It is time to begin making your plans to attend the 2002 CMBG conference.  This year’s conference promises to be exciting and informative.  The CMBG Steering Committee met in Atlantic City, NJ on January 29-30, 2002, to review the facilities for the 2002 conference and develop a conference theme.  This year’s theme is “Don’t Gamble with Configuration Management- Managing Risk”.  Attached are the proposed conference topics for your review and an interest survey form.

Please use the interest survey form to indicate your desire to make a presentation.  If you have a favorite topic and want to share your knowledge with industry peers, now is the chance.  The time allotted will be approximately 20-25 minutes per presentation.

This mailing is being distributed to configuration management practitioners identified on the CMBG database.  If you are not the appropriate individual at your company or facility to receive this notice, please forward it to the correct person.  If you want to be removed from this list, please check the box on the interest survey form.

We will be making another mailing in May to firm up the agenda and provide additional information.  Your prompt response will make that effort much smoother.  Please return the interest survey forms by April 5, 2002 to:

Robert L Beard
PSEG Nuclear
Mail code N29
P.O. Box 236
Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038

Or e-mail to robert.beard@pseg.com.

Theme: Don’t Gamble with Configuration Management- Managing Risk

When:                October 6 – 9, 2002

Location:           Trump Taj Mahal

1000 Boardwalk at Virginia Avenue
Atlantic City, NJ 08401
Reservation: 1-800-825-8888
Fax: 609-449-5501
Website: http://www.trumptaj.com

The Conference registration fee this year will remain at $175 which includes breakfast,  lunch and refreshments during breaks as well as the service fees for the CMBG website server and name.  To see the results of previous conferences, go to the Configuration Management Benchmarking Group website at www.cmbg.org.

We are planning to have on-line registration and electronic payment options through Paypal via the CMBG web site. This would allow payment  by check or credit card.  As always, we will also accept mail in registration and payment.  More information will be sent out on this once we finalize the process.

Hotel

You are encouraged to make your hotel reservations as early as possible by calling 1-800-825-8888.  Inform the hotel reservations desk that you are attending the CMBG/ PSEG Nuclear Conference  to receive the $125/ night rate (single or double).  The cut off date for this rate is September 6, 2002.  After this date, reservations will be accepted on an availability basis only and subject to the prevailing rates.

A one night reservation deposit will be applied to the last night of the reservation.  Any guest departing early will forfeit the deposit, unless the guest revised their departure date at the time of check in.

Cancellation of individual reservations not received by the hotel at least 48 hours in advance of the arrival date, will be charged one night’s room rate.  This charge will be applied the credit card which guaranteed the reservation.

Check in time is 6 PM on Sundays, 4 PM Monday through Saturday. Check out is noon.  Departures after noon will be charged a late check out fee of 50% of the room rate.  Departures after 6 PM will be charged an additional night’s room rate.

We have arranged for a small block of rooms for Saturday night for those who  wish to arrive before the conference to take advantage of discounted weekend air fares and the warm October temperatures.  Due to the high demand for rooms during weekends, the discounted group rate is not available.  The room charge for Saturday night is $275 (single or double).  The hotel will average the room charge over the entire length of stay if you desire. You may make arrangements for this payment method with the hotel at check in.

The hotel offers ample parking in their self park garage and valet parking.  There is a state imposed minimum $2.00 charge per 24 hour period for each vehicle parked on the premises.  This fee is good for all hotels in Atlantic City for the 24 hour period covered so, if you visit other hotels, you will not be charged another fee.

If you want to come early but do not wish to stay in Atlantic City on Saturday night, 50 miles to the south is historic Cape May which has charming Victorian Bed and Breakfast houses  with great family beaches (http://www.capemay.com).  The Wildwoods (http://www.wildwoods.com ) are 45 miles to the south which has great beaches, a boardwalk and amusement piers.  Ocean City (http://www.oceancitynj.com) is just 15 minutes to the south of Atlantic City and is a nice family oriented location with a boardwalk and great beaches.

Airfare

Some airlines do fly into Atlantic City airport which is 15 minutes from the hotel.  However, since there are not many direct flights into Atlantic City Airport, a better option is to fly in to Philadelphia International Airport, which is just 50 miles away.  From there, you can rent a car or take a limousine or shuttle bus from airport.

2003 Conference

It is never too early to plan ahead.  2003 is the 10^th anniversary of the first CMBG conference held in the Pocono’s and hosted by PP&L.  PPL Susquehanna, LLC (a subsidiary of what is now PPL corporation) has graciously agreed to sponsor the 2003 conference and Mike Stout again will be the host.  The conference is scheduled for June 15-18, 2003, and will be held at the Hershey Hotel in Hershey, PA.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at 856-339-1607 or Robert Beard at 856-339-7800.

Sincerely,

Victor Fregonese

Design Engineering Manager

Attachment 1

Theme- “DON’T GAMBLE WITH CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT- Managing the Risk”

Sub-topics:

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Ø      Work-force Aging  and Leaving the Industry 

Ø      CM Training

Ø      Human Performance

PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Ø      Performance Indicators

ASSET MANAGEMENT

Ø      Protecting our Investment

Ø      Cost Avoidance

Ø      Abandoned Equipment

Ø      License Renewal

OPERATIONAL CONFIGURATION

Ø      As-built

Ø      Status Control (Safety Tagging)

Ø      Controlling Work-arounds

Ø      Procedures Containing Facilities Change Information

OTHER TOPICS

Ø      CM Fundamentals

Ø      Calculations

Ø      Document Management

Ø      Self Assessment