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88 The PCB Magazine • December 2015 mittees. I started as a vice chair, did some task group work, then moved to general chair and became part of the TAEC a number of years ago and I am currently a lifetime member. Approxi- mately a year and a half ago I was nominated to be the chairman of the TAEC; it is a great honor to be selected by my peers to lead that group for two years. Goldman: Why don't you tell us a little about what TAEC is—a lot of people might not know about it. Michalkiewicz: That is definitely true. The TAEC is made up of all the general committee chairs and vice chairs—and there are many standards committees. For example, there's Cleaning and Coating (5-30), Testing (7-10), Fabrication (PCB) Processes (4-10), PCB Base Materials (3-10), As- sembly & Joining (5-20) and many others. Each has a general chair and vice chair, and usually several subcommittees reporting to it. There are many different groups represented. I'm actually the chair of the Testing commit- tee (7-10). All the general chairs get together in the TAEC meetings. We are responsible for the management function related to standardiza- tion within the IPC. We make decisions about committee work within the IPC, standards and specification development, and the standard- ization of these policies and procedures. All new standards-related projects that are initiated must be approved by the TAEC, and we have come up with a good process to vet these new ideas. This is the higher-level work of the gen- eral chairmen. Goldman: How has it been during your tenure? I know your term is for two years. Michalkiewicz: That's right, two years. I have one more meeting, but I have about another six months or so. I've really enjoyed it. One of the things that we've initiated while I've been the chairman is to shorten our specification/publi- cation cycle to three years, which is quite a task when you're reviewing a whole specification. The push for the shortened cycle is to make sure that our standards keep up with technology ad- vancement. Goldman: How is that working with travel cut down? There used to be interim meetings every January, but I would guess most people couldn't justify attending. Michalkiewicz: Standards writing and reviewing does take time, but we're doing more and more via teleconference and that can be an hour long. It's not like you have to spend a whole eight-hour session here to get something ac- complished. It could be once a month doing a conference call and things get accomplished. Goldman: That's a big time and money saver. That has to make the process much more efficient. What else is going on? Michalkiewicz: Another thing we are just be- ginning is a mentorship program. We're going to work with younger or less experienced engi- neers or new people coming into the field, and we're going to partner them with a mentor or a subject matter expert. They will be paired with a veteran IPC leader to work together and to help that person grow. Goldman: How is that going? Michalkiewicz: It's just getting started. It has just been announced, and we already have some people interested. The person being mentored will be able to attend sessions (being somewhat financially supported by the IPC). They will renee with Ipc's dave Bergman, conducting a taec meeting. FeATure inTerview WORKING FOR THE INDUSTRY: NTS' RENEE MICHALKIEWICZ