On May 17th I was scheduled to present a paper titled “Conformal
Coatings and Harsh Environments” at the Fourth Joint DoD/FAA/NASA
Conference on Aging Aircraft.

On Tuesday morning May 16th I was informed by my current employer that
not only was
I not going to be allowed to present the paper but that I was not to
discuss the contents of this paper with anyone. The reason given was it
was a possible “Conflict Of Interest” (COI).

This paper represents over 7 years of research (4 years while working
for my current employer) and first hand experience (gained while working
for a previous employer).
All of the research work was done on my own time and at my own expense.
I have made 5 previous presentations on this subject and have been
published twice.
My current employer was aware of this previous activity and was also
aware of the May 17th
presentation months ahead of time.

The presentation was stopped by one person who is located 2000 miles and
2 divisions away from my current working area (my current job has
absolutely nothing to do with anything contained in the paper). During a
conversation I had with this person I was informed he did not agree with
certain parts of my paper but other areas had merit. This is the reason
he stopped the paper.

The most painful moment of my professional career was telling a room
full of my fellow professionals at the conference, that after 7 years
plus thousands of hours and dollars of my own time and money, I could
not talk to them!

I consider the decision of this one individual to stop the presentation
and publication of my paper an insult to the technical paper selection
committees for the SAE AEMR98 conference, the APEX2000 conference (Jack
Crawford!! I hope you are listening. You are about to get a very
interesting phone call!), the Aging Aircraft Conference, and the
Binghamton University Developments in Advanced Packaging Reliability
Symposium (for which I was selected to be one of instructors July
31st-August 2nd). I do not believe I will be allowed to attend this
symposium!

A bigger insult is to you, my fellow professionals. It denies you the
opportunity to review, discuss, and critique my work because one person
does not agree with some of the issues in my paper. But the biggest
danger is the insult to the entire conference process. The censoring of
individual personal efforts dilutes the quality and lowers the quantity
of useful information and ideas presented in these meetings.

If this censorship continues I may be forced into the ludicrous position
of being the only truck driver in the world writing papers and making
presentations on electronic equipment reliability and contamination!

Currently, no decision has been made as to whether or not a conflict of
interest really exists (I don’t hold much hope for a favorable answer).
I am not allowed to distribute copies of my own paper (even though it
has been published by the IPC and is the public domain - I think??!!) I
cannot communicate with anyone outside my company about the contents of
this paper. I don’t even know if I will be allowed to continue the work
I have been doing on three IPC committees. (Hello Jack! My company may
want to review my efforts on the coating handbook committee for
“Conflicts of Interest”!)

The level of my frustration and anger is far beyond measure!

Thank you letting me “vent my spleen”.

David A. Douthit

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