The call for membership has been underway for a little over a week now. You have until Tuesday to get your dues and application form to the Secretary so that he can record your membership application. In case you don't have it, the Secretary's address is:

Make your dues checks payable to Clete Booher since he is minding the Chapter's funds at this time. Attached to this newsletter is our abbreviated application form. The call for membership will end at midnight on Monday, May 17th. If you haven't sent in your dues payment by that time, you will be removed from the Chapter email distribution list, and will not be eligible to nominate or vote for a candidate in the upcoming election.

If you have special circumstances that prevent you from paying your dues at this time, please contact me as soon as possible to discuss alternate arrangements.

If you have any comments or suggestions for the Chapter and future issues of this publication, feel free to contact me at slovacek@yahoo.com (preferred) or by replying to this message.

Official Chapter Home Page     

This site is intended to be a resource for Houston area Human Factors professionals for locating people with various areas of expertise. It is still in its infancy and would benefit greatly from submissions from the Chapter's members. Take a look, fill out the survey, and if there are any important dates, news items, etc. that you can think of that need to be included, please feel free to email me.

Several people have submitted the survey and have been added to the web site. Many of these people are new to the Chapter if not to the Society. You may want to take a moment to email them a message of welcome.

Houston HFES Yahoo! Club     

Our Houston HFES club includes areas for Messages, Photos, Chat, News, Links, Contacts (the members), and a Calendar. Any member can post messages, links, and calendar events. This would be a really good way to keep track of our Annual Meeting dates and deadlines.

Other Links     

And speaking of links go to the Chapter's Links page for links to other interesting HFES-related web sites. Such sites as Bad Human Factors Designs and the Software Usability Research Laboratory. While you're there, send me an email of other sites you think would be good to add to the growing list.

05/05/99 - 05/17/99 -- membership drive

05/18/99 - 06/16/99 -- call for nominations

06/16/99 - 07/16/99 -- election

You are not required to be a member of the National Society in order to be a member of the local Chapter. Chapter dues are only $10 per year (you may pay multiple years at a time to avoid the yearly bother of dues drives).

But hurry, the calendar is ticking (I've GOT to get that calendar fixed!). There are only two more business days to apply. Dues payments must be postmarked by midnight on May 17th.

Once the membership drive is over, a call for nominations will be sent out. If you are a Member in Good Standing, you may nominate any other Member in Good Standing to hold one of four offices - President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Director (the office of director has two places).

Don't forget, you may nominate yourself if you'd like to hold an office. If you're too modest to do so, ask a colleague to nominate you. In fact, if it takes a little persuasion to get them to nominate you, fill out the nomination form for them and send it in along with a check for their dues!

I might also point out that Chapter Officers enjoy a higher level of recognition at the annual meetings. What a better way to start your tenure than to be honored at the 43rd Annual Meeting!

The duties of the officers are in the Chapter's Constitution and can be reviewed on our web site at http://users.ev1.net/~slovacek/hfes.

Electronic ballots will be mailed to all MIGS and will be accepted for 15 days. At the end of the 15th day, votes will be counted. Tie votes for any office will be resolved by drawing lots. Winners will be announced and shall assume their offices on the first day after the close of the Annual Business Meeting.

The Chapter's annual business meeting will be held during the week of July 18th. Since we will have a new members and officers by that time, we will wait until closer to that date to determine the exact date, time and location of the meeting.

As, by now, you are all aware, the national Society's annual meeting will be held here in Houston this year in September and October. If you are not already on the Annual Meeting Committee, there are still plenty of opportunities to help. Contact Cletis R. Booher (cletis.r.booher1@jsc.nasa.gov 281-483-8951) or Chris Slovacek (chris.p.slovacek1@jsc.nasa.gov 281-483-8124) for more information.