Dear Colleagues and friends,

This is my first Editorial as the new Editor of the IEEE SMC eNewsletter. I have accepted this challenge with great pleasure and with great honor, and I hope I fulfill and perhaps exceed your expectations during my tenure years in this position.

I want to thank all of you for the trust you have shown in me, I am grateful to the previous Editor and his staff for helping me understand the system and the process of setting up the eNewsletter. I have appreciated tremendously the response and feedback I have received from the Board of Governors members after introducing myself to them. I look at this job as a collective opportunity to improve further the SMC Society's image, carry its message, enlarge its membership and make widely known its technical contributions to say the least.

To begin with, on a personal note, it is not a secret that I do not like 'steady-state', therefore, as you probably already know, I have switched hats immediately after stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine serving two 5-year terms, joining our SMC Society in an 'official' capacity. However, I have been a member of the Society for more than 20 years!

This first issue of the eNewsletter serves as the "transition period", concentrating in 'housekeeping', reporting information that has been in the queue to be published, bringing the members up to date as to who is who and what is going on within the Society.

I report to you that during the past two months, I did my best to familiarize myself with our Publications procedures, I reviewed Society bylaws, I followed quietly Board of Governors and other Officers' e-mail exchanges, and I had several conversations, and meetings with past and present Society Officers. My goal was the obvious: educate myself, so that any recommendation I make is justified, and any decision I make is an informed one. Our Society's President (Larry Hall) and I are in the same Department. This makes my job easier, since I can always run to his office asking for advice or help (I have not told him that, I bet he will be surprised when he reads this column thinking that I will knock on his door constantly driving him crazy, but ... c'est la vie!).

Concerning the eNewsletter, I consider 2006 to be a year of gradual changes:

• I recommend a 'fresh look', perhaps a more appealing one that will capture reader's attention with the first click. We are working on that and our recommendation will be forwarded to the BOG members very soon.
• I support the creation of a 3-4 member 'board' to serve as 'information collectors' from industry, academia and research centers.
• I support knowing 'who's who' and 'who is doing what' around the world and I will solicit articles stating activities in university laboratories, research centers, as well as activities of research groups, world wide.
• As a by product of the previous recommendation, I encourage linking with the eNewsletter web sites of individuals, labs, centers, etc., which include short videos of research project results demonstrating advances in SMC fields.
• I support establishing a student column publishing one article in every issue.
• I would also like to include 1-2 short articles in each issue that reflect 'far fetched' or even 'extreme' ideas, not well developed. The rationale behind this is to stimulate a conversation among peers, create some challenge and adversity that will eventually promote research.

Needless to say, I count on your feedback and I will value your opinion. Although this is a short issue, the deadline for the next one will come before you know it. Send me your material, pick up the phone and tell me what you think, or send an e-mail with your thoughts. In short, be involved or get involved, this is OUR eNewsletter, Editors come and go, the eNewsletter will stay.

Enjoy the issue.