SECRETARY'S REPORT

Alberta Larsen NPSS Secretary

The NPSS AdCom met in Annapolis, MD on 3 March 2001, our first meeting of the new millennium. We welcome Peter Winokur as our new president.  New AdCom members are Erik Heijne, Tom Lewellen, Mark Rader and Mike Unterweger. Robert Parker now heads the Plasma Science and Applications technical committee and Christian Boulin is the new chair of CANPS. Fran Zappulla of IEEE Publications was a welcome guest who spoke at length about IEEE’s role in electronic publishing.

Peter Winokur’s first action as new president was to thank Igor Alexeff for his service and present him with a plaque of appreciation.

Peter also reported on the State of the Society. See his report for details.

Three new NPSS chapters have opened in Paris, Kiev and Benelux.

Key actions taken by AdCom at this meeting include:

• Approval of two new society awards to fall under the jurisdiction of the Radiation Instrumentation Technical Committee. These include a Young Investigator award and an Outstanding Career  Award. These will be given in alternate years. This motion was approved unanimously and will be effective following TAB approval. Both awards require recipients to be members in good standing of both IEEE and NPSS.
• Modification of NPSS Bylaws to change the recently appointed ad hoc Communications Committee to a standing Functional Committee of the NPSS. Bylaw 8.6 was changed and old Bylaws 8.6 – 8.14 have been renumbered to accommodate the additional committee. This motion was approved unanimously and will be official once presented to membership via this newsletter and to TAB. AdCom also established a working budget for the committee for this year. Planned activities include preparation and distribution of a new NPSS brochure; acquisition and design of a booth that can be used either free standing or on a table top by the Membership Committee to use, expenses for NPSS volunteers to assist the membership chairman at NPSS conferences and professional design of our web pages. Other activities will be added as appropriate and at AdCom’s instruction.
• Funds were approved to provide a computer system for the membership chair to use “on the road” and for some low-level support for the Distinquished Lecturer program.
• Membership in NPSS has been unbundled from journal subscriptions.
• There will be an annual membership fee and a “permanent” membership fee to be paid once that is valid as long as one continues as a member in good standing of the IEEE. If one’s IEEE membership lapses, the permanent NPSS membership is lost.
• Annual membership including only the newsletter will be $5 and permanent membership, also including only the newsletter, will be $25.
• Print and electronic access to journals will be separated. In future there will be the option of print, electronic, or both subscriptions for NPSS journals.
• The request from EMBS for a package bundling medical imaging and related IEEE journals was approved, although with several abstentions.

The next meeting of the IEEE NPSS AdCom will be held 21 July at the Westin Bayshore Hotel, Vancouver, B.C.

Respectfully submitted,
Albe Larsen

Albe Larsen, the NPSS Secretary, can be reached at the Stanford linear Accelerator Center, P.O. Box 4939, Stanford, CA  94309; Phone: +1 650 926-2748; Fax: +1 650 926-5124; E-mail: a.larsen@ieee.org 

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