CCA expands resources.

After 30 years of growing pains, the IPC California Circuit Board Association (CCA) has matured into a responsible and helpful trade association--a fact made clear at a recent meeting of the CCA's board of directors, held at the Hyatt Hotel in San Diego, CA, in conjunction with the APEX 2002 show.

Dick Crowe, executive director of the CCA, began the meeting by announcing that the association has expanded its resources by joining the California Chamber of Commerce (CoC, Sacramento, CA) and the National Association of Manufacturers (Washington, D.C.). The CoC's Fred Main emphasized that his organization fully appreciates the national and global importance of California's printed circuit board (PCB) industry, and pledged to keep the CCA posted on impending changes in labor laws, OSHA regulations, taxes, and other issues affecting the industry. Main outlined lobbying efforts against the passage of Assembly Bill #1056, which increases workmen's compensation charges, discussed how California's $12.5 billion budget deficit can affect the electronics industry and answered questions posed by board members.

Fern Abrams, the IPC's environmental policy director in Washington, D.C., told of her efforts in educating Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, Washington, D.C.) officials about their erroneous assumptions in the highly controversial Metal Processing and Machinery (MP&M) rule change. The EPA has agreed that the original costs of the changes were grossly understated and that the changes, as written, would force the closure of more than one hundred PCB shops in the U.S. Abrams is a knowledgeable negotiator and is tough enough to handle an IPC lawsuit against the EPA if the MP&M rule changes are passed at the end of this year.

The CCA's meeting was more constructive than any meeting in the past. Longtime CCA member, past president and current board member, Bob Neves of Microtek Laboratories (Anaheim, CA), agrees. "The old CCA was the only way for dedicated PCB people to interact with each other about the industry's needs and technologies. Over 100 people routinely showed up for those meetings--now PCB people from all over the country can interact with the industry through the CCA and IPC Web sites. And, while the old CCA's lobbying efforts were strictly amateur and always reactionary, today the CCA's lobbying is proactive and professional. [IPC's] efforts are already saving circuit board shops a great deal of money."

Neves continued, "Instead of political rivalries, [the IPC] now has clear missions and goals and the resources to meet them. The CCA's revival comes at a time when the industry is in its worst ever slump. When the turnaround comes, we're going to be faced with training issues to meet capacities and changing technology demands. If we're not ready to help the industry help itself, the overseas flight of boards to China will be permanent."