Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1236528
84 PCB007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2020 on right now around the COVID-19 outbreak. But in terms of the other ongoing activities at IPC, Teresa, can you give us an overview of the impact that's taking place on the daily work- load there? Teresa Rowe: Certainly. Staff liaisons have a number of projects that they've been working on for a while that are due to be released this year and even out into 2021, and work goes on with those. What we're noticing is that with people indoors and at home, they have extra time, and since standards development is vol- unteer, we see them call into meetings when we may not have had them on the calls be- fore because they have other responsibilities at their job. This is evidenced by a call that we had just earlier this week where the group that normally would be about a dozen peo- ple, we had 41 on the call, and it represented more than 10 countries from around the world. We're really excited to be able to have their presence, although sad for the reason why we have them there. Matties: That must be quite a bit to manage on a call like that. Rowe: It is, but we have strong leaders who are able to work through the issues with the commu- nications. We have ways of voting online through our Zoom links. All in all, it's a very positive out- come, and things are moving forward. Matties: Now, Dave, you've been in standards for a while and also a virtual association. What sort of changes are people taking into the stan- dards meeting? Is there more direction around one standard than another? Give us an update on the actual topics. Dave Bergman: It runs the full gamut. I guess what I'd like to then at least start with, about four years ago now, IPC essentially became a virtual office. Our headquarters has always been in the Chicago area. We still have a pres- ence in the Chicago area, though the office is significantly smaller than it was at one point, with staff being dispersed around the country and the world. Because of that change, IPC became very comfortable at the staff level in working in a virtual environment. We're work- ing from home. We work from the road, so it's basically second nature to us now. We've gone through a series of tools, and we've settled on our current tool and use it very heavily in staff- to-staff communications. We have then been rolling that out in work with our committee members, and they seem to be getting additionally comfortable in the virtual meetings. Depending on the commit- tee, typically, they would meet in face-to-face meetings once or twice a year, which has been our historical trend, but more increasingly— because of the amount of work and the need for accelerating the development of some of the standards—there will be committees that meet biweekly or weekly for a shorter period of time so that they can deal with their com- mittee efforts in smaller chunks. There will be staff liaisons that have regular weekly meet- ings with their individual committees. From a topic standpoint, Teresa, we have over 30-some standards currently in the pipe- line that we expect to release this year? Did I remember that number correctly? Rowe: That is correct. It's standards, white pa- pers, guidelines, and handbooks. It runs the gamut as well. Bergman: Barry, it's not just one specific topic; it is all areas. We're focusing on design, printed circuit boards, the materials, and the assembly pieces. We are now starting to toy or not, but we're working to develop additional activities in cybersecurity. That's a new project. That's not one that we would expect to be published this year, but it all wraps around efforts that our members and the industry have brought up as topics of interest. Matties: It's a really serious matter, so I'm glad to hear that you are working in the cybersecu- rity realm. Bergman: With cybersecurity, we've kind of been on the fringes based on some of the in-