PLOT February 2021 – From the chairman…

Dear PLOTers,

Hopefully you are doing well and have not been affected by the now infamous virus or by a mental breakdown due to sitting and working at home. Within PLOT we have also seen the latter as a heavy burden. That's why we experimented last year with virtual meetings and a conference from the FHI studio. This was very successful and super motivating!

We still cannot meet each other physically, but we can of course stay in touch and we will keep it that way in 2021. Yet there must come a point when we can be together again, because to just let a 25th anniversary pass by unnoticed or on a screen... do you remember the 20th anniversary at Corpus in Leiden? ?

Although we were already way ahead of ourselves with our virtual tour of the human body. This time we will walk backwards and reminisce about old memories. Who still has photos, anecdotes or just a good memory?  

Think about it in advance, I think it would be great to collect all those stories and paint a broad picture of how our field and PLOT have fared. Maybe we will turn it into a beautiful book (we will need your input of course) and your name will be immortalized on 90 gram white paper! Who wouldn't want that?

25 years of PLOT, we will talk about it further, but today is more important. Although the substantive work of the working groups is not at all suitable for this, the working groups are still very active in maintaining a high level of knowledge gathering within PLOT. We also continue to receive good input from our sister organizations in a European context. So the knowledge acquisition continues.

The knowledge sharing is of course a bit more difficult, but you know that we will continue to look for solutions. The experiment with the studio, team member meetings and hybrid meetings will now be continued: we will organize knowledge sharing through lunch sessions. After all, during the physical conferences we have learned that most discussions happen during lunch, so how plausible is it to organize a virtual lunch session now, right? For now, you only have to provide the sandwich yourself…

Topics that could be discussed during the lunch session include:

• Digitization/digital twin
• How do materials behave towards UVC disinfectant?
• Developments in the testing area
• Customers share less and less information and are increasingly confronted with NDAs
• Link IEC 60068 (Environmental testing)
• Weathering testing (Battery testing and power electronics)
• Heavier shakers needed for testing
• Test to pass/test to fail etc

In the 2021 strategy session, we also conducted a strengths/weaknesses analysis with opportunities and threats and we drew up a communication plan to stay in touch with the members as best as possible.

On that note, I would like to thank you very much for your loyalty to the PLOT. It is a difficult time for everyone, but together we will make it through. You are an example that supports PLOT in good, bad and good times (it seems like a soap opera) and I wish you all the support and all the best personally and professionally in that regard.

On to a time when Corona is just another beer, 1.5 meters is the minimum purchase of beer in the pub, a cotton swab is only for your ears and face masks are only needed when we are all standing over a vibrating table again. peek!

Stay safe, hang in there and see you soon!

Harry Roossien, chairman of PLOT