IEEE PRODUCT SAFETY TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

CHICAGO CHAPTER

MINUTES OF December 10, 2003 MEETING

Attendees (* designates IEEE members)

*Ken Thomas (chairman), *Tom Brenner (secretary), Dwayne Davis, Rick Hoekstra,
* Barbara Kelkhoff, *Carla Robinson, *Lee Schmitz, * Mark Haynes, * Doug Harris, Dan Sebek, Dan Nachtigall, Paul Kowalsky, John Knecht, Pete Stevens, Syed Rizvi

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  1. Held at Gino’s East in Rosemont, IL as combined business meeting and holiday party, the meeting was called to order by Ken Thomas at 5:45 PM. Introduction of members and guests followed.
  2. Summary of relevant topics covered at a recent IEEE Chicago Section meeting attended by Ken Thomas and Tom Brenner. Two significant points:
  3. We do not need to come up with our own constitution and bylaws and are in fact bound by those of the Chicago Section. The Rules & Regs group will address appropriate revisions/addenda specific to our chapter.
  4. The 2004 budget was submitted to the Chicago section for approval, We should know if it’s approved sometime in January.
  5. NARTE (National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers) will offer accreditation for product safety engineers, analogous to that for EMC engineers. During an introductory period lasting until August 2004, membership will be granted to applicants who submit an application, fee and sample questions for a NARTE examination that will ultimately be created as a basis for accreditation.
  6. Art Michaels, publisher of International Product Safety News, will offer a $35 rebate on subscriptions to ISPN to new IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society members as an incentive to join the IEEE and the new PSES.
  7. Officers will be elected at the next chapter meeting . Send your nominations for Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer to Ken Thomas before January 16, 2004. You can nominate any IEEE chapter member, including your very own self.
  8. Committee reports
  9. Summary of Web Group activity by Dwayne Davis. The chapter website is really looking good and has drawn over 1400 hits already since September. It was agreed that the member list will be password protected. It was also discussed that training is needed so that other members can help maintain the web site.
  10. Ideas for presentations at future meetings were made and discussed. Ken announced that there are 4 technical meeting topics and 2 personal development topics that can be scheduled for next year. Next speaker tbd by the presentation group.
  11. Rules & Regs group – See Item 2.
  12. Carla Robinson, Secretary of the IEEE EMC Society Chicago chapter, informed us that time will be allowed for product safety presentations at the 2004 IEEE EMC Symposium in Santa Clara, CA held August 9-13, 2004. The Chicago EMC Society chapter would like to consider doing the same for the 2005 EMC Symposium, which will be in Chicago August 8-12, 2005.
  13. Business meeting adjourned at 6:45 PM. Pizza, salad and soft drinks were served.

Next meeting date and location – to be announced. It will most likely be in March, 2004.

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Brenner

Secretary – PSTC Chicago Chapter