Good point Graham. Perhaps as members of a dying breed and also consumers we should take a careful look at product before we buy it. The place of manufacture may just affect our decision. A few years ago I saw a four wheel drive vehicle which obviously belonged to a farmer. On the back it said "Support British Farming". The vehicle? A foreign make! This may not be technical content, but without our home industries we will have nothing to talk about. Regards Eric Dawson > -----Original Message----- > From: Graham Naisbitt [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 5:34 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [TN] Dwindling members > > > Did anyone notice that the membership on this forum is down to 780 members? > > It used to be almost 1700 if my recollection serves me right. Did the last > > network purge by Keach find that many non-participants? Is the business that > > bad everywhere? > > > > Just an observation. Sorry about the NTC tone of this post. Please do not > > generate dialog about how this forum is supposed be for technical purposes > > only. > > > > Bill Kasprzak > > Moog Inc. Manufacturing Engineering, Electronics > > Bill and the other 780 members.... > > I attended the keynote address on Wednesday 2nd April at the IPC conference, > given by the Chairman of NEMI. > > In this address, he advised that there are around >6million folks employed > in the US electronics industry. > > During the past 12 months or so, with a drop of around 20% in revenues, some > 600,000 folks lost their jobs.....to the Chinese. > > The NEMI roadmap shows a drop in revenues of similar proportions over the > next 2 to 3 years as more and more go to China....that would suggest that > another ~ 2,000,000 will lose their jobs - so the TechNet might dwindle to > around 50 or so? > > I figure that you folks need IPC, as your trade association, to make efforts > to protect your jobs. > > BTW and IMHO, it won't take China that long to acquire what they need, and > then close the door to you. > > -- > Regards, Graham Naisbitt > > [log in to unmask] > > Mobile: +44 (0)79 6858 2121 > > NEW: Tech-Shot 05 :NEW > NEW: SoldaPro Wizard :NEW > > Sales: > Concoat Limited > Millfield House, Fleet Road > Fleet GU51 3QF - UK > > Phone: +44 (0)1252 813706 > Fax: +44 (0)1252 813709 > > Works: > Concoat Limited > Alasan House, Albany Park > Canberley GU16 7PH - UK > > Phone: +44 (0)1276 691100 > Fax: +44 (0)1276 691227 > > --------------------------------------------------- > Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e > To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in > the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet > To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) > To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest > Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives > Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional > information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 > ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------