I
wonder how many other chapters are essentially dead. Ours, the Greater
Ohio Chapter, has been dead for over 3 years now.
My
regards,
Steve
Smith
From: DesignerCouncil
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Salvaggi,
Colleen
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 3:40 PM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: [DC] FW: Designers Council
Membership-Coupon Usage
Posting
for Barbara Burcham, as she now seems to be banned from this list, and now I’ll
probably be banned as well…….
Colleen
From: Barbara Burcham
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 03,
2008 3:30 PM
To: Salvaggi, Colleen
Subject: RE: Designers
Council Membership-Coupon Usage
Thanks,
Colleen. I appreciate your comments….
I
attempted to do a post a few minutes ago, and got an email saying that I did not
have access to post to the forum.
This
was what I attempted to post in reply to George Patrick.
Hey
George…I replied to your reply and recv’d back an email from the forum saying
that I do not permission to post to the forum. All of a sudden. Do you think,
maybe, they don’t like me?
Here
is the message I got back.
You are not authorized to
post to the DesignerCouncil list. For more
information, please contact the list owners at [log in to unmask].
So,
I clicked on the link and asked why not and recv’d the same reply
again.
So,
here is my reply, directly to you. Would you please see if you can post
it?
Not
exactly.
The
Designer Council (that’s all of us little people out here, making a living and
buying standards, helping one another, attending conferences, and getting our
C.I.D. certifications) has a national DC Board of Directors. The National BOD is
to represent us in meetings with Jean Habeisen, who is an employee of the IPC.
Jean is suppose to represent us to the IPC.
Looks
like this:
IPC
Jean
Habeisen –employee
National
BOD of the Designer’s Council – volunteers and our
representatives
You
and me – Designer Council members
Therefore,
the BOD should be available to us to hear our concerns, take those concerns to
Jean (who is suppose to support us) and they, together are suppose to get things
done for us that would help us with our work and education. These meetings occur
a couple of times a year, typically at conferences where everyone is gathered
together, anyway. We are all eligible to attend those meetings, but cannot vote.
I don’t think that matters much, because I don’t think that much voting goes on
anyway.
So,
who represents you from your part of the country? Do they talk to you? Do you
talk to them?
The
first National Board of Directors was probably (I am not sure) invited to
represent us, by an employee of the IPC. Now-a-days, I understand that new
members are simply invited to be a part of the BOD, dependant upon their level
of involvement. The current president of the group in Glenn Wells, in the
Dallas, Texas area. I do not have contact information on
Glenn.
Are
you there, Glenn?
Hope
this helps,
Barbara
From: Salvaggi, Colleen
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008
2:23 PM
To: Barbara Burcham
Subject: RE: Designers Council
Membership-Coupon Usage
You go
Barbara.
I though
my DC was the only dead one out there. I can’t tell you when the last time we
actually met. Greater Boston is the one I’m associated
with.
And,
your comments on IPC financially benefiting from “volunteers” hard work is a
very familiar story. That is how Tom Hausherr and company got their library
development group off the ground…… of the backs of “volunteers”, and now that
too is “for sale” an IPC standard.
Regards,
Colleen
From: DesignerCouncil
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barbara
Burcham
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 2:24 PM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [DC] Designers Council
Membership-Coupon Usage
Dear
George,
There
is, actually, a group whose task it is to represent Designers to the IPC. I only
know about them because I have a friend who is a member of this group. They are
not elected by Designers, however. Maybe they once were, but now it is a group
of willing volunteers who have been asked to serve. The existing members invite
new members as positions open. Once upon a time, the IPC had a person who
actually interacted with this group and listened to their concerns and attempted
to do good work. Now there is Jean Hebeisen. Jean is suppose to be the lesion
between designers and the IPC. However, her actions would be interpreted
otherwise. The National BOD of the Designer’s Council has their hands tied by
her. I am concerned that the IPC’s untimate response to all of this will be to
dissolve the Designer’s Council rather than listen to us and implement
improvements…..but we shall see what we shall see…..
This
gets better.
When
I first sent this reply, Anne Marie Mulvihill responded. What follows is her
response to me, and only me.
Dear Barbara,
Sounds like you had some negative experience with IPC and
the Designers Council quite some time ago.
Since then, there have been quite a few changes: the list
of discounted documents has been expanded; there are new members in your local
Designers Council Chapter and the Designers Council Executive Board.
IPC Director of Professional Development Jean
Hebeisen has been overseeing Designers Council for the past 5 years – but does
not recollect speaking with you.
Please give me a call at your earliest convenience, so
that we might have the opportunity to give you a positive
impression.
Very truly yours,
Anne Marie Mulvihill
Professional Development-Program Manager
IPC-Association Connecting Electronics
Industries
3000 Lakeside Drive, Suite 309 S
Bannockburn, IL 60015
+1 847 597 2827 tel
+1 847 615 7105 fax
So,
I replied to her (and a few members of the National BOD of the Designer’s
Council) as follows:
Dear
Anne,
Thank
you for your reply.
I
have just perused the new IPC web site and find it much improved.
You
are correct. I have negative reactions to the IPC.
I
have worked as a designer for over 35 years and became involved with the IPC
approx. 18 years ago. During that time, I have purchased many of the standards,
out of my own pocket, so that they are in my possession and available to me for
reference at any point in time.
I
have been a member of the Houston Designer’s Council for most of those years and
an officer for many of those years. I have never worked for a company that
could/would bare the cost of a company membership.
I
consider the IPC to be an organization that uses industry volunteers for the
development of standards and then profits from what they receive for free by
selling the brilliance of other minds to the electronic community. I find no
honor in that, or in the cost of standards, or the restriction of standards
usage.
I
am discouraged by the activities of Jean Hebeisen in her lack of commitment to
supporting designers, her failure to listen to the Designer’s Council National
BOD, and her disregard for any efforts put forth by the BOD. She does not
represent the concerns of the people that the IPC has hired her to represent.
The IPC only hears her side of any story and never hears from us. As long as she
is in a position to say to anyone at the IPC that she knows what designers want
or need, she is reporting what she thinks and not what she has learned. It is my
understanding that the way Jean handles dissention among the BOD is to threaten
to shut down the Designer’s Council. She requires them to be a rubber-stamp
group to what she wants. That sure does not represent what designers want or
need.
I
have, in fact, had an email exchange with Jean several years ago and she
snowballed through what I was trying to say to her. That is the same feedback
that I get from everyone not working to the IPC.
Our
local chapter had only 3 officers, President – Donald Kyle, Vice-president –
Susy Webb, and Secretary – Barbara Burcham (that’s me). Susy and I have resigned
and are no longer committed to dragging the local chapter along on our own. Our
president is completely inactive and one of our old inactive presidents is still
getting membership information from our bank and from the IPC. No one who has
been active in recent years, even knows who the new members your referenced are
and have no way to contact them.
I
am not interested in political correctness. I am interested in the IPC actually
supporting all the people it expects to serve them and it professed to
serve.
Regards,
Barbara
Burcham
Yeee-Hawww!!! Go for it,
Barbara :)
<OPINION>
As long as the Designer's
Council is "owned" by the IPC, and the IPC remains primarily a trade association
of board manufacturers, this is the way
it will be. One thing you didn't note: There is not any representation on
the IPC board for the DC, so all decisions by the IPC board about the DC
has no official comment by the DC membership. As a result, the
leadership of the DC is beholden not to the members but to certain
"friends" on the board whose interest is not necessarily with the
membership.
</OPINION>
I agree with you 100%,
Barbara. I had already significantly reduced my involvement with the local
chapter of the Designers Council, and will not be
renewing my membership when it comes time to
"re-up".
(Note that this is MY opinion,
not that of my employer, its parent, or any associated
organization..)