he 2016 PSMA Planning Meeting was held on September 25 at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina in Tampa, FL with 23 members attending. The purpose of the Planning Meeting was to review where the Association is today, discuss outstanding issues and to identify possible programs and projects that promise to bring value to the membership.

PSMA Chairman Eric Persson led the meeting and reviewed his vision for the organization and summarized the general health of the organization as well as membership statistics and the changes since the 2015 Planning Meeting. He listed organizations PSMA interacts with, reviewed recent sponsored conference and workshops and emphasized that the technical committees are the heart of the organization. It is in these committees that the real work of PSMA is done.

In discussing some of the areas of concern to the organization he highlighted the need to continue to invest in special projects that will bring value to our members, increase the effort to develop more and deeper involvement within member companies and the continued commitment to bring more industry content to APEC.

There was a report from each of the technical committees that summarized their accomplishments over the past year and focused on ongoing programs and projects. Eight of the technical committees have submitted proposals to organize Industry Sessions at APEC 2017. In addition:

• Ed Herbert, Energy Efficiency Committee Co-Chair reviewed the recent activities on the Energy Efficiency Database (EEDB) and reported that more than 300 people have opted in to receive announcements on current activities in this area.
• Judy Horzepa reported that the Industry-Education Committee supported the Student Travel Grants for APEC 2016 and, together with PELS and IAS, provided up to a total of $40,000. The Student Travel Grants will be supported again for APEC 2017 to provide up to $1,000 in travel reimbursement per student whose technical abstract was selected for presentation and who will be attending the conference.
• Frank Cirolia, Marketing Committee Co-Chair, reviewed the recent activities of the committee including plans for APEC 2017. For the fourth year, the committee will sponsor the “PSMA Passport Game” to increase visibility and traffic to PSMA member exhibit booths during APEC. The committee will continue to issue news releases for PSMA events and activities.
• Brian Narveson, Power Electronics Packaging Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee has been very active in 2016 and sponsored the first 3D-PEIM Symposium at North Carolina State in June and the fifth PwrSoC Workshop to be held in Madrid Spain in October 2016. In addition, the committee has also expanded its activities and will support the support the 2017 International Workshop on Integrated Power Packaging (IWIPP) with IEEE to be held in Delft, Netherlands.
• Kevin Parmenter, Safety and Compliance Committee Co-Chair, reported that a major accomplishment in 2016 was the development of the Safety and Compliance Data Base which is now available to all PSMA members as well as to individuals in the power sources industry. Interested individuals can register to access the data base and sign up for notifications of current activities and changes in the area.
• Conor Quinn and Dhaval Dalal, Co-Chairs for the Power Technology Roadmap Committee reported the committee held a working meeting just prior to the Planning Meeting to discuss the activities and schedules needed to publish the 2017 Power Technology Roadmap before APEC 2017. The committee will also present a report on the 2017 Power Technology Roadmap at the Plenary session at APEC 2017.
• The Safety and Compliance Committee is a new committee organized by Kevin Parmenter who is serving as committee Co-Chair. At the meeting Jim Spangler

During the Committee Reports a number of issues and possible future activities were identified and discussed. These issues will be the focus for PSMA over the next year (and beyond).

PSMA members can view the minutes of the Planning Meeting on the “Members Only” section of the PSMA web site.

The APEC Technical Program Committee for APEC 2017 met on Sunday and were joined by many of the PSMA members from the Planning Meeting. Based on the results of their work we can all look forward to a very interesting and a successful APEC 2017.

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