This is a special call for papers for a Certification Programs session just added to the 2008 Antenna Measurement Techniques Association Annual Symposium (16-21 November 08 in Boston). This session has been added in lieu of the annual certification conference held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder Colorado. That conference was known as the 'RCS Measurement Facilities Certification Conference' until 2007 when it was renamed 'Conference on Performance and Certification Standards for Signature and Material Measurement Facilities' to accommodate the expansion of certification programs into the infrared and material measurements domains. Topics of interest for this session include: challenges and rewards of certification, uncertainty analysis, lessons learned from the certification process, establishing new certification programs for infrared measurements and material measurements, application of standards in the certification process (ANSI Z-540, ISO/IEC 17025, ISO/IEC 17011, ISO/IEC 17040).

THE DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMITTALS FOR THE CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS SESSION IS 31 May 2008.

It only takes a few minutes to register your abstract online.

Under KEYWORDS, select 'Certification' as a minimum, and up to five other relevant keywords for your paper. For Session Preferences, please check to see if 'Certification Programs' has been added to the list. If so, select it. If not, please select 'RCS Measurement Topics I' and 'RCS Measurement Topics II' and then enter the following in the Suggest-A-Session box: 'Certification Programs.'

Note:  When submitting an abstract, you must register and setup an account and password first, if you don't already have one. If you have one, but forgot your username (usually your email address of record) email secretary@amta.org to have it sent to you. Other tips include, 1) do not use the keyboard to navigate the various fields. Only the mouse. And 2) you can't down load your abstract. You have to type it or paste it in as text in the abstract field. No images. And 3) When you save your abstract, hit save first; then submit and save. Hitting submit and save only will bounce you out, but not save your abstract.