I haven’t been here for a while. We were overwhelmed by the attendance at our recent Industry Forum which blew by a 20-year old record attendance (also in Atlanta) by 25 attendees! So I’ve been just a tad busy (tad is a technical term, used primarily in the south). Now that this meeting is concluded, MCAA’s staff is turning to some new ideas and returning to our standard programming to serve the members of the process control industry. Within days we have published the annual Market Forecast of the Industry (prepared for us by Global Automation Research), the monthly bookings report (where over 85% of our manufacturer members contribute data) the quarterly bookings reports by product and by user industry. Shortly we will begin collecting the data for the annual Compensation Report (this year with a Benefits section). We are also working on rolling out a new monthly bookings report for channel partners–it has to be separate from our manufacturer’s report because of the issues associated with double counting. We’re working to pull together the mechanics of the new Partner Search Tool which will help companies find partners to sell their products (and perhaps from the other direction to find new lines). We’re surveying members to determine support for grassroots lobbying on fixing the product approval process. There’s more … but my head is spinning and I need to get to work.