You probably have--in your neighborhood, at church, at the supermarket hawking Girl Scout Cookies, at a family reunion or Christmas party. Maybe she even lives at your house. She's smart, imaginative and creative. She's got a quirky outlook on life. She's curious about everything and is always asking why things are the way they are and work the way they do.

If you're at all concerned about where the next generation of manufacturing workers is going to come from, this white paper from SME might be worth your time. "Workforce Imperative: A Manufacturing Education Strategy" has some good ideas--and some that have been around for a long time, during which nobody seemed to be listening--but implementation is going to be tricky, I think. Still, we have to start someplace. This could be a good place.

MANUFACTURING PROFESSIONALS TO INTRODUCE

There are lots of good technical societies that do good work and offer great benefits to members. I'm thinking ISA, WBF, SAE, SME, etc., etc. They're serious and important, and I wouldn't diss any of them for the world. But, to my mind, they lack a little, shall we say, panache. Maybe it's the burden of those TLA (three-letter acronym) names. Would they be different if they had names such as The Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers?