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members (concentrated in Oxford) are mainly interested in physical acoustics. Texas has the most diverse interests among the states with a large population of acousticians starting from underwater acoustics followed by physical acoustics, architectural acoustics, speech communication, noise control, and psychological and physiological acoustics. This diversity is partly attributed to the different preferences of members in the Houston, Austin, and Dallas areas. Speech communication is the only field that is of interest to at least one member in every state in the table and acoustical oceanography is not of primary or secondary interest in any
state. For hard numbers that back our observations, the read- er is referred to the table posted at our web site (ASAchapterDC.org/AcousticsToday/CRCstudy.htm).
In summary, this article was written to encourage and aid leaders and potential leaders of ASA Regional Chapters with useful information and best practices from active Regional Chapters. However, all chapters are different and some originality will be required to lead the chapter into becoming an indispensable tool to its members.AT
Juan I. Arvelo is a physicist at the National Security Technology Department (NSTD) of Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) where he applies more than 20 years of theoretical and practical expe- rience in acoustics research, sonar system performance eval- uation, signal processing, real- time high-fidelity simulation
and modeling, data analysis and interpretation, and formula- tion of mathematical models to study environmental and physical effects on detection and communication systems. He was test scientist of the Littoral Warfare Advanced Development program of the Office of Naval Research. He is currently under part-time sabbatical conducting acoustics research at the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. He earned his Ph.D. in applied physics in 1990 at Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Dr. Arvelo is a member of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists, the Baltimore chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and chair of the Washington, DC Regional Chapter of the Acoustical Society of America.
Elizabeth A. McLaughlin is a research/development engi- neer in the Sensors and Sonar Systems Department of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport. She has worked in the areas of trans- ducer design and transducer materials characterization for the Navy for over 20 years. To demonstrate new materials and technologies, she has designed,
built, and tested copolymer projectors, Terfenol-D barrel- stave projectors, and evaluated micromachined hydrophones. More recently, to further the understanding of the electromechanical behavior of electroceramics, she has led the team that designed and developed the Stress Dependent Electromechanical Characterization System and is currently directing several characterization tasks focusing on understanding the electromechanical behavior of PiezoCrystals (single crystal ferroelectrics). She is also on the team researching the mechanical behavior of these materials. Ms. McLaughlin attended the University of Connecticut where she received an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1991. She received a B.S. in Ocean Engineering from Florida Atlantic University in 1985.
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