Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/924542
JANUARY 2018 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 47 lows. Those positions are being vetted by the board and we'll have that approved for gen- eral voting, as well, once the board approves. Also, there will be at least one board member renewal, and there may be one slot available, or not. We'll see. Right now, we're complete- ly full at the maximum number of board mem- bers. If one of those people moves onto the executive committee, then there's a possibility that there may be another slot available, but it won't be a necessity to fill it. We have five on the executive committee, and then the elected board members range anywhere from seven to 14 members at any time. Right now, we're at 19, which is the max. Goldman: Okay, what else? Anything more to add on the keynote speaker? Mitchell: I think people will be very excited to hear from him. We've had really good fortune most of the years I've been here in having key- notes that people are pretty gung-ho about, so I expect this will be no exception. And one other thing. In an effort to engage people earlier on understanding the indus- try and what IPC does for it, we're bringing in some high school groups that will be tour- ing and will be privileged to hear some panels. I understand one of the schools, a San Diego school, has already accepted, and we've put the invitation out to a couple others. Goldman: Any news on the standards front? Mitchell: In addition to our standards, educa- tion, advocacy, and solutions areas, there are a few initiatives that we're going to focus on for the next two or three years. You'll see some of this coming out at the show. One of those initiatives is what we're calling the transpor- tation initiative. As you've noticed, we've re- cently had a lot of standards in the automotive arena. We're going to be looking at the heavy trucking, rail, and shipping, etc. as well. Since electronics is proliferating into the transporta- tion space, we want to make sure that we can leverage the industry's expertise to those ver- ticals, as well. You'll see a lot of effort on the transportation initiative. On the education initiative, we're looking to do a lot more and that will be discussed at APEX EXPO as well as workforce develop- ment. There are still a lot of jobs that aren't being filled and we're trying to work with the industry to understand exactly what the skill sets are that we could help develop in individ- uals so there can be more people available to be hired, as well as reaching out to schools and doing some academic work there. We'll continue to improve our systems to be better and more consistent with our offerings to the industry, on a global basis. Andy Shaughnessy: You mentioned the design forum. My focus is design, so I'll be covering that. Sounds like you have a pretty good pro- gram. Mitchell: There's the standard information that everybody's used to, that will of course, al- ways be there, but the team just continues to r each out to the industry to understand the lat- est, newest, hottest issues that we need to be co vering. They're striving to make sure that it's out there so people can get that informa - tion. Goldman: John, how much interchange is there between the people out on the show floor and the people in the conferences and committee IPC APEX EXPO 2018 PRE-SHOW SPECIAL COVERAGE