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18 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2015 by Judy Warner zeNTeCH MANuFACTuRING As a Southern California native and an in- dustry veteran, the name Scott McCurdy is a familiar one for me. Scott has been in the elec- tronics industry for 40+ years. Thirty-two of those years were spent building and running McCurdy Circuits, a successful PCB fabrication facility in Orange County. These days, Scott is focused on the design side of things as the di- rector of sales and marketing for Freedom CAD Services, the largest independent design bureau in the nation. In his not-so-spare- time, he is also the president of the largest chapter of the IPC De- signers Council in the country. Despite the fact that I've known about Scott since the mid-1980s, we only just met within the last year. Shortly after meeting Scott, he be- gan encouraging me to attend the local Designers Council meetings that he hosts approximately 3–4 times per year in Irvine, California. Thankfully, although I stood him up for a couple of meetings, he per- sisted (a little friendly harassment) and eventu- ally, pushing skepticism aside, I got around to finally experiencing what he was so enthused about. From Reluctance to Raving Fan When I finally made that first meeting last March, I arrived late. As I tried to slink in the door unnoticed, I awkwardly realized there wasn't an empty seat in the house--until one magically appeared in the back of the room. I was awestruck by the attendance of 77 other- wise busy designers and electronics profession- als who filled the room. Tom Hausherr of PCB Libraries was the featured speaker for my first meeting. The next meeting was held in June at a mem- ber location, Broadcom. That meeting featured two speakers: Matt Isaacs, technical director of Broadcom and Julie Ellis, a field application en- gineer with TTM; nearly 100 people attended. My third meeting, which took place at Harvard Park Community Center in Irvine on Novem- McCurdy: How to Build a Successful IPC Designers Council Chapter feature Scott McCurdy