Message from the executive editor.

HRPS recently asked Richard Vosburgh of Hewlett Packard to co-chair the Publications Committee (along with Bill Stopper), and to become the executive editor for our quarterly publication, Human Resource Planning. Following are some introductory remarks from Rich as we begin our 26th year publishing HRP.

To the Readership of Human Resource Planning:

I remember 25 years ago reading the first few publications of Human Resource Planning and thinking how cool it was to have a journal devoted to my chosen field. I ran out and bought Jim Walker's classic book of the same title. Then in 1980 I published an article in the Personnel Journal entitled "The Annual Human Resource Review," and I was hooked. Fast forward and we are the people our parents warned us about, or something like that. At any rate, time marches on and I am humbled to have been offered this opportunity. And also a bit scared (you see, I have a "day job" also!). We put ourselves "out there" with every publication, and in our time-constrained world we don't want to be offering anything not of value to our readership. So feel free to correspond with me at rich.vosburgh@hp.com.

HRPS is a nonprofit professional organization established by and for its members. Except for a small (but wonderful!) staff in New York City, the rest of us on the Board and Committees are volunteers. We offer our time and talents hoping in some small way to contribute to the quality and evolution of our profession and to the growth and development of our members. I wouldn't trade anything for the satisfaction I have received from my involvement with HRPS, so it is a true labor of love. I recommend that any of our members find ways to get more involved in helping the Society.

Bill Stopper and I have taken the first few steps in reassembling a new Publications Committee and a new Editorial Review Board. Many thanks to the talented and dedicated professionals who have agreed to serve. Please read through the list on page 63 to better appreciate how lucky we feel to have such a group assembled. Bill and I knew we would need to assemble a special team in order to handle the quantity of submissions and ensure the quality of the final product. The Publications Committee had its first organizing meeting in January and we feel really good about the renewed commitment and creativity of this group.

I can't be given this communication opportunity without also making it a CALL FOR PAPERS. Are you or your colleagues working on something you believe would be meaningful to our members and meet the standards of Human Resource Planning? If so, we want to hear from you!

One of the real pleasures of this kind of assignment is the opportunity to interact with some very talented people. Because Dave Ulrich has been such a strong supporter of HRPS and we knew he was about to take a sabbatical from the University of Michigan, I gave him a call and asked if he would be willing to do an interview on the "state of the art" of human resources before he began his mission. Class act that he is, he agreed and the interview is included in this edition of Human Resource Planning. The whole experience made me "flash back" to 1983 when I participated in the annual PepsiCo senior HR meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona and the young Dave Ulrich presented his early research on the roles of HR. The leader for that meeting was the SVP-HR of PepsiCo, Roger King, who just spoke to the HRPS Corporate Sponsor Forum in Scottsdale a few months age. Man, we've come a long way, and the networking continues.

Richard M. Vosburgh

Vice President, Human Resources

Hewlett Packard, Americas ESG