Volume 15, Number 4, December, 2007 - Noise News International

President’s ColumnAn Update on INCE/USA “C & C’s”Almost two years ago, at the time I wasbeginning my second attempt at serving as thePresident of INCE/USA, I wrote a President’sColumn entitled “Challenges and Changes in INCE/USA.” At the beginning of that column I noted thatone of the duties of the President of INCE/USA is toprepare this column twice a year for NNI. This willbe my sixth and final column in that capacity. Assuch, it is opportunity to provide you with an updateon some of the issues brought out in that columnfrom 2006 June as well as provide some reflectionson INCE/USA in general.One of the issues very real to me has been the twoyearterm for the INCE/USA President. This changein the length of the President’s term began in 2006 asI took the office. I am convinced it is a good change,and one that will serve the organization well in thefuture. Having now done both, one year seems likejust too short of a time to learn the job and to beeffective in it. A definite key to the success of thetwo-year term being a doable job is the effort put inby the INCE/USA officers and committee chairs.Their leadership and effectiveness in getting thingsdone is certainly what moves the organization andmakes the President’s job manageable. During myterm, INCE/USA and I both have been fortunateto have had a strong cadre of officers and chairsin place. Hopefully, this level of support will beavailable to future Presidents as well.INCE/USA was very fortunate to have Joe Cuschieristep up and fill the executive director position. Withhis knowledge of the organization as a past INCE/USA President and his phenomenal dedication to thejob, this has been seamless and positive transition.I thank Joe for all of his continuing efforts andparticularly, all of help he has been to me.move to electronic publishing of NCEJ and otherINCE/USA material. Aiding these have been theefforts of the INCE/USA Treasurer (Steve Marshal)and Finance Committee Chair (Nick Miller) whoworked to make our budgeting and accountingmore understandable and visible to assist the Boardof Directors in making financial decisions. Eventhough the financial situation does not look bad now,the INCE/USA leadership needs to remain diligent inmanaging and reducing ongoing operational costs.Through the efforts of the NCEJ Editor (CourtneyBurroughs), you may have noticed improvementsin the timeliness Journal issues and an increase inpapers. To improve NCEJ international accessibility,the INCE/USA Board recently approved the conceptof individual subscriptions to persons outside ofthe US. As we advance NCEJ as the internationalpublication for noise control engineering, yourcontinuing support remains critical.On membership, the good news is that we arenot losing members overall, and the bad news isthat we are not gaining either. Besides retainingcurrent INCE/USA membership with the mostservices possible, we have two primary goals fornew members. The first is reach and recruit morestudents. The second is to reach and attract someof the large number of engineers working in noisecontrol who have yet to form an association withothers active in the field.In closing, I thank all of the INCE/USA Officers,Directors, Committee Chairs, and staff for yoursupport and efforts during the past two years. Iknow the President-Elect, Patricia Davies, will alsobe appreciative of your support in the coming twoyears.NNIPaul Donavan2006–2007 INCE/USAPresidentTwo other areas I mentioned in the last “C & C”column were finances and publications. I am happyto report that both of these are going well. Ourfinancial health has been improved by the shift tomore volunteer effort in the running of the businessof both operations and publications and by the2007 December www.inceusa.org • www.noisenewsinternational.net • www.i-ince.org127