Newsgroups line: sci.physics.plasma Plasma Science & Technology community exchange. CHARTER (Proponent) The NEWSGROUP for Plasma Science and Technology is intended as a community forum for sharing new developments and bringing researchers together for potential new collaborations. During 1994, the focus of this news group will be a community-wide dialogue to formulate a Plasma Science and Technology Initiative which would deliver big-science value with a medium-scale investment. Participation in this dialogue will involve primarily researchers in plasma science and technology although qualified researchers in all related fields are welcome. Executive committees for the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society (APS) and the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) have given formal approval for this network dialogue. The Plasma Science and Technology research community seeks an increased dialogue among its multifarious constituencies. Plasmas are as rich as any other state of matter in terms of distinct processes and they encompass distinguishable scales ranging from the atomic to the galactic. Opportunities in plasma science and technology reflect this breadth in phenomena and scales; one recent list contains 135 subject areas and 65 applications areas including thin-film diamond deposition, toxic waste disposal, plasma arcs for steel processing, laser self-focusing, fusion for energy production, gas and arc lamps, cutting and welding, and semiconductor production. In its initial implementation, Dr. Tim Eastman will be the PLASMA NEWSGROUP moderator. He is a Faculty member of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology at the University of Maryland [ph: 301-405-4829, fax: 301-314-9363, email: eastman@astro.umd.edu]. Dr. Barry Ripin of the Naval Research Laboratory will be an alternate moderator. The APS and IEEE Executive Committees will renew or replace the moderator on a yearly basis. NOTE: The news group name "sci.physics.fusion" already exists and is appropriate for the subset of Plasma Science and Technology which focuses on plasmas for energy production (i.e., fusion). The proposed NEWSGROUP for PLASMA is intended to complement the "fusion" group and will primarily orient itself to issues of Plasma Science and Technology other than fusion. Why the News Group for Plasma Science & Technology is needed and should pass: Representatives and members of the Plasma Science and Technology research community have long recognized a need to communicate information and issues that affect the broader community in addition to the several email groups that currently exist at the local level or sub-field level (e.g., the Plasma Etch User's Group in the Bay area). Formal support for setting up this news group has now been given (as of Nov. 1993) by the key Executive Committees representing this broad multi-disciplinary field. In order to focus the discussion during the news group's first year, we will encourage a community-wide dialogue to formulate a major Plasma Science and Technology Initiative. The news group would then complement a Workshop on this topic at the International Conference in Plasma Science in June, 1994. Even after this initiative is formulated and is no longer a focus of discussion, the news group will provide a valuable service to the community by encouraging contacts and research coordination that might otherwise never develop. Use of the news group will be encouraged through scientific meetings and through timely announcements of job opportunities, research opportunities, and funding options.