Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1114420
60 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 let members know about the various publica- tions, newsletters, and podcasts geared to the PCB design professional. And I always ask the audience if anyone is looking for a new job or if anyone's company is looking for designers. You can't beat the networking that is a byprod- uct of bringing together a room full of design- ers. Then, I introduce our featured speaker(s), and the learning begins. And to make things fun, we always have a raffle drawing at the end of a meeting with a couple of hundred dollars in prizes graciously donated by our speakers, sponsors, and others. I won't say that's it's easy to put these events together, but since I've been president, we've done 64 events. But believe me, it's not all me. Our other officers, including Terri Kleekamp of Mentor, a Siemens Business, and Kathy Pa- lumbo of Production Analysis and Learning Services have been active in our chapter lon- ger than I have. We're also blessed with other faithful volunteers, such as Judy Warner of Al- tium, Marty Grasso of Advanced Circuits, and a few others who show up early and give us a hand setting up the room, greet- ing our attendees, giving them a name badge, hooking up comput- ers and speakers to the projector, setting up the PA system, etc. Lately, we've been putting my iPhone on a tripod to record the presentations. We always send out an email a few days after each event to provide links to down - load slideshow presentations from the speakers and to watch the pre- sentations. Further, we print out a "cheat sheet" with all of the URL links so that our attendees don't have to take notes. We also have a "bingo card" to capture contact information to keep our database current and get audience sugges - tions for topics they'd like to hear about in the future. In summary, we have a great bunch of designers and PCB pro- fessionals who come to our meet- ings. And I believe that this format lunch to attend an educational event than to tell your family that you won't be home for dinner. But the key reason that our chapter thrives is that we cover interesting topics with engaging speakers who share their knowledge and consis- tently delight our audience. Some of our biggest crowds were a result of the following topics: • Flex and rigid-flex overview and design considerations • PCB cost adders • PCB routing guidelines for signal integrity and power integrity • PCB-enabling technologies • Embedded passives • PCB design optimization starts in the CAD library • HDI technology Our meeting agenda has other elements too. I usually speak for about 10 minutes about up- coming PCB-related events, such as trade shows and conferences, as well as upcoming IPC de- signer certification workshops (Figure 2). I also Figure 2: Scott McCurdy speaking at an Orange County Chapter event.