AeANET : Midwest Council Newsletter-May 2008

Global Technology Advocacy, Green IT / Green Technology, Littelfuse, Member News, AeA Midwest Go Green Program in Chicago

AeA has been actively working at the state, federal, and international levels on technology issues that affect our industry for many years. AeA advances the interests of our member companies at all levels of the government to support growth and innovation in our industry. Our Washington, DC team, 40 persons strong, includes our federal and international lobbying and legal team with expertise in the areas of tax, customs, export controls, ecommerce, environmental policy, immigration, international trade agreements, and additional issues directly related to AeA's Competitiveness agenda. Our 100 person national staff, 18 US offices, international offices in Brussels, Europe and Beijing, China, broad membership, and industry partners enable AeA to provide companies with support, timely information, policy analysis, and leadership throughout the United States and abroad.

An ongoing focus in AeA's list of policy priorities and initiatives include a variety of issues related to environmental compliance. A natural progression and addition to our current environmental portfolio is Green IT/Green Technology. In addition to our ongoing emphasis of monitoring and influencing effective electronic recycling regulations and policies in the US and oversees, AeA has adopted the following issue sets as part of our overarching environmental portfolio:

AeA supports improving the efficient use of natural resources, while maintaining or improving performance and/or cost. Such topics include:

Encouraging Tele-working. AeA supports State and Federal Measures to Increase public funding and support of Tele-working.
Improving Broadband Deployment. AeA supports increasing broadband access, speed, and penetration. Broadband decreases the need for transportation and increases the use of E-commerce, and it also can increase teleconferencing and distance learning programs.
Energy efficient chips. The R&D Tax Credits helps technology companies improve the efficiency of their microprocessors, which lead to longer life mobile devices and improved electricity use at data centers.
Encouraging use of the R&D Tax Credit to investigate and uncover early and late stage energy efficiency and the exploration of alternative and renewable energy technologies including: battery, solar, water, wind, and fuel cell technology.

In 2008 AeA will conduct more than 20 programs across the country to highlight new technology, industry regulations, and best practices in the green technology movement, in addition to a variety of targeted legislative initiatives and advocacy efforts driven by AeA and our members. Please contact me at your convenience if you are interested in engaging in AeA's expanding green initiatives. We also hope you will join us for AeA's Midwest Go Green Forum on May 21, which will be held at Microsoft's Innovation Center, downtown Chicago.

We appreciate your ongoing support and involvement. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Ed Longanecker
Executive Director

AeA Member News

Allscripts Reports First Quarter 2008 Results
CHICAGO, April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Allscripts, the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare, today announced results for the three months ended March 31, 2008...read more.

Barbara A. Klein Elected to Cabot Microelectronics' Board of Directors
AURORA, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2008--Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (Nasdaq: CCMP), the leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) polishing slurries to the semiconductor industry, is pleased to announce today the election of Barbara A. Klein to the Company's Board of Directors...read more.

PDSi Hires New Chief Financial Officer
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- April 24, 2008 --Pinnacle Data Systems, Inc. (PDSi) (AMEX: PNS) announced that Nicholas Tomashot has joined PDSi�s executive team this week as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary of the Company...read more.

TechTeam Global Announces Two Strategic Appointments to Global Leadership Team
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., April 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TechTeam Global, Inc., (Nasdaq: TEAM), a worldwide provider of information technology (IT), enterprise support and business process outsourcing services, today announced that two key executives have joined the company. Chris Donohue has joined as Vice President of Strategy, Marketing and Product Development, and Ernst Vogtle has joined as Vice President of Operations for the EMEA region...read more.

AeA Midwest Council Featured Member

Littelfuse Corporation

In today�s technology-driven world, products that rely on electrical energy are all around us.

As the #1 global circuit protection brand, Littelfuse offers the broadest and deepest portfolio of circuit protection technologies and expertise trusted by engineers around the world.

Littelfuse products enhance safety, reliability and performance by protecting against short circuits, voltage surges, electrostatic discharge, lightning, electrical load switching and other threats. Backed by the knowledge of our global network of application experts, we have the unique ability to evaluate needs and deliver the right solution to most design and manufacturing challenges.

Open the cover on nearly any electronic device, look under the hood of nearly any automobile or check the electrical infrastructure of nearly any commercial building -- Just about everywhere you look, you'll find a Littelfuse product:

Over-Current protection:

Fuses
PPTCs (Polymer Positive Temperature Coefficient Thermistors)

Over-Voltage Protection and Switching:

Transient Voltage Suppression (TVS) Diodes
Silicon Protection Arrays (SPAs)
SIDACtor� Protection Thyristors
Varistors (MOVs and MLVs)
PulseGuard� ESD Suppressors
Power Thyristors
GDTs (Gas Plasma Arrestors)

Littelfuse delivers the innovation, expertise, quality and availability you would expect from the industry leader. For additional information, please visit our web site www.littelfuse.com.

Upcoming AeA & Supported Events:

AeA Midwest CFO Committee Meeting - May 15, 2008

AeA Midwest Green Technologies Forum - May 21, 2008

AeA Partner Program - ITDA's "Legal Strategies for the Emerging Entrepreneur Seminar" May 22, 2008

AeA Partner Program - National Summit on American Competitiveness - May 22, 2008

AeA Midwest Healthcare Trends Forum - June 5, 2008

AeA National Calendar

AeA Member News & Announcement:

AeA Midwest Member News for April

Get the Latest High-Tech Industry News on AeANet

AeA National Compensation Survey - Participate Today!

AeA Committees & Industry Working Groups - Join Today!

AeA Launches NEW Member-to-Member Discount Program

Expanded AeA Member Shipping & Freight Discounts & Offers

Complimentary AeA Member Office & Conference Space in Eleven US States & Abroad

50+ High-Tech Companies Join NEW AeA Health care Program - Compare and Save Today

A Focus on the Environment: Green/Clean Technology, Teleworking, and Earth Day

One of the most critical issues facing our industry and our country is the environment. AeA�s Board of Directors is committed to our initiatives in educating and advocating locally, nationally, and internationally on multiple environmental fronts � including:

green and clean technologies;
the global Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS);
the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive;
the European Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Registration of Chemicals (REACH);
teleworking initiatives that reduce fuel consumption, traffic, congestion, and air pollution;
eco-design, energy efficiency, mandatory labeling, and more.

Therefore, I wanted to take this opportunity to ask you to get involved today as your company�s technologies can offer solutions to many of our environmental challenges. Not to mention, these tools also provide the hope of creating thousands of new green and clean jobs in the U.S., thus improving our country�s global competitiveness.

On April 22, while our country celebrated Earth Day, AeA did its part by releasing a new edition of our acclaimed four-page Competitiveness Series on telework. We provided them electronically (to save paper) to every Member of the U.S. Congress. The report �Telework in the Information Age: Building a More Flexible Workforce and a Cleaner Environment� discusses how:

more than 45 million U.S. workers telecommute at least once a week;
44% of U.S. companies offered telework options in 2005, up from 32% in 2001;
teleworking is the second best way to recruit and retain talent, only behind salary; and
1.35 billion gallons of fuel, worth $4.5B at current prices of $3.33 a gallon, could be saved annually if everyone with the potential to telework did so just 1.6 days per week.

I would like to thank the numerous AeA member companies � including Citrix, Intel, and Microsoft � for their assistance in developing this paper. I feel strongly that it will have a profound impact on how Congress and many state legislatures view telework.

But the environment is not just a U.S. issue, it is global. Therefore, in mid-April AeA's Chairwoman of the Board, Deirdre Hanford, Senior Vice President, Global Technical Services, Synopsys, led a delegation with my assistance of U.S. and European executives with in a series of meetings with EU officials in Brussels and Paris. More information on this event can be found below in the International Government Affairs section.

Green technology isn�t just good for the environment, it�s good for your company�s top line. AeA hosted two green events recently dealing with this issue in Seattle and Los Angeles. Additionally, I am excited to announce that on May 6, for the first time in the AeA Micro Cap Financial Conference�s 10 year history, we will host a special track focusing exclusively on alternative energy and green tech companies. Ted Kundtz, Senior Research Analyst, Clean Tech and Industrial Growth, Needham & Company, LLC will host a fireside chat at the Micro Cap conference focusing on, "Investing in Innovative Clean Tech Solutions.� Panelists include:

Jeffrey Ciachurski, Chief Executive Officer, Western Wind Energy
Douglas Lawson, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Alternative Energy for BTU International
Reuben Richards, Jr., Executive Chairman, Chairman of the Board, Emcore Corporation

Currently, the green tech and alternative energy companies that will be featured at the conference include:

Company Name	Ticker	Industry
Blue Fire Ethanol, Inc.	BFRE	Alternative Energy
BTU International, Inc.	BTUI	Electronics
EAU Technologies, Inc.	EAUI	Non-Toxic Cleaning Products
Electro Energy, Inc.	EEEI	Advanced Battery Technologies
Neah Power Systems	NPWS	Fuel Cells
Odyne Corporation	ODYC	Alternative Energy
Open Energy Corporation	OEGY	Renewable Energy
Quantum Fuel Systems	QTWW	Hybrid Vehicles and Solar
Renegy Holdings, Inc.	RNGY	Alternative/Renewable Energy
Western Wind Energy Corp.	TSX: WND	Alternative Energy
ZBB Energy Corporation	ZBB	Energy Storage

If you were unable to present at the financial conference or missed the Seattle or Los Angeles events, below I have provided an upcoming schedule of additional AeA environment events around the U.S. I hope that you can attend to help us continue to promote our environmental goals.

Christopher Hansen
President and CEO
AeA, Advancing the Business of Technology

Learn the latest global environment developments on RoHS, WEEE, Energy Efficiency, and more at AeA's annual compliance roadshow. For your convenience, AeA has planned three events across the United States to give you the vital information that you need to remain compliant to international manufacturing standards.

For more information or to register visit www.aeanet.org/environment2008.

May 8, 2008: AeA Southeast Going Green...Think Globally, Profit Locally (Atlanta, GA)
Going Green...Think Globally, Profit Locally is a comprehensive program to help you learn best practices, laws & regulations that may affect your company, how to implement cost savings while greening your company, and how you can make a difference by positively affecting the environment. Speakers include:

Martin Rickerd, British Consulate General, UK Trade & Investment
Mike Williams, Program Manager, Georgia Clean Air Campaign
Ramsay Battin, Director, Venture Capital, Arcapita Investments
Robert Shults, Strategic Public Sector Programs, Intel
Jonathan Bragdon, Tricycle
Chuck Ros, Emerald Software

May 19-21, 2008: CIRCA 08 (Albany, NY)
Join global nanoelectronics and technology industry leaders by attending or sponsoring CIRCA 08 (Convergence of International Research & Commercialization in Albancy). CIRCA 08 is an industry-leading annual conference at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York, and at the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering's state-of-the-art, $4.2 billion Albany NanoTech Complex. Panelists will discuss open innovation challenges facing energy, transportation, and security.

For more information contact Michelle Scott at 518.273.3407.

May 21, 2008: AeA Midwest Presents a "Go Green!" Breakfast (Chicago, IL)
Hosted at Microsoft's office in Chicago, this event will discuss the best practices, regulations, and information on the greening of the high-tech industry. Confirmed speakers include:

Vince Albanese, Senior Vice President, Fuel Tech
Hardik Bhatt, CIO, City of Chicago
Lewis Curtis, Senior Infrastructure Architect, Microsoft Corporation

For more information or to register, contact Michelle Scott at 630.613.7739.

August 27, 2008: Energy Technology Conference (University of Texas at Dallas)
The AeA Texas Energy Technology Conference, held in partnership with the University of Texas at Dallas, will explore the developments and opportunities in the energy field, including within the oil & gas industry as as alternative and green energy. For more information contact Tiffany Sefton at 972.386.6540.

October 14, 2008: 2008 Medal of Achievement, Green Technology Dinner (Silicon Valley, CA)
Bringing together top high-tech industry innovators focused on Green Technology, this is an opportunity for AeA to recognize global leadership in helping to advance the business of high tech and the development of new Green Technology. For more information contact Colette Gonsalves at 408.987.4200.

AeA Lobbies EU and French Government Officials on Environment & Other High-Tech Priorities

Deirdre Hanford, Senior Vice President, Technical Services, Synopsys, and Chairwoman of the AeA Board of Directors, led an executive delegation along with Chris Hansen, AeA President and CEO, on April 15 -17, for a series of meetings in Brussels and Paris with European Union and French government officials. The delegation included AeA Board Members from Freescale Semiconductor, Pipeline Software, and Xerox; as well as European representatives from Agilent Technologies, GE, HP, Microsoft, Symantec, and United Technologies.

In the Brussels meetings we had the chance to talk with the Commissioner for Environment, Stavros Dimas, as well as the Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding. Other Commission meetings included Andris Kesteris, Chief of Staff for the Energy Commissioner, and David O�Sullivan, Director General for Trade. We also had a very engaging and enjoyable dinner in the European Parliament with seven members of the Parliament organized by Jonathan Evans, Chairman of the Delegation for Relations with the U.S.

Since the French Government will be taking over the EU Presidency on July 1, the AeA delegation also sought to persuade them to address our concerns as part of their Presidency agenda. In preparation for the French meetings, we were honored to have breakfast with Craig Roberts Stapleton, the U.S. Ambassador to France, and C. Boyden Gray, Special Envoy to the EU, at the Ambassador's residence in Paris. From there the delegation moved to successive meetings with senior staff at the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and the Ministry for Ecology and Sustainable Planning and Development.

In our meetings we focused on getting policy makers to recognize high-tech as part of the solution to energy efficiency and climate change challenges rather than the problem. Using the energy efficiency report released by AeA Europe last September, we raised awareness among the EU Commissioners and French officials of the many ways technology improves energy efficiency across industries. Policy issues we covered as appropriate included:

Energy Efficiency;
Climate Change;
Hazardous Substances;
REACH;

Breach Notification;
Private Company Levies; and
the Information Technology Agreement (ITA).

For more detailed information on our meetings, members can read the Chairwoman�s report on the AeA website at www.aeanet.org/Europe2008.

Rob Mulligan (bio)
Senior Vice President International

AeA delegation with Ambassadors Gray and Stapleton

James Lovegrove, Managing Director, AeA Europe; Chris Hansen, President & CEO, AeA; Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media; Deirdre Hanford, SVP, Global Technical Services, Synopsys, and AeA Chairwoman of the Board (L-R)

Deirdre Hanford, SVP, Global Technical Services, Synopsys, and AeA Chairwoman of the Board; and James Lovegrove, Managing Director, AeA Europe, in front of the Eiffel Tower (L-R)

For more information on the International Issues affecting your company, visit:

Participate in AeA Sarbanes-Oxley 404 Survey to Help Us Craft a Better Regulation

The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon release a survey, gauging the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404 on public companies. As was discussed at the AeA Board of Directors Meeting in February, we are supplementing there survey with our own to show how the direct compliance costs from the regulation have impacted high-tech companies and our industry. Click here to take the online survey today!

AeA has been the industry's voice in advocating and communicating the unintended consequences of SOX 404 to the SEC and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). In November 2004, AeA answered your cries for help and kicked off a grassroots initiative where executives from all of our 17 councils began to meet to help us modify SOX 404. Their feedback led to the publication of a February 2005 report, "Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404: The 'Section' of Unintended Consequences and its Impact on Small Business," which was the first comprehensive report on the regulation by any high-tech organization. Since then we have hosted meetings, roundtables, and fly-ins with member company CEOs and CFOs to tell their story to the SEC Chief Accountant, numerous SEC Commissioners, PCAOB Board Members, and other regulators and legislators. In October 2005, AeA partnered with NASDAQ for a Year Two Compliance Cost Survey.

I would like to thank Tom Brandt, CFO, TeleCommunications Systems, Inc, and Chairman of the AeA SOX 404 Working Group, for his efforts relative to this survey. Tom is an Executive Committee member of AeA's Board of Directors and has testified as an AeA witness to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Businesses regarding how SOX compliance has affected his company as a mid-sized early filer.

I encourage you to take this survey. The more data that we can obtain, the more proof we have to bring to the SEC and PCAOB in asking for relief. If you have additional questions on this survey or would like to become involved in AeA's work on SOX 404 or other fiscal policy issues, please contact Marie Lee, AeA's Director and Counsel, Finance and Tax Policy, at 202.682.4448.

Marie Lee
Director and Counsel, Finance and Tax Policy

California Online Media Tax Bill Stopped in Committee & Annual Tech Summit Lobby Day Recap

AeA's new and expanded State Government Affairs program was very active in April. We testified across the country on a broad range of issues. Details on our activity can be found in the AeA State Government Affairs Information Network, but I wanted to provide you with two specific details on what AeA is doing for you in regard to state policy that have direct top and bottom line implications to your company.

In Mid-April, AeA partnered with Apple and other member companies to voice our concerns with California State Assembly Bill 1956 (Calderon), which would have extended the state's sales tax to include new media and electronic goods -- such as music, movies, and books. The goal of the bill, which was killed in committee, was to raise state revenues as California is fighting with significant budget short-falls.

AeA argued that if improving the economy was the goal, the state should focus on preventing digital piracy and the lost millions of dollars of revenue from people downloading illegally instead of increasing the taxes of people who purchase media legitimately. More information on this bill and AeA's actions can be read in the April 15th Macworld article "Analysis: Is the taxman eyeing iTunes?"

Following in the success of stoppi