he 2014 PSMA Planning Meeting will take place on Saturday September 20 in the Tyron Room at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte, NC. The meeting will start at 12:30 PM. All members are invited to attend and to offer their inputs and suggestions for the projects and activities the Association should focus on in the coming year.

The Board of Directors relies on the inputs generated at the Annual Planning Meetings to identify, consider and select programs for the following year that will bring benefits to the PSMA membership. For example, initiatives generated at previous Planning Meetings have resulted in the Power Technology Roadmap Reports, the Power Supply in Package and Power Supply on Chip project and workshops, the Energy Efficiency Database project and the 3D Power Packaging project.

This year’s meeting will begin with a brief review of the year to date accomplishments and a summary of ongoing activities by Ernie Parker, Chairman of the PSMA. This will be followed by an update of the six-quarter financial forecast and brief status reports from the active PSMA committees.

Most of the meeting will feature an open forum to introduce and discuss possible special projects, initiatives and priorities for the coming months. All PSMA members are encouraged to provide inputs even if they cannot attend the meeting. Please email your suggestions to power@psma.com so that they can be considered and included in the discussions. In the coming months, the PSMA Marketing Committee will summarize the results of the meeting and will prioritize the proposals in order to determine which projects and initiatives should be included in the focus for the next year.

The members and guests attending are invited to remain after the Planning Meeting to participate in the September meeting of the Board of Directors, which will take place immediately following. After the Board Meeting, interested individuals are invited to tour the exhibit area space in the Charlotte Convention Center and the meeting room facilities planned for APEC 2015.

If you do plan to attend these meetings, please call or e-mail the Association Office at power@psma.com.

The APEC 2015 Technical Program Committee will meet the following day, Sunday September 21, to select the technical papers and to organize the technical sessions, professional education seminars, rap sessions and industry presentations for APEC 2015 in March. PSMA is a co-sponsor of APEC and all members are invited to participate in this important activity.

To make your room reservations at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte, call 866-837-4148 or use the Hotel Booking. The group code is IEEE-APEC, please reference the APEC Planning Meeting to receive the group rate of $149 plus taxes. Room block reservations are available until September 5th.

We look forward to seeing many of you at these important meetings.

If you or anyone in your company is interested in getting on the distribution list for future issues of PSMA UPDATE, please send e-mail to: power@psma.com. Be sure to include your name and the name of your company.