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If you're like me, maybe you view the approaching New Year as a time to take stock of where things stand in your life. Reflecting on where you've been and where you'd like to go can be a valuable tool for setting new goals and achieving new successes. So it is, too, with the Society and with the system safety profession.
Looking back gives us an opportunity to ponder lessons learned and to use that knowledge to move forward. In that spirit, I'm sure you'll enjoy reading this edition of Clif's Notes. In it, Clif Ericson details the history and evolution of system safety, and how it has affected system safety practitioners. One fact is quite clear: we, as a Society, should be writing the next chapter in system safety's history.
Speaking of the evolution of risk, Ira Rimson and Ludi Benner discuss this very topic in, "Whose Risk Is It Anyway?" They go way back in history to start off their column, showing how risks were once taken with virtually no consequences until — gradually — regard for others affected by risk-takers' actions was considered. Ira and Ludi go on to point out several intriguing examples of just whose risk it really is.
In our spotlighted articles, Arlin Cooper and Rush Robinett complete their series on the human role in system safety with "Engineering Optimal Individuals." Here, they iterate between a top-down system approach and a bottom-up focus on individuals to develop methods for assessing and improving personnel productivity, while still assuring safety. Cooper and Robinett examine risks associated with transition hazards, spec changes, errors of commission and omission, and inaction — a most interesting topic!
In "New Paradigms in System Safety," Dev Raheja and Brian Moriarty discuss how the future of system safety has evolved from a study of subsystems within a system to the next level — the system of systems, a much more complex arena. According to the authors, system safety not only includes the equipment of the systems, but also the environment in which the individual components of the system are manufactured and assembled. What are these new paradigms? Read this intriguing piece to see what lies in the future of system safety!
Speaking of the future, elections for the Society's officers and directors will soon be upon us. The Society's year ends June 30, 2007, and on July 1, a new slate of officers and three new directors — along with chapter presidents and the returning three directors — will be busy planning the future of the Society. Paul Kryska, chairman of the Nominating Committee, has called for volunteers to fill these positions. Will you play an active part in the Society's future? Will you step up and run for office? The System Safety Society was founded on the efforts of volunteers, and we need you to continue the Society's goals. Think about it. Look forward, and plan for the future — both the Society's and your own. Volunteer!
As always, Journal of System Safety is your forum for system safety, and we need your input. We need technical articles on every aspect of system safety. If you haven't submitted an article before, please consider doing so now. A variety of voices and topics will stimulate all of us to think about system safety in new ways, and perhaps provide the spark of an idea that will become system safety's next chapter.
— Niles Welch
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