Results of OSA/SPIE joint task force announced
A joint task force, formed early this year by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering, has recommended that the two societies merge their assets and staff to form a federation of their governance structures. The report was submitted to the boards of the two societies for review, with its content scheduled to be discussed by both boards in October of this year. Results of the report were presented at the plenary session of the 1998 OSA Annual Meeting held in early October. If the two societies` boards approve the plan, it will be further developed and then put to a vote in August 1999. A go-ahead by members will put the plan into motion, bringing OSA and SPIE together by the year 2000. In other society business, SPIE has sent a proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB; Washington, DC) requesting that optical engineers and scientists be added to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC), which the OMB is revising. The SOC is used for all federal statistical fact-gathering and analysis, particularly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.
