Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/688506
46 The PCB Magazine • June 2016 by Patty Goldman EDITOR CEOs, CTOs, VPs, presidents, upper man- agement, even engineers and worker bees: I call out to you to read this message. Your very life, at least your working life, may depend on it and I am truly not being dramatic. I had the opportunity in mid-April to attend IPC's IMPACT 2016 conference in Washington, D.C., and it was quite a learning experience— and I didn't even get to most of the meetings. I'm not big on government, politics, our Con- gress, or probably 99% of the things that go on in our nation's capital (but I do love the muse- ums). However, I learned that we have to work with what we have. So in this special IMPACT Washington, D.C. section, I have included nine interviews I conducted with people in our in- dustry who can tell you in their own words what it was like to be involved and what they think of IMPACT—and whether it's worthwhile for you to attend. A very serious and determined group of your peers—top management from IPC mem- ber companies representing PCB, EMS, equip- IPC's IMPACT Washington, D.C. 2016: Who, What, Where, and Why ment and materials suppliers—listened care- fully to IPC's staff experts on the immediate, most pressing concerns of our industry. This year, three hot issues were chosen to follow up on with members of Congress and their staff. (It is best to limit the agenda to just a few items so as to not dilute the message nor distract the intended audience.) The three major issues addressed at this IMPACT were: • TSCA—The EPA's interpretation of the Toxic Substances Control Act makes it more dif- ficult to recycle chemicals like copper etchant than to simply treat and dispose. IPC's argu- ment: "We want to do the right thing and re- cycle as much as possible. Do you really want to discourage this?" • Dept. of Labor—New proposed regulations would significantly raise the baseline salary of those who can be considered exempt from fed- eral overtime pay regulations, effectively mak- ing more people eligible for overtime pay. Plus a formula is being proposed that would continue to raise this baseline on a yearly basis, pushing many salaried employees to become hourly, with attendant time card requirements. • NNMI—the National Network for Manu- facturing Innovation is a public-private partner- ship that draws on the resources of the federal government, local governments, universities, re- search institutes and industry to accelerate man- ufacturing innovation. IPC is urging full funding and long-term planning for the network. Attendees were also asked to extend thanks for passing the now permanent R&D tax credit. Since this time it appears that the DOL has issued the new regs affecting overtime pay, not the best of news for business. However, IPC is part of a coalition to continue to educate mem- All photos in this section courtesy of IPC