EXACT Press release During 1995, the interest in EXACT Reports on CD-ROM continued to grow. CD-ROMs are now available for the years 1991 onwards. The CD-ROMs also contain many of the documents which are also available in hard copy such as the Classification Index, Instructions for Preparing Reports and the Membership Register. It is significant that over 40% of the Subscribers have changed to CD-ROM in the first two years. The reports can be displayed using IBM compatible Personal Computers. A Windows version of eSEARCH for searching and displaying EXACT Reports on CD-ROM is now available. It can operate in either Windows 95 or Windows 3.1.

A successful Council Meeting was held in Salzburg, Austria in October 1995. Mr. Stephen Grist (UK Defence Research Agency) was elected as EXACT Treasurer. Considerable discussion took place on new ways to exchange technical information on electronic components.

A recurring theme during the Council Meeting was to increase the use of e-mail and the Internet as a way of exchanging information. EXACT Subscribers can now ask questions and provide information in an informal way using e-mail. Contact is made through the Central Office mailbox: central_office@exact.demon.co.uk and all messages received are sent to all other EXACT Subscribers with an e-mail connection. In addition a World Wide Web server explaining the EXACT Scheme is available on the Internet. Access can be obtained using the address: http://exact.fmv.se. National Centres are also investigating the possibility of having their own WWW Servers.

An Amendment to the Component Classification Index has been agreed covering the Switches section. The Component Classification Index is supplied to the Subscribers in hard copy and also on the CD-ROM containing the reports.

eREPORT, the software used to write EXACT Reports is in the course of development. This will operate in the Windows environment and is suitable for IBM compatible Personal Computers. The classification system is included in the software making the writing of EXACT Reports even easier. A Company Edition of the software will enable subscribers to use it for their internal reports as well as EXACT Reports.

New Forms have been issued covering Visit Reports and Alerts. Visit Reports will allow subscribers to share their experiences with other Subscribers following a visit to a Supplier's Manufacturing Site. The cost of such visits can be significant and this kind of exchange of information can be very useful. Alerts to possible problems can now be given in two ways. Firstly by using the new Form which will be faxed to all subcribers.Secondly it is possible to discuss a possible Alert using the Internet service. Manufacturers will be given the opportunity to make comments on Alerts circulated.

A series of Regional Meetings are being organized. Meetings of the Swedish Subscribers now invite Subscribers from other Scandinavian countries. Meetings giving presentations on topical subjects are also organized by EXACT Centre Switzerland when Subscribers from Germany and Austria are invited. The Council has agreed that National Centres can change their status to Regional Centres by subscribers being gained from neighbouring countries.

A presentation on EXACT was given at the Passive Component Symposium CARTS-Europe '95 held in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in October 1995. Demonstrations were made of eSEARCH to access EXACT Reports on CD-ROM.

The next Council Meeting will be held in October 1996 in Nice, France in conjunction with the CARTS-Europe '96 Symposium.