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he 2023 PSMA Planning Meeting was held on Saturday October 21, 2023, at the Hilton Long Beach in Long Beach, CA with 26 attendees, including 9 who attended virtually. The purpose of the Planning Meeting was to review where the Association is today, discuss outstanding issues and to identify possible new programs and projects that promise to bring value to the membership.
President Trifon Liakopoulos welcomed all the attendees and reviewed the agenda for the meeting. Chair Fred Weber, who attended virtually, briefly reviewed the mission and current status of the Association. Fred highlighted some of the successes over the past year including updating membership categories, streamlining the bylaws, and gaining some control over the scheduling and allocation of PSMA Industry Sessions at APEC.
Financial Forecast
Tim McDonald, Secretary/Treasurer, presented the latest 6-Quarter financial forecast. The 6-Quarter forecast projects a 3% increase in office management expenses for 2023 and 2024, a lower level of PTR underwriting revenue, healthy surpluses from APEC 2022 and 2023, and a goal to keep the special studies "skinny" as revenue and financial resources return to their pre-pandemic levels.
In summary, the forecast indicates the Association to be on solid financial footing over the 6-Quarter period and poised for growth. Due to a faster than expected return of APEC revenue, the development of new revenue sources and careful budgeting PSMA has returned to solid financial footing more quickly than had been originally anticipated.
KPIs-Metrics that Matter
Renee Yawger, Vice President, reviewed the KPIs – Key Performance Indicators - currently being tracked. KPIs are metrics which provide information on the relative success of current activities, identify opportunities to improve the activities of the Technical Committees, improve the effectiveness of the website, workshops, special projects, and webinars, and hopefully will enhance efforts to attract new membership. Current KPI areas include Membership - Growth, Retention and Market Share; Special Projects and Events, and Website – Traffic and Behavior.
As PSMA is still getting established in using KPIs Renee stated that many of our KPIs are still undetermined as to their target rates. However, member growth has a target KPI of 3% per year and is meeting that goal. Other KPIs to track and establish goals for include market share and member retention. Renee encouraged all committees to establish some KPIs that can be used to gauge the effectiveness of their activities.
APEC Industry Session Update
There was a brief discussion of the new system for the allocation and assigning of Industry Sessions for PSMA at APEC. Fred Weber thanked all the committee chairs for cooperating with the new process and said he hopes the system will become smoother as we move forward and gain experience.
Committee Updates
There was a report from each of the PSMA Technical Committees that summarized their accomplishments over the past year and focused on ongoing programs and projects for 2024.
In addition: - John Horzepa presented for the Capacitor Committee as neither chair was able to attend either virtually or in person. Attendance at meetings has been down and the committee has felt the loss of former co-chair Stephen Menzel. The Capacitor Committee was not able to organize a pre-APEC Workshop for 2024 but has a solid lineup of speakers for their Industry Session.
- Brian Zahnstecher, Energy Harvesting Committee Co-chair, reported that the committee meets monthly with an average of 12 attendees on each call, including new guest(s) most months. Brian shared that the planning for EnerHarv 2024 is in full swing with bi-weekly meetings. The committee is looking forward to presenting a seven speaker Industry Session at APEC 2024.
- Energy Management Committee Chair David Chen reviewed the activities of the committee. The committee will be sponsoring an Industry Session at APEC 2024 together with the Energy Storage Committee. Co-Chair Lincoln Xue has recently relocated to China but is continuing to work with David and the Committee to further their activities. The webinar series on Appliance Efficiency Regulations will continue with a webinar on Energy Efficiency Strategies and Checklist by Ada Cheng in 2024.
- Energy Storage Committee Co-chair Victor Boyadzhan reported that the committee includes representatives from academia and industry and continues to cooperate with the Capacitor, Energy Management and other technical committees since energy storage is recognized as a critical technological focus for the overall power sources industry. Victor is excited to be co-chairing an Industry Session at APEC 2024 with the Energy Management Committee.
- John Horzepa reported for the Industry Education Committee, first stating that due to a change in work commitments Chris Whaling is stepping down as co-chair of the committee. A new co-chair is needed to fill the shoes of Chris. Despite this, the committee continues to actively work on APEC Student Attendance Support and will be a co-sponsor of the Young Professionals Social Event at APEC 2024 along with PELS and IAS. This year PSMA is taking the lead in organizing the event. The committee also plans to continue the Student Mentoring program at APEC 2024.
- Magnetics Committee Co-Chairs Ed Herbert, George Slama and Matt Wilkowski reported the committee is organizing the 9th High Frequency Magnetics Workshop the day prior to APEC 2024. The committee is also interested in initiating several special projects in 2024. The Committee will be presenting an Industry Session at APEC 2024 and has been actively involved in providing content to the Power Technology Roadmap.
- Marketing Committee Co-Chair Greg Evans said the focus of the committee is on "member conversion" – bringing new members to PSMA who should logically be PSMA members such as companies that exhibit at APEC but have not joined PSMA. He said the Committee has learned some lessons over the past year, such as "quick hit" tactics like a discounted membership fee offered at APEC weren't as effective as they had hoped. The Committee plans to work with the Executive Committee to create some initiatives to drive membership growth.
- Packaging & Manufacturing Committee Co-chair John Bultitude identified three areas of focus for the Committee: the APEC 2024 Industry Session, Conferences and Workshops and a Special Project. Their Industry Session proposal was accepted, and the Committee will have a seven speaker session at APEC 2024. They have begun planning for IWIPP 2025 and 3D-PEIM 2025 and have recently concluded PwrSoC 2023, planning will commence in the new year for the next PwrSoC. They are also interested in initiating a Special Project on Power Technology Report on Embedded and Integrated Magnetics in conjunction with the Magnetics Committee. It is expected this will be a fairly expensive project so it will depend on the availability of funds.
- Dhaval Dalal and Conor Quinn, Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-chairs, discussed the progress so far on the 2025 Power Technology Roadmap. Eight webinars were conducted in 2022 and seven have been held or are scheduled for 2023. Currently there is only one webinar scheduled for 2024, more are needed. It is not expected that the general format will change for the 2025 report given the timelines. Finally, Conor and Dhaval indicated that new leadership will be needed for the Power Technology Roadmap after the 2025 report as they have both served in this role for several cycles.
- Crystal Yannarella, Reliability Committee co-chair, reported that their Industry Session for APEC 2024 is rounding into shape. She indicated that she would like a co-chair to help run the committee.
- Tim McDonald, Semiconductor co-chair, reported that the Committee will have four industry sessions at APEC 2024, two of which are part of the PSMA pre-allocated sessions and two that were submitted independently. In addition, the Committee will hold their first ever pre-APEC Workshop which will be held concurrently with the Magnetics Committee Workshop. The Committee remains very active and will look at ways to help bring Young Professionals into the PSMA fold.
- John Horzepa presented for the Transportation Electronics Committee as neither Fernando Salcedo nor Dinesh Kithany, Committee co-chairs, were able to attend. The Committee has planned a seven speaker Industry Session for APEC 2024. In order to address declining participation in their monthly meetings the Committee is considering adding an informational or educational presentation to the start of their meetings to attract new members and create interest in the Committee's activities.
In a change from past Planning Meetings each committee was given a total of 10 minutes, which included their presentation and brief Q&A from the membership. All committee chairs and attendees were very respectful of this format, keeping the meeting on track. Also, this allowed issues for specific committees to be addressed as they were raised rather than wait until the end for a more general wrap-up of issues.
Wrap Up and Conclusions
After a brief break at the end of the committee reports the meeting was reconvened to identify any outstanding issues and identify ways to address them. Since several committees identified potential Special Projects as part of their presentations a separate discussion was not necessary. Tim McDonald emphasized that Special Project funding would be dependent on financial resources – PSMA has recovered from the pandemic more quickly than anticipated but it is prudent to maintain a close eye on the budget. There was general agreement that the new format of the meeting was more efficient and helped to prevent the meeting fatigue that had set in during prior Planning Meetings. Several committee co-chairs discussed ways their committees can work together going forward.
PSMA members can view the minutes of the Planning Meeting on the "Members Only" section of the PSMA web site.
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Prior to the PSMA Planning Meeting, the APEC Technical Program Committee for APEC 2024 met in the morning and were joined by many of the PSMA members in attendance. This meeting was followed by a tour of the Long Beach Convention Center. Based on the results of the work of the APEC Technical Program Committee, we can all look forward to a very interesting and a successful APEC 2024.
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