October 1996 € Volume 23 € Number 5
October 1996 € Volume 23 € Number 5
As one of my last duties as President of CPMS, it is a pleasure for me to announce the new Practitioner's Page, sponsored by the College on the Practice of Management Science (CPMS). We want to have a forum focusing on the needs and interests of practice and practitioners; this page will be loaded with news, ideas, articles and editorials which are useful, informative and fun for those practicing operations research. Our hope is that it will complement Interfaces and enrich OR/MS Today. Eventually, depending on readers' interests and the material we get, we may expand it into a separate newsletter.
It is with even greater pleasure that I introduce Doug Samuelson as our first editor. Most of you know Doug from his "ORacle" columns. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the job of guiding the evolution of our page, or department, or newsletter or whatever this turns out to be. But no matter how competent Doug is, to be successful, he needs the help of all of us. Please send your ideas, news, information, articles and suggestions to Doug so that we can start creating a dynamic and interesting forum for OR/MS practice.
I want to thank OR/MS Today for adding this department so that we can reach the full INFORMS membership. We hope that by doing this we can increase the membership and participation in CPMS. This will enhance our ability to create dynamic, useful and interesting programs for the practice community. Although I have been emphasizing practice in my comments, it is important to point out that CPMS and the Practitioners' Page are not meant just for practitioners, but for the academic community as well. We want CPMS and this page to be a forum where practitioners can learn of useful new tools and techniques, academics can learn of useful applications, and the two communities can enrich and support each other.
In the same spirit, let me point out that everyone benefits from a strong CPMS and a good set of services for OR/MS practitioners. CPMS' ability to support activities like this depends on membership, attendance at CPMS-sponsored sessions and the Edelman Prize competition, and other support for CPMS. We have been conducting a membership drive for CPMS during the summer and will continue through the fall. Please join!
&emdash; Tom Spencer
President, CPMS
[email protected]