First, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to the Engineering Design Graphic members for allowing me the opportunity to serve the Division as chair. I would also like to thank Jon Duff , Mary Sadowski, Sheryl Sorby, Ted Branoff , Tim Sexton, Judy Birchman and Larry Goss for bringing to my attention issues that need to be addressed and/or answering my endless stream of questions.

As I re-read the past chair’s letters I am struck by how my thoughts regarding the Division echo theirs. First and foremost what makes EDGD great is the people. While the conferences are always thought-provoking, the camaraderie of the people make the conferences special. Members of the Division have worked diligently to create programs and a Journal that would keep the interest of current members and attract new ones. To continue along this vein, we need YOUR help. The active members have been very dedicated in serving the Division, but many of them are starting to retire or working on exit plans. When this happens, a lot of the ’memory’ of the Division’s day-to-day business decisions will disappear. We need to start involving new members in small ways, so they will be ready to take over the reins in a few years. While our membership is healthy today, we need to recruit new faculty. You can assist by encouraging young faculty to present papers and to become involved.

Over the last ten years the field of graphics has evolved at a rapid rate. As a result, the presentations have covered a wider range of topics and have grown to include other areas of teaching and research, such as learning styles and the different types of statistics used in research. In order for our Division to grow, we need to continue to expand our range of topics, encourage faculty to share their ideas, and partner with other divisions.

I will be asking for novel approaches that can be used to recruit and ideas for involving new and non-active members. Volunteers will be needed to make sure non-members feel welcome at the conferences and we will need mentors to partner with new members. So put on your thinking caps and send me your ideas (ib4@psu.edu).