Community Magazine

Community-Fall2025

IPC International Community magazine an association member publication

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8 6 C O M M U N I T Y M A G A Z I N E FA L L 2 0 2 5 From Mailing Standards to Guiding Them B I T S & B Y T E S By Barry Matties, Contributing Writer, Community Magazine John Perry has been in and around the industry for most of his life, thanks to his mom John Perry's journey with the Global Electronics Association started when he was 8 years old, inspired by his mother's role in organizing IPC company meetings. Driven by his passion for aviation and standards, he went on to a career in com- puter science and IT. Today, he is the director of Printed Boards Standards & Technology for the Association, collaborating with industry leaders, including those at Lockheed Martin. Barry Matties: John, you have a long history with the Global Electronics Association, thanks to your mother. Tell me how you got started. John Perry: Yes, she (Virginia Bergman) was the manager of the Meetings Department. This was in the early 1980s, when we had two semiannual meetings in the spring and fall. There was no IPC APEX EXPO back then. She would scout and book the location, and put together the sched- ule for the entire event, including all the committee meet- ings for standards, the tech paper sessions, and any work- shops. I'd come home from school, and the dining room table would just be laid out with all kinds of papers. She would also do the layout for the schedule onsite, which we on staff affectionately called the "Pocket Weasel," because people could shove the schedule in their pockets. But there was no word pro- cessor for her to work on, no Microsoft Office. She was making corrections with X-ACTO blades and those little white strips. I think it was Avery's white strips. The papers would be strewn out for weeks, and then she'd compile them all and bring them to the print- ers, and that was how she put together the onsite guide. Find John here:

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