Hello, everyone! For those who don't know already, I'm the new TC Chair. My term will run until December, 1999, in accordance with the new IEEE CS policy. Keith Price is the Vice Chair, Terry Boult is Secretary, Sudeep Sarkar is the Newsletter Editor, Andy Berman is maintaining our web page, and Kevin Bowyer is still helping me figure out what I'm supposed to do. It will take a bit of time, because there are actually a number of duties, to most of which I have no prior exposure at all.

Which brings me to the first of several issues I would like to address during my term, and that is: Continuity of Leadership in the TC. The current system brings the incoming Chair into a flood of e-mail and documents to review, with very little guidance as to what the criteria for review should be. (I expect this is rather seasonal, and I just happened into a burst of activity.) There is also a whole body of unwritten TC and conference policy, decided in the past, so any new suggestion is likely to be met by some senior person saying, "We already discussed that issue back in '74, and this is what we decided …" I believe the solution for this problem of Chair training and guidance will have two parts: First, a semi-formal "Steering Committee" which is an e-mail list of people who have been through it all before and who agree to provide timely responses and comments on questions or proposals by the Chair. Ideas could then be more meaningfully reviewed and refined before coming up for vote at the next TC meeting. Second, again a semi-formal policy that says, (a) The Vice Chair shall be expected to become the next Chair; (b) The Chair should Cc: the Vice Chair on all TC-related e-mail; and (c) the "commitment" for Chairing the TC is really six years, that is, two as Vice Chair, then two as Chair, then two on the Steering Committee. Since the first two and last two years are just a bit of e-mail, I don't believe this is really a burden.

Another major issue is the relationship with the Computer Society, an old hobgoblin that won't go away. My pet peeves of the moment have to do with TC membership: Why isn't TC membership and renewal on the IEEE CS application form? Why is a separate form needed? Who was purged from the PAMI TC involuntarily this year, in the "housecleaning" by the CS? Why is the address list for the TC not updated routinely by the CS? Other issues involve conference paperwork and budgeting, and providing webmaster service and web page space for the TC. As for journal revenue from the Transactions, I believe the structure of the CS rules that pretty much out. Will there be any movement on these issues during my term of office? We'll see.

Another issue for us is how we are represented to IAPR, and generally, how well we represent the Pattern Recognition community. I'm still gathering input on that subject. One possibility might be to have an advisory committee specifically for pattern recognition issues, such as selection of representatives for the IAPR and review of workshop proposals in pattern recognition. Other PAMI TC issues: setting up an Awards Committee; soliciting more industrial sponsorship; providing for the future maintenance of the TC web site.