Our Fall OCEANS Conference will be in Seattle 20–23 September. Past OCEANS Conferences in Seattle have been very successful and we have an experienced Local Organizing Committee responsible for OCEANS’ 10. I would recommend that you register and make your hotel reservations early since we are expecting a full house. This year’s conference should be very exciting with a technical track on Ocean Energy.
     The AUV 2010 Workshop will be in Monterey, California 1–3 September and Bill Kirkwood and the Local Organizing Committee have put together an exceptional workshop to take place on the grounds of the Naval Postgraduate School. The workshop will be a good opportunity to receive an update on the latest AUV technology and interact with scientists and engineers in the AUV field.
     We will be having our Baltic Symposium in Riga, Latvia 25–27 August at the University of Latvia which should have many interesting presentations on the Baltic Sea and surrounding areas. Riga is a very lovely city with much history and very reasonable prices for accommodations. Our past Baltic Symposiums have attracted a lot of interest.
     OCEANS’10 IEEE/OES Sydney 24–27 May was very successful with good attendance and an excellent technical program. Much new technology was presented during the technical sessions as well as in the exhibit area. Our thanks go to Brian Ferguson, the Conference Chair and the Local Organizing Committee for all their hard work that resulted in such a fine conference. The attendance for the tutorials was the most we have had in many years and the student poster contest attracted much interest.
     I attended the IEEE Board Meetings in late June and there are many new activities taking place in the IEEE. The Smart Grid Project should improve the electrical distribution systems in the country and should reduce our energy consumption significantly. This is the kind of project that IEEE is excellent with and should produce very exciting results. We will also be addressing the issue of open access and working to reduce the IEEE dues structure.
     Our membership in OES continues to grow and we are planning to update our web site and continue to emphasize our student programs. We have many opportunities for volunteers so please contact me if you are interested in some of our activities.