Ballot measure signature counting begins

Top export control officer to visit Oregon

Networking programs gearing up for the fall

New AeA Member Benefit: PR Newswire

Web Conferencing For FREE?

Thanks to renewing members

 

Events

Oregon Team

Oregon Council holds annual CEO Summit

CEOs from more than 30 AeA Oregon Council member companies gathered in downtown Portland July 22 for the annual CEO Summit, a chance to review recent progress and set goals for the future. Oregon Council chair Bob DeKoning, CEO of Routeware, moderated the half-day session.

Member CEO’s reviewed the council’s new value proposition and agreed that it accurately articulated our efforts:

“Make a powerful connection: THE Association where growing high-tech companies and their service providers gather to learn, influence, and advance their competitive advantage to achieve business goals…locally, nationally, or globally…just ask any of our 150 members or any top-tier service provider!”

CEOs also agreed that the Oregon Council should focus on three broad goals, including: improving the state’s educational system with an emphasis on technology programs at the university level; enhancing the local climate for innovation and networking; and maintaining AeA as a strong player in public policy discussions.

DeKoning, a member of the AeA national board, said that the Oregon Council remains the top performer in all of AeA and its networking programs and lobbying efforts are admired around the country.

The event ended with a “thank you” from OSU Dean of Engineering Ron Adams and PSU Dean of Engineering Bob Dryden for the solid industry support these past 10 years that have allowed the two campus programs to grow and open new world-class facilities in the past year.


Ballot measure signature counting begins

Activists seeking to put their pet initiative ideas before Oregon voters in the fall turned in their signatures July 7. Now a month-long process of verifying the signatures begins at the Secretary of State’s office. Statutory measures need about 75,600 valid signatures; Constitutional changes require 100,800. More than 160 ideas were proposed this year; less than a dozen will make it to the November ballot.

It looks likely that voters will get to decide the following: a new state spending limit; an increased income tax deduction for individual taxpayers; a requirement that Supreme Court judges be elected by districts; a prohibition on using credit scores for insurance rating purposes; a requirement for parental notification before minors receive abortions; an expansion of the Oregon prescription drug program; a prohibition against condemning private property for other private uses; term limits for the state legislature; and campaign finance reform.

A widely discussed measure to change Oregon’s primary election system will need a very high rate of valid signatures to make it to the ballot, and a Constitutional measure making health care a fundamental right will likely fall short. We reported last month that a measure to require Oregon corporations to publicly disclose their income tax payments was withdrawn.

If you’re a total political nerd and want to keep track of the counting process, visit the Secretary of State’s website and click on “2006 Initiative Petition Signature Verification Results.”


Top export control officer to visit Oregon

David McCormick, the nation’s top manager of the U.S. export control system, will meet with AeA members on Monday, July 31. McCormick serves as Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security and as such is in charge of such areas as export controls, dual-use technology regulations, and treaty compliance.

McCormick was invited to Oregon by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland), who serves on the House International Relations Committee and has a strong personal interest in reforming the nation’s export control system.

If you are interested in participating, call Jim Craven in the Oregon Council office at 503-624-6050 or reply by email to jim_craven@aeanet.org.


Networking programs gearing up for the fall

Our frantic pace of regular networking events slows down between July and September as we focus on a couple of large-scale projects and regroup for the fall. There are no morning breakfast networking events planned during the summer and no CXO networking forums. We sincerely thank all of the volunteer organizers and all of the attendees who helped make this year’s events a huge success.


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Thanks to renewing members

The Brentwood Group Ltd.
Corillian Corporation
D.A. Davidson
GemStone Systems, Inc.
Komatsu Silicon America, Inc.
Monsoon, Inc.
Serveron Corporation