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met in Tucson, AZ following the July 2008 NSREC meeting. We were
treated to a visit by Sherry Russ and Elsie Cabrera of IEEE Meeting
and Conference Planning who spent time with us on Friday at a meeting
called principally for Technical Committee chairs that focused on
Conference Basics, especially for new conference organizers (if
you are interested in a copy of their presentation, I’ll be
glad to send you one either electronically or in paper), and then
on Saturday morning at the start of our AdCom meeting they gave
a presentation on their services and how they can be of help to
our conferences.
Ed Lampo provided, in his Treasurer’s report, a Guide to Closing
Conferences. This will be incorporated into the NPSS Conference
Manual, a supplement to the IEEE Manual designed specifically for
our conferences. We still have one conference that is unclosed after
three years! The new guidelines from IEEE auditors require conferences
to close in the year in which they are held. Ed also noted that
beginning in 2010 a new algorithm will be used to distribute income
from publications that is expected to hurt us significantly.
Tony Lavietes, our Assistant Treasurer, talked about the new tool
under development for conference treasurers. It is now in beta test
and should be available next year. While it allows for some customization,
it also allows easy comparison of budgets for past and present conferences,
and for preparing budgets for future conferences, as well as tracking
income and expenses while a conference is active. This will upload
to QuickBooks, and will also conform to what is needed for IEEE’s
conference audits. Training will be provided for conference treasurers,
and society treasurers will also have access to ease the budget
approval and close-out processes. Ultimately IEEE will maintain
this software.
Tony also discussed the Network Shop. This huge quantity of equipment
(computers, badge printers, wireless mics, both lavalier and hand
held, mixers, routers and so on) are available for use at our conferences
at good savings over most hotel or conference center prices. Contact
Tony if you have any interest (lavietes1@llnl.gov).
Tony will also attend the Sensors Council AdCom meeting in Italy
in October.
Jane Lehr, our President, reported that a new board has been formed
to mediate between IEEE operating units (OUs). Heretofore, all disputes
went to the Board of Directors
Our new Technical Field Award, the Marie Curie Award for outstanding
contributions o the field of nuclear and plasma science and engineering
was approved by TABARC. Approval by the IEEE Awards Board is expected
shortly. This is a fully endowed award discussed further in Peter
Winokur’s Awards Committee report.
Jane reported, too, a concern that chairmen of conferences to be
held in China know that a government certificate approving the conference
is required.
IEEE membership is up for the first time in a number of years. NPSS
membership is fairly steady, but the churn rate (turnover) is fairly
high.
Jane and Paul Dressendorfer, our Publications Committee chairman,
also talked about the recent IEEE Publications Committee Review
held in Denver in June. NPSS publications did very well and we do
much better by quite a bit than the IEEE guidelines for time to
publication. Many of you who have followed this history will know
that this has taken huge amounts of work by our journal editors-in-chief,
Paul Dressendorfer (TNS) and Steve Gitomer (TPS) and this had been
facilitated by Allison Larkin at IEEE Publications, who helps significantly.
Hal Flescher, NPSS’s Finance Committee chair and IEEE TAB’s
vice-president elect, talked at length about the IEEE Technology
Roadmap Project, a way for industries and individuals to tap into
IEEE’s extensive technical resources. The road map is in need
of populating with tags (read key words) since at present there
are only about 900 tags. Check out http://ieee.weebly.com/
if you’re interested, or would like to contribute tags. Ask
yourself what you or a colleague might want or need within IEEE.
Technical Committee Reports
Several of the technical committees have provided reports that appear
below.
CANPS notes that Beijing was the final selection for the 2009 Real
Time Conference. All of the groups presenting proposals for Asian
sites will participate, but IHEP will provide the chair, co-chair
and treasurer. A preliminary budget is complete.
PSAC has elected new members to its Steering Group and at this year’s
conference 121 new IEEE memberships were recorded. The 2009 ICOPS
will be in San Diego, collocating with SOFE. Future conferences:
2010: Hampton Roads, VA; 2011: Chicago collocated with SOFE; 2012:
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Pulsed Power reported that the 2007 PPPS (PP, ICOPS, SFE) has closed.
Two special publications resulted from this conference, one this
past April and the other expected in October 2008.
Radiation Instrumentation is planning a full Nuclear Power Symposium
along with NSS in 2009. It seems likely that the 2011 conference
will be held in Spain. The 2009 conference in Orlando and 2010 conference
in Knoxville are far along in the planning stages.
Functional Committees
Again, reports from several of these committees appear below.
The Meetings, Policies and Procedures committee, chaired by Ray
Larsen, will meet in Dresden on October 24th. They will work to
simplify guidance, and also work on web site updates. The discussion
of a conference planner at IEEE HQ was discussed in great detail
and a motion introduced to hire one-half FTE for 2009 to assist
with our conferences. If this is successful, this time might be
expanded. Conferences who use professional conference planners feel
there is considerable benefit in relieving some of the burden on
volunteers, although the volunteers maintain control of conference
decisions.
The Membership committee, Christoph Ilgner, chair, again seeks recruiters
to assist at conferences. In addition, a group has started to look
at elevating members to senior grades and how to retain and involve
members. Those who become involved with their conferences seem to
have great longevity as members.
The Chapters and Local Activities committee chair, and Distinguished
Lecturers coordinator, Steve Gold, reports three inactive chapters,
one of which needs to be reactivated. The Distinguished Lecturers
program, despite a pool of 17 excellent lecturers, has had a slow
start. Encourage your chapters, sections, and student sections to
use this resource. See the list below under Distinguished Lecturers.
People near to you should especially be considered.
Nominations chair, Bill Moses, noted that three AdCom seats are
to be filled. Ballots with excellent candidates have been mailed
first class to ensure timely receipt by members. VOTE!!
Peter Clout, chairman of the Communications Committee, reminded
us that in 2009, with a new president, we will need a new NPSS brochure.
If you have any wonderful and appropriate photos that might be considered
for inclusion in the brochure, send them to Peter (clout@vista-control.com).
Both Patrick LeDû, our Transnational Conferences Coordinator
and Maxim Titov, vice-chair of the Transnational Committee, reported
on the increase in international activity. As Europe was the ‘new
frontier’ in 2000, Asia is the new frontier today.
Liaisons
Ray Larsen reported on the recently formed Humanitarian Technology
Challenge, a recent IEEE-UN collaboration related to the Millennium
Development Goals. See his article below.
Gerry Rogoff, our liaison to the Coalition for Plasma Science reported
on the continued activities with Congress, congressional staffers
and with K-12 teachers. CPS also sponsors a plasma science award
at the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair. Of nine
plasma science entries this year, an exhibit, “The Creation
of a Simple Discharge Device Using an Aspirator,” by Misaki
Makino from Chiba, Japan was selected the winner. CPS now has twelve
briefing sheets available. The most recent is on Plasma and Flames.
Visit their web site for more information: www.plasmacoalition.org.
AdCom Actions
• AdCom confirmed the e-mail vote to technically cosponsor
the 6th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on
Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface
Technologies (2009 NPIC&HMIT), to be held April 5-9, 2009 in
Knoxville, TN.
• The Computer Applications in Nuclear and Plasma Sciences
TC moved to provide technical co-sponsorship of the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA) International SpaceWire Conference (SpaceWire2008)
to be held November 4-6, 2008, in Nara, Japan. The motion was seconded,
but failed because of unclear NPSS involvement.
• It is moved, seconded and passed that the NPSS create the
Valentin T. Jordanov Radiation Instrumentation Travel Grant. This
is a privately funded grant that will, if approved by TABARC and
the IEEE Awards Board, be awarded through the Radiation Instrumentation
TC.
• The Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society approves renaming
the IEEE Young Investigator Medical Imaging Science Award, awarded
annually by the NMISTC at its Medical Imaging Conference, in honor
of Bruce H. Hasegawa. This award will henceforth be known as the
“The Bruce H. Hasegawa Young Investigator Medical Imaging
Science Award.”
• AdCom approved that the Radiation Instrumentation Technical
Committee’s Young Investigator Award and Outstanding Achievement
Award each be awarded on an annual basis.
• It was moved, seconded and passed that IEEE NPSS technically
cosponsor the ANIMMA (Advances in Nuclear Instrumentation Measurement
Methods and Their Applications) conference.
• It was moved, seconded and passed to increase the amount
of the PSAC award to $3000, funded by the NPSS Plasma Science and
Applications Committee (ICOPS).
• AdCom hereby authorizes expenditures of up to $20k per year
to cover the travel and living expenses of distinguished lecturers
in making presentations at NPSS Chapter or IEEE Sections or Student
Chapter meetings.
• Increase in Travel Allowance: “Voting AdCom members
and functional committee chairs are budgeted up to $2,500 per year
reimbursement for travel expenses to AdCom meetings ($3,500 for
travel trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific). However, members are encouraged
to use other sources of travel funds, if possible, and expenses
will not be reimbursed for travel to meetings that they would otherwise
attend.”
• It was approved by AdCom that, beginning in 2009, the Newsletter
would be published four times a year (March, June, September and
December).
• AdCom approved that the NPSS budget $50k in 2009 to provide
IEEE Meeting Planning Services to NPSS sponsored conferences.
• It was moved that every three (3) years, NPSS AdCom will
perform a formal review of each Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of the following
IEEE publications:
1. The IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.
2. The IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science.
3. The NPSS Newsletter.
Following a formal review that has been approved by AdCom, AdCom
has the option to approve the EIC for an additional 3-year term.
There is no explicit term limit.
Albe Larsen, NPSS Secretary and Newsletter Editor, can be reached
at SLAC, MS66, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA, Phone: +1 650
926 2748; Fax: +1 650 926 5124; E-mail: amlarsen@slac.stanford.edu.
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