Reports from the 2006 SPIE Annual General Meeting

The 2006 Annual General Meeting of the Society took place 16 August 2006 in San Diego, CA, at the Optics & Photonics 2006 Symposium. Included here are summaries of the President's, Treasurer's, and Executive Director's reports.

SPIE 2006 President Paul McManamon prefaced his report at the Annual Meeting with a commemorative speech for one of the Society's past presidents, Bernard G. "Dino" Ponseggi, who passed away this July at the age of 80. (See the in memoriam on pg. 24).

McManamon then moved on to recapitulate his experiences as 2006 SPIE President. He described his visits to Europe and Asia, touched on national events, and finally spoke about the importance of young professionals as the future leaders of the Society. During his visits to China, Japan, and Korea he was able to both forge new relationships and refresh old ones.

In China McManamon met with delegates from several national scientific organizations, including the China Association of Science and Technology. In Japan he presented the SPIE Visionary Award to Teruo Hiruma, the president of Hamamatsu K.K., and met the president of the State Council of Japan. In Korea McManamon met with dignitaries from both the Korean Institute of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Earlier this year at the Council of Scientific Society Presidents meeting in Washington, DC, McManamon shared his concern for the lack of interest in science among our youth. He emphasized the importance of SPIE's early career professionals and student members, and how they indeed are our future leaders and volunteers. This, he says, is one of the main areas on which we need to concentrate to ensure the continuous success of our Society.

SPIE Treasurer Robert E. Fischer reported that the Society remains financially very healthy (see table), but that close monitoring of general industry and SPIE activities continues to be important. He mentioned that the net value of the Society's investments have decreased recently and that our investment policies are under reexamination.

SPIE Executive Director Eugene Arthurs presented an overview of the status of the Society, including membership growth and distribution, revenue sources, and submission rates to SPIE journals. He emphasized the Society's global humanitarian activities, such as cooperation with UNESCO and the International Center for Theoretical Physics Winter School, and reported that SPIE gives out more than $1 million annually in support of various organizations and individuals. The SPIE Grants and Scholarships Program has also helped numerous students worldwide, and Arthurs said that the Society will continue to do good in the world as long as it has the resources to do so.

He especially thanked the Society's Immediate Past President, Malgorzata Kujawinska, for her untiring work as the global ambassador for the Society. Arthurs concluded by saying that SPIE wouldn't be where it is today without its diligent volunteers and dedicated staff, and that the Society is looking forward to an exciting future.

Members can request full minutes of the meeting by contacting Bobbie Lively, director of Executive and Administrative Services at bobbie@spie.org.

The next meeting of the corporation will be held in conjunction with Optics & Photonics 2007, scheduled for 26-30 August 2007 in San Diego, CA.