Presidents' Message

Hello again! As you read this, I will be preparing for my second board meeting as President. I am pleased to introduce two new members to the board: Mark Lapinskes (Sypris) and Jim Salsbury (Mitutoyo). Mark was appointed because of the vacancy created by Malcolm Smith's transition as our new Executive Vice President. Roxanne Robinson has replaced Malcolm Smith as the VP of International Affairs. Mark has been active as the Education Liaison committee chair. Jim Salsbury was appointed to replace Tom Wunsch, who resigned his position because of a job change. Jim has been active as the committee chair for Dimensional Metrology.

Besides being crowned by the board in January (literally – a purple crown with jewels!), I was also asked to restructure board agendas to make the best use of the board's time. In order to do this I plan on conducting two operational board meetings in April and October, and holding a strategic board meeting in August in conjunction with the annual Workshop and Symposium. Board meetings are always open and the board welcomes participation from the membership. Operational board meetings will focus on the details of running the organization, literally the business operations and the processes being used to accomplish our strategic goals. Strategic board meetings will focus on setting the vision and direction of NCSLI, but will still allow for brief operational reports by NMI's, liaisons and committee chairs.

It is also time for me to report to you on the progress we are making on the two key initiatives for 2008 that I introduced in January. The first initiative focused on education and training, an area that is drawing the attention of many in the metrology community. At the January board meeting, the board voted to change the title of the Vice President of Education and Training to the Vice President of Learning and Development. An article appears elsewhere in this issue that covers the background of the name change. There was a NCSLI Conference Visioning meeting held in February to work towards improving the annual conference. One of the goals of this meeting was to better design the conference for learning. Plans were developed for both short range (2008) and long range changes to create a better environment for learning at the conference. I am excited to see so many of our members involved in the learning and development activities of NCSLI, and encourage your continued participation.

The second key initiative focused on developing an international strategy for the board and for the organization as a whole. The board held a workshop in January with broad representation from the international community. Because of this workshop, an international task group was formed and short and long-term actions were identified. While additional work is necessary, the board made significant progress in accomplishing this goal.

World Metrology Day is coming on May 20. Check for celebrations near you. The NCSLI Conference website is up and waiting for your registration. Did you see the list of tutorials being offered this year? It's incredible! This is such an exciting time to be involved in metrology!

Carol Hockert
NCSLI President 2008