Conformity Magazine - October 2008 - (Page 13)

his is a follow-up article to the one published by Conformity in April 2004 which detailed the trials and tribulations of forming a new society for safety engineers within the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). It took nearly 17 years to create the Society, and now that five years have passed, it is time to inform our members and those interested in product safety how the Society is doing and about our future plans for growth. Origins Creating a new Society within the IEEE took many years of hard work with a team of dedicated engineers and interested parties. Once created, the real work began. Creating a Society was a challenge, but we never realized the magnitude of work that would be required to kick-start the Society into operation. The first Board of Directors meeting was held at Dell Computer, Austin, Texas. Per the Bylaws, the Administrative Committee (ADCOM) was to consist of six experienced directors or board members from other Societies within the IEEE, appointed by the Division Directors Forum (Division Directors sit on the Board of Directors of the IEEE), and six members appointed by the Product Safety steering committee which created the Society through the IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB). Unfortunately, only one experienced director showed up. The six safety volunteers (appointees) had no experience or T knowledge in IEEE administration. This left us to figure out how to create an ADCOM to the new Society’s president, Mark Montrose, who had been appointed to the position by the president of the IEEE and its Board of Directors. Henry Benitez was appointed president-elect of the Society at this first meeting. Both the president and the president-elect were sitting members of the IEEE EMC Society and thus had some fundamental knowledge of IEEE ADCOM experience at the Society level. The first action item (using a bottle of water as the gavel) was to figure out who would assume the offices of vice-president (there are four VPs in the Society), as well as term limits of one, two or three years until a complete elected board had been established by the membership, per our transitional bylaws. When there were two volunteers for a position, the decision on who got the job was settled using that timehonored decision breaking protocol, rock, paper, scissors. In fact, at our first meeting, we had no idea if we had any members or not! It would be a year before we learned how many joined this new Society in its first year of existence. Once the ADCOM was established with senior leadership (Executive Committee, EXCOM, i.e., the president, presidentelect, vice-presidents, secretary and treasurer), we had to figure out the task assignment of each office and discuss how to develop an infrastructure that would provide benefit to Society members, which were very few due to minimal 901 Sheldon Dr., RTP (Cary), NC 27513 USA oCtober 2008 Conformity 13 http://www.productsafet.com http://www.productsafet.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Conformity Magazine - October 2008

Conformity Magazine - October 2008 Contents Editor's Note FCC Releases Annual Report on National Do-Not-Call Registry Commission Cracks Down (for the Fourth Time!) On Junk Fax Marketer FCC Releases Quarterly Reports on Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Greenpeace Ranks Electronics Manufacturers Standards List For The EU’s Energy Consumption Directive Published EU Commission Publishes Standards List for Directives on Pressure Equipment, Pressure Vessels Standards List for the EU’s Medical Devices Directive Available The IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society: The First Five Years ESD Open Forum Improving Election Security and Accuracy: The Future of Voting System Certification Conformity Assessment and Accreditation: Their Role in the Global Market Design Issues in Extreme EMC Environment Focus On... Test Equipment Buyers Guide Product News Updated Standards List for EU Directive on Active Implantable Medical Devices FDA Warns of Effects from CT Scans on Electronic Medical Devices FDA Provides Report Card on Its PMA Review Process CPSC Releases Import Safety Strategy Other CPSC Actions in the News IEC Standards Update Product Reviews UL Standards Update Telcordia Standards Update From Our “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” Department Looking Back: Items from Past Issues of Conformity Advertisers

Conformity Magazine - October 2008

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