Conformity Magazine - October 2008 - (Page 14)

marketing of our new Society by IEEE. That’s because we were the first new Society to be established from a Technical Committee in nearly 20 years, and our business model did not fit into the realm of typical marketing and merchandising normally performed when a Council was created. A “Council” is similar to a “Society,” except that Council members are Societies with an affinity for a particular “field of interest,” but have no direct or individual members. IEEE had only listed us in their membership renewal brochure, and had not issued a press release. That made our new Society the best kept secret within the IEEE, a Society that nobody in the world knew about because IEEE did not know how to announce us. This, despite our having made representations to the senior management at the IEEE that our new Society would one day have over 1,500 members! We started out with a $25,000 grant from Underwriters Laboratories, no publication, no newsletter, no conferences, no chapters, no infrastructure, no policies nor procedures, no history, and no gavel. Essentially, we got to create our destiny with a clean sheet of paper. This is what some call having fun! The Annual Symposium The biggest concern for the Board was figuring out how to establish benefits that would make product safety engineers want to join a new Society that had nothing to offer except the prestige of being a charter member. So it was decided to hold a Product Safety Engineering Symposium in the very first year of the Society’s existence. Henry Benitez was named to chair the symposium. Benitez formed a committee with Richard Nute as technical program chair, Richard Georgerian as vicechair, and Daniel Arnold as treasurer. That group, along with an abundance of inexperienced but enthusiastic volunteers, succeeded in putting on a very successful Symposium in record time. The Symposium was held in Santa Clara, CA as a follow-up to the IEEE EMC Symposium. Santa Clara seemed to be the perfect place for our new Society’s first Symposium, as that is where the Society got its start in the late 1980s. It also allowed the new Product Safety Engineering Society (PSES) to attract EMC members who were attending the EMC Symposium and who were also interested in product safety. Rich Nute did a stellar job putting together the technical program. With such a wealth of product safety information and no prior forum for sharing, the technical program was overwhelming. Exhibits were open throughout the Symposium, although they looked like a ghost town during the technical sessions. Subsequent conferences were restructured so that the exhibit hall was open only during breaks and lunch, permitting vendors to attend paper sessions. In 2004, one of the first action items for the PSES Board of Directors was to create a logo. Accordingly, a contest was held, with the members of the Society choosing our logo from numerous entries received. The winning logo was presented at the 2004 Symposium, submitted by a team of safety engineers from Siemic, located in China. This showed the IEEE and the IEEE TAB that the PSES was an international society from the beginning. Photo 1: Board of Directors at first PSES ADCOM meeting. Front row (from left to right): Richard Georgerian, Jim Bacher; Middle row: Murlin Marks, Dan Arnold, Richard Doyle, Daniece Carpenter, Rich Pescatore; Back row: Jack Burns, Dan Roman, Henry Benitez, George Gregory, Gregg Kervill, Mark Montrose Photo 2: BOD Meeting at our first Conference, Santa Clara, California Photo 3: Presentation of the PSES Logo to the membership 1 Conformity oCtober 2008

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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