In 2001 we developed a simple booth with graphics that could be set up in many ways to make a more attractive and effective recruitment booth and this booth has been to many meetings.

Finally, our web site has had a re-design to make it more attractive and effective as an information source.

It has been a busy year for the committee and I would like to thank all the members for the help and support that they have given as well as everyone else who has contributed to the production and distribution of the brochures and posters.

I always welcome comments that will help us do a better job. What should we be saying to better represent the Society to members and potential members? More importantly, what can we do or do better to serve our members and the technical fields that we represent?

I would welcome requests for posters and brochures for you to use at your workplace to tell colleagues about our society and the work we do to support the profession.

Peter Clout, Chair of the NPSS Communications Committee, can be reached at Vista Control Systems, Inc., 176 Central Park Square, Los Alamos, NM 87544-4031; Phone: +1 505 662-2484; Fax: +1 505 662-3956; E-mail clout@vista-control.com