Dear Colleagues:

Welcome all to the grand year of 2007!  This is also the 20th anniversary of SPIE’s Optomechanical/Instrument International Technical Group.

On August 20, 1987, we had our first gathering during SPIE’s Annual Meeting in San Diego.  That first meeting was chaired by Roger Reiss and the agenda included Roger, Bill Barnes Jr., Paul Yoder, Dan Vukobratovich, Don O’Shea, Warren Smith and myself.  The assembly elected Roger to be the first chairman of the Group and we decide to organize our own conferences dedicated to the arts of optomechanical engineering and instrument design.  We’ve been presenting them every-other year (and sometimes more frequently) ever since.

This summer we will be presenting our biennial conference (see the attachment).  This is the perfect opportunity to get the acclaim you deserve for all your hard work and to network with the best pool of technical talent in our industry.

We are also planning an informative evening meeting that should stimulate conversation and a lot of good ideas.  Last year we stirred-up the metrology activities at SSG-Tinsley.  Who knows what trouble we’ll get you into this August?

I plan to renew old friendships, stir-up some new ideas, meet new people and have a great time.  Just what this great year, 2007, ought to be all about!

Here’s to hoping to see you all there.

Al Hatheway
1-2-07

P.S. – Be sure to get your abstracts in early!