President's Message
APR 22, 2008

Continuing the message for the 2007-2008 MVSPE year, I said we would provide more of what you joined the SPE for: Plant Tours, Networking, and Technical Content. Here’s how we’re doing so far:

More Plant Tours. We maxed out our attendance for the International Truck & Engine plant in Springfield, Ohio as part of the very first Composites on the Move Conference. The plant consists of 3 facilities, CAS (Cab assembly stamping), Paint facility, and Final Assembly. The plant produces medium duty platform trucks and utilizes various composite applications, including exterior panels, underhood and interior components. Thanks to Ed Zenk at Navistar/International for setting up this tour.

More Networking.  We had over 30 people at our February meeting at our new home, Chantrells in Springboro, Ohio. The topic was a materials overview by William Trepka of BASF and we had an excellent turnout of molders, tool makers, and students and faculty from Shawnee State University! Also, many people from our Section will be making the trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for ANTEC 2008 from May 4-7. I encourage anyone looking for great new technical content to attend. Also, for the first time in several years, the MVSPE is proud to be sponsoring the attendance of two students from our section to attend ANTEC, Aaron Jones and Justin Crawford from Shawnee State University.

More Technical Content.  The Composites on the Move Conference was held March 25th at the National Composites Center in Dayton. This marked the first collaboration between the NCC, the Composites Division of the SPE and the MVSPE. The conference was a huge success with higher than expected levels of sponsorship and attendance. The technical content was outstanding with speakers covering a wide range of topics relating to innovations in composite materials. If you missed it, please contact Teri Chouinard at teri@intuitgroup.com or 810.797.7242 for conference literature and information.

Also, I’d like to ask the membership to help out the section with a couple of items:

• Our Board of Directors is always looking for more volunteers. We have a few leadership positions available as well. Please let me know if you have an interest in serving your professional society in this way. It can be very informative and rewarding to be ‘on the inside’ of a group as diverse as the MVSPE. Contact any of our board members if you have interest in volunteering.
• We are always in need of technical content and plant tours for our monthly meetings. If you have a new process or material or plant you’d like to show off, let us know! Please contact Tony Hoog, our program chair, at anthonyhoog@usui.co.jp for more information.
• The MVSPE once again participated in the Detroit Section’s annual Material Auction at the MGM Grand Casino on Friday, January 25th, 2008. Thanks to donations from Total Petrochemicals and JM Polymers, the MVSPE raised over $10,000 to benefit our Education Fund. We will be participating in this event in the future, so please begin to consider a donation for next year’s event. The MVSPE has a very high number of students and student chapters to support relative to our size, so any donation will make a difference. Please contact me for more information or to make a donation.

Lastly, I’d like to congratulate Bob Rajkovich for accepting the position as next year’s President for the MVSPE. This will be Bob’s second tour of duty. The last time Bob was President, Ronald Reagan was in the White House!

As always, please e-mail me at jullrich@jmpolymers.com with any questions or comments. Thank you!

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President's Message
OCT 8, 2007

As part of my kick-off message, I promised that the 2007-2008 MVSPE would provide more of what you joined the SPE for: Technical Content, Plant Tours, and Networking.  Here’s what we’ve been working on for you so far this year:

• More Technical Content.  Our October 4th meeting has been set as a presentation by the Sadler Sales Institute at Chantrell’s in Springboro, Ohio.  Sadler specializes in sales and sales management training.  Sadler has a course specifically focused towards professionals who don’t see themselves as salespeople (engineers, consultants, et al) but need the skills to build a client base.  See our website and the program announcement in this newsletter for more information.
• More Plant Tours.  I am pleased to announce that our November meeting will be held at the Toyota Manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Kentucky on Thursday, November 8th.  Please contact Tony Hoog at AnthonyHoog@usui.co.jp to reserve your spot.  Check the website for details.
• More Networking.  We have reserved the Dayton Engineers’ Club for our annual Holiday party on December 8th.  This is a special place for the MVSPE as a group of engineers first got together here on November 29th, 1943 for the purpose of “advancing the plastics industry by exchange of technical information”.  They called themselves the “Miami Valley Plastics Engineers” and actually didn’t join up with the SPE until two years later.  This is a Saturday night event and we will be celebrating this anniversary by recognizing your anniversaries.  Our Awards Chair, Mickey Brandon, will be contacting members who have reached significant milestone years of SPE membership for recognition during this event.

Lastly, I’d like to extend an invitation to the membership of the Kentuckiana Section of the SPE that borders the Miami Valley Section to the South and the West.  This is a group that has been placed in provisional status and has essentially ceased operation and coordination with SPE National.  If you are associated with this Section, please feel free to join us for any of our programs or networking events.  If you have a desire to volunteer with our Board of Directors, we have a few leadership positions available as well. 

As always, please e-mail me at jullrich@jmpolymers.com with any questions.  Thank you!

Josh Ullrich
MVSPE President