LEOMA and the US Laser Industry: The Good and Bad Moves for Trade Associations in Emerging High-Tech Industries

193 Pages·2014·2.717 MB·English

by  C. Breck Hitz

LEOMA AND THE
US LASER INDUSTRY
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LEOMA AND THE
US LASER INDUSTRY
The Good and Bad Moves for
Trade Associations in Emerging
High-Tech Industries
C.BRECKHITZ
Copyright2015byTheInstituteofElectricalandElectronicsEngineers,Inc.
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Preface vii
1 LEOMAandtheU.S.LaserIndustry 1
2 ProfessionalSocietiesandthePhotonicsCommunity 29
3 InternationalLaserStandards 53
4 EducationalIssues 75
5 ExportControls 95
6 TheFederalGovernment 117
7 Intra-IndustryAffairs 131
Appendix1:LEOMAOfficers 157
Appendix2:ISOLaserStandards 161
Appendix3:LEOMAExecutiveSeminars 163
Appendix4:TheLEOMAADRAgreement 167
Index 171
v

PREFACE
As its title suggests, this book examines some of the issues that confront a
tradeassociationrepresentinganewlydevelopedhigh-technologyindustry.In
the late 1980s, the US laser industry had sales approaching a billion dollars,
butwaslackinganyformofinternalcohesion.Perhapstherewillbeemerging
industries with those characteristics in the second and third decade of the
21stcentury,andhopefullythisbookwillbehelpfultothoseseekingtoguide
those industries.
FortheU.S.laserindustryin1987,thestimuluswasthesuddenappearanceof
several challenges that demanded a coherent response for all the companies
involved.TheLaserandElectro-OpticsManufacturers’Association(LEOMA)
wascreated,andwas mostlysuccessfulinaddressing those issues.Thisbook
describesthoseissuesandhowtheywereaddressed,andcontinuestotellhow
thelackofsubsequent,pressingissuesultimatelyledtoLEOMA’sdissolution.
Increatingthisnarrative,ithasbeenadvantageoustohaveworkedfromthe
same office—an office with something over 100 ft of bookshelves—for a
quarter century. Everything is still here. All the old LEOMA newsletters, all
the minutes from LEOMA Board meetings, all the agendas from laser
standards committees, all the minutes from conference steering-committee
meetings . . . there is even a DOS 1.0 manual on those shelves somewhere.
And it is a good thing thoseold documents are still available, because the
human memory is not a particularly reliable mechanism. In reviewing my
notesandmemoranda,Idiscoveredthatin1989Iattendedathree-daymeeting
ofofficialsfromState,Defense,andCommerceinAlbuquerque.Themeeting
had been precipitated by LEOMA’s lobbying for reform of export controls,
vii
viii PREFACE
andapparentlyitwas pivotalto achievingthesuccessfulreform describedin
Chapter5.Ihaveabsolutelynorecollectionofthatmeeting.HadInotrecently
read my own notes from that meeting, I would have denied that it ever took
place.
Areviewerofthemanuscriptforthisbookcomplainedthatthefirstchapter
givesawaytheending.Indeed,itdoes.Infact,IguessIgaveawaytheending
in the second paragraph of this preface. The first chapter gives a bird’s-eye
overview of LEOMA and its activities. Each of the subsequent chapters
examinesmorecloselyoneofthoseactivities.Myhopeisthattheentirebook
will serve as an accurate record of this small part of U.S. business history.
C. BRECK HITZ