May 2008

President’s Message

Greetings!

If you didn’t make it to the section meeting Monday, you missed an informative update on the polymers program at Texas A&M. Professor Sue noted that the collaboration between faculty in various departments is at an all-time high. In addition to the Polymers Technology Industrial Consortium, there is a special group focusing on Scratch Resistance and groups anticipated for nanotechnology and biotribology. The South Texas section has contributed $55k over the past 10 years to scholarships (affecting about 55 students) and $100k for equipment grants, supporting the development of teaching and research labs.

The event also included our annual awards presentations, beginning with the Science Fair winner for the Junior Division. Jeanette Ferrara, a high school freshman and distance swimmer (1-mile), investigated the effect of chlorine on swimsuit fibers. She dipped the fabric in Clorox/water blends and then characterized them with X-ray crystallography to monitor degradation. For pragmatic reasons, she compared different fabrics to find the most chlorine-resistant source.

We also acknowledged the continuing support of Chemtura and Ingenia, for their support of the Polyolefins Conference to their sponsorship of members. John Lefas, President and CEO, Ingenia Polymers, received the Ingenia award. John is active not only as a corporate sponsor and section member, but as a member of the Polymer Analysis Division also. See pictures of this presentation as well as the others elsewhere in this newsletter.

This has been an even busier year than usual. Our President-Elect, Jeff Applegate, chaired a very effective technical programming effort, beginning the year with a first-ever “evening at the ball park” which attracted 200 people for networking. Then Mike Cancich hosted us at Valeron to see the manufacturing processes and operations for their high-performance films. Gerry Fusco coordinated a Lean Six Sigma training program, and December featured “a technical guy’s insight into PLA”. In January, Kurt Hayden worked with Jeff to bring John Bozzelli for training in "Scientific Molding" at Houston Community College. This was a particularly popular event, and required commissioning the injection molding machine, acquiring a mold, and even “rebuilding” the room and seating for a most-effective teaching setting. In March, we gathered at the Medical Center for a wonderfully interactive meeting with one of the renowned cardiac surgeon/inventors there. The April golf outing was again well-organized by Lynette, and the proceeds will fund our student chapter activities in the future.

In February, the Polyolefins Conference brought in FlexPackCon to offer our audience an expanded technical program, focusing on this largest market for polyolefins. Bill Diecks, as General Operating Chair, and Tom Walsh, as Technical Program Chair, completed their many years in those roles with a vision for including additional divisions to increase participant value.

The Education Committee found funding to complete our scholarship endowments at the University of North Texas and Texas Tech University. In honor of Mark Demark’s leadership of the Education Committee, the Board endorsed the Committee’s recommendation that we name the Texas Tech scholarship in Mark’s honor. Mark has been a key cheerleader in funding student activities and endowed scholarships at the seven student chapters sponsored by South Texas.

This SPE year, 2007/2008, has been a real pleasure for me personally. I thank the committee chairs for their continued commitment to the section’s members and initiatives. In addition to those named above, I also want to particularly thank Glenn Rasberry, Treasurer, who, with the help of Suzanne Biggs, consolidated out bank accounts and developed procedures for monitoring our expenses with timely and clear feedback to the Board. I’m even more optimistic about the future of the South Texas Section as I see the planning next year’s officers have begun under Jeff’s leadership. They are planning strategically in a way that promotes organic growth of the section, built on education and networking with not only the local SPE members but also our “customers” in the regional centers of excellence. Preliminary plans include programming for Energy, Nanotechnology, and Life Science.

I would challenge you to get involved personally. Tasks can be narrowed enough to manage your available time, and getting involved can help you meet your peers in the industry, either inside or outside your traditional materials, processes, or products. It’s a great way to develop your own professional insights and skills. Please contact me or Jeff or any of the committee chairs if you’d like to get more integrated.

Thanks again,

Donna S. Davis
SPE – South Texas Section President 2007-2008

Plastics Information: Check it Out

Since the Houston Public Library on McKinney St is essentially closed for remodeling, you cannot go there to browse for books on plastics/polymers. However, go to their catalog at www.hpl.lib.tx.us and arrange to pick up books at a branch library.

The Fondren Library at Rice University has the most complete collection of books on plastics and polymers. This is also a prime resource for patent and trademark information, as well as other US Government documents. You cannot check out books there unless you join Fondren Library [$50], but you can arrange for books to be sent to your library by inter-library loan. Use their catalog at www.rice.edu/fondren/.

The next best place to browse is at the MD Anderson Library at the University of Houston central campus. South Texas Section has donated many plastics books to this library. If you plan ahead, you can get a TexShare library card from a library where you are a member, which will allow you to check out books from any U of H library. Their catalog is at www.library.uh.edu/.

Thank You Letters

Here is a Thank You that Bill Talbott received from the father of Jeanette Ferrara, our 9th-grade First Place winner at the Science Engineering Fair of Houston in March. Jeanette and her parents attended our awards meeting on Monday, May 12, 2008.

Our 2008 essay winner Shruti Revenkar with her teacher Samantha Youts. Shruti is enrolled in the Science Magnet Program at Seabrook Intermediate. She has a very sweet personality. She likes science, but when asked what her favorite subject is, she responded like any other 13 year old and said gym. A very good person, as well as her teacher. Ms. Youts really cares about her students.

Bulletin Board

Upcoming Topical Conferences (TopCons)

Plasticizers in Caulks and Sealants
e-Live® Presentation
May 15, 2008
11:00 am EST

June 2008

International Exhibition BW-Show 2008 Bottling and Bottled Waters
June 3-6, 2008
Location: Crocus Expo International Exhibition Centre
Moscow, RUSSIA

The 3rd International Trade Fair Piping Systems for Municipal Infrastructure: Construction, Diagnostics, Repair and Operation
June 3-6, 2008
International Exhibition Centre Crocus Expo
Moscow, RUSSIA

BioPlastics - New Generation Polymer Materials for Reducing Carbon Footprint, and Improving Environmental Performance
e-Live® Presentation
June 4, 2008
11:00 am EST

Direct versus Indirect Cooling - Which Is Better?
e-Live® Presentation
June 5, 2008
11:00 am EST

Decorating & Assembly TopCon
June 9-11, 2008
Marriott Conference Center
Ypsilanti, Michigan USA

Material Handling and Conveying 101 - Maximizing Resin Savings and Efficiency
e-Live® Presentation
June 26, 2008
11:00 am EST

August 2008

Extrusion of Engineering Plastics Seminar
August 18-20, 2008
Hilton Mystic
Mystic, Connecticut USA

September 2008

FOAMS™ 2008
September 9-11, 2008
Charlotte, North Carolina USA

MERGEFORMATINET
CAD RECTEC® - Coloring into the Next Decade
September 21-23, 2008
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Dearborn, Michigan USA

Thermoforming Conference® 2008
September 20-23, 2008
Minneapolis Convention Center & Hilton Hotel
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

International Meeting on Radiation Processing
Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel
Sept. 21-25, 2008
London, England

Kunststoffen 2008 exhibition
September 24-25, 2008
Veldhoven, Netherlands

Automotive TPO Conference
October 5-8, 2008
Sterling Heights, Michigan, USA

MERGEFORMATINET
Annual Blow Molding Conference
October 7-9, 2008
Chevron Phillips Chemical Technical Center and Bartlesville Community Center
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA

Engineering Properties & Structure Division TopCon
October 13-14, 2008
Holiday Inn Select
Wimington, Deleware USA

MERGEFORMATINET
Vinyltec - Vinyl Raw Material Overview and Update
October 13-15, 2008
Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare
Rosemont, Illinois USA

SPE 2008 New Technology Symposium
November 4-5, 2008
Renaissance Philadelphia Hotel Airport
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

Euromold exhibition
December 3-6, 2008
Frankfurt, Germany

MERGEFORMATINET
Modern Toolmaking Conference
SPE Rapid Design, Engineering & Mold Making SIG
December 4, 2008
Frankfurt, Germany

6th European Additives & Colors Conference
SPE Additives & Colors Europe Division
March 11-12, 2009
Antwerp, Belgium

MERGEFORMATINET
ANTEC™ 2009
April 24-30, 2009
Henry Gonzalez Convention Center
San Antonio, Texas USA

MERGEFORMATINET
SPE EUROTEC™
September 28-October 3, 2009
Barcelona, Spain

CAD RECTEC® - Color on my Mind
October 11-13, 2009
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Savannah, Georgia USA

ANTEC™ 2010
May 16-20, 2010
Orlando Marriott World Center
Orlando, Florida USA

Poster Contest Winners

At the Polyolefins2008/FlexPack Conference this year, we had 24 technical posters (a new high) submitted by students for the poster contest. There were three posters from Texas A&M, six posters from Texas Tech, two posters from Lamar, five posters from University of North Texas, one poster from Clemson, and seven posters from the University of Houston. The quality of the posters was uniformly high in technical merit. That merit made the award decisions by the committee very difficult. The following posters were chosen to receive awards (listing the primary lead author only):

First place
Mai Ha from the University of Houston, “Effect of Clays on PS-PMMA Blends”

Second place
Rahul Rasal from Clemson University, “Surface Modification and Bulk Properties of PLA-PHBHHx Blend Films”

Third place
Ali Shaito from the University of North Texas, “Stress Modeling of Creep Behavior in Polyethylene-Montnorillonite Nanocomposities”

Honorable Mention:
Meghan Ruggles from Lamar University, “The Truth about Nano-composities: Creep Behavior of TiO2-polystyrene Films”

Koffi Dagnon from the Univeristy of North Texas, “Structure, Mechanical, and Thermal Properties of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)[PHBV]/Zn,Al Layered Double Hydroxide [LDH] Nanocomposites”

Ms. Ha was not able to attend the Conference since she entered the hospital on the Sunday before the Conference to give birth to her child

We awarded prizes of $1000 for first place, $750 for second place, $500 for third place, and $250 for each honorable mention poster.

Rahul Rasal	Ali Shaito	Meghan Ruggles	Koffi Dagnon

Worthy Award Winners Found at Houston Regional Science Fair

(photo courtesy of Marc Nathan Photographers) Cameron Strong, Alice Wang, and Bill Talbott
Ms. Ferrara was not present for the photo.

On March 14-15, 2008, we participated again in the Science/Engineering Fair of Houston as a Special Awarding Agency.  Our judging team comprised Bob DeLong, David Owen, Jim Kersting, David Hansen, and Bill Talbott.  This year seemed to have fewer projects related to plastics and polymers than in past years.  However, we found worthy projects for awards in the Senior Division and the Ninth Grade Division.  First place winners will receive a $200 award and trophy; second place, a $100 award and trophy.  The judging team selected the following projects for awards:

Senior Division
First place – Alice Wang from Clear Lake High School for her project “Development of a Strong and Lightweight Nanomaterial”.
Second place – Cameron Strong from the Academy of Science and Technology in The Woodlands for his project “Getting Carried Away II” investigating the effect of degradation of polyacrylamide and polyvinylalcohol when used to prevent soil erosion.

Ninth-grade Division
First place – Jeanette Ferrara from the Academy of Science and Technology in The Woodlands for her project “Finding the Fragility of Swimsuit Fibers”

Ms. Wang received additional awards from other Special Awarding Agencies.  Mr. Strong was one of our awardees last year in the 9th-Grade Division for the first part of his project on soil erosion.

We will mail the awards and trophies to the students.

Councilor’s Report

The SPE governance, Council, met at ANTEC, May 4. At the conclusion of the Council meeting, the leadership changed to the new president; this year that is Bill O’Connell, a consultant from Boston. Bill has been a member of SPE since 1967, and has called for several new initiatives this year. For instance, he has formed a Committee to focus on SPE activities in Asia. SPE has a strong presence in Europe now, built on technical division growth. A few years ago, we revitalized the India Section when they proposed a different way of working. Since then, 2003-2004, membership in India has grown from fewer than 20 to almost 300. Vijay Boolani, SPE VP from India, will lead that activity.

Similarly, I will lead a Strategic Growth Committee. This committee will identify and develop plans for growth built on new geographies, new technologies, and new ways of working together. Early goals include assessing opportunities in Brazil, translating learnings from Europe elsewhere, and developing a list of SPE global leaders and potential leaders. This new committee recognizes the past successes in internationalization and the importance of building global strength going forward.

Ken Braney, VP from Europe, served this past year as Treasurer of SPE. He reported that 1Q08 finances were generally as expected. Expenses were a bit ($40k) lower than budgeted and income was a bit higher ($60k) than budgeted.

The agreement with Wiley to publish Plastics Engineering has been completed. While SPE won’t see an immediate balancing of the magazine’s budget with this move, it is already impacting operating costs with some reduction of staff previously required for managing publication. The magazine should become profitable by 2010. Perhaps even more important to membership is the free on-line availability of all SPE technical journals now. Furthermore, historic volumes have been digitized and are also available. This is an example of SPE providing more technical content to the membership on an ongoing basis.

Gail Bristol, Managing Director of the Foundation, reported that plans are almost complete for merging the Foundation back into the SPE Corporation. Separation was done many years ago to clarify to donors that contributions to the foundation would not simply be used for SPE operations. In fact, the SPE had been underwriting operations of the Foundation, and so it made sense to bring the Foundation back into the SPE to minimize costs. The SPE Foundation reported an increase in their endowment to $1,584,000. They also emphasized focus on scholarships and grants. $120k was distributed in scholarships last year, along with $40k in equipment grants. Four new scholarships were endowed, and the amounts for others were increased.

Several bylaw and policy changes were read. Proposed bylaw changes are read, published in Plastics Engineering magazine, and voted at a subsequent meeting. One of the changes was the schedule for officer election. This change was driven by the elimination of the face-to-face Council meeting traditionally scheduled for January. Combining the traditional October and January face-to-face meetings for Council will reduce governance costs significantly, potentially increase participation (reducing travel burden), and require effective governance communication. This idea has been considered for several years, and President O’Connell has taken action to test the effectiveness. Finally, the bylaw addressing suspension of bylaws will be considered for increasing scrutiny. This will allow bylaws to be suspended for no more than one year and only with a two-thirds majority upon two readings. The motion to eliminate the standing International Committee and associated bylaws passed.

Council voted to charter a student chapter at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

In accepting the position of President of the SPE, Mr. O’Connell emphasized his commitment to “Make It Happen”, calling on all SPE members to also recommit to the mission of the SPE. Member benefits are being increased, and leadership tools are being expanded with the roll-out of an enhanced SPE website this summer or fall. While many of the new features will streamline SPE operations, the new Web 2.0 platform will enable the deployment of Plastipedia—a Wikipedia-style knowledge base for plastics professionals who are SPE members. Look for new online technical content with the new website.

Probably the largest challenge for SPE continues to be membership. Growth in new regions has not yet offset the employment decline in traditional areas. The SPE will continue to focus on increasing member value, through broader availability of technical information, facilitating interaction within the technology centered member groups, and leadership support at the local section level.

As always, I invite your feedback, observations, and considerations with regard to the SPE and how we can grow benefits to the membership.

SPE-STX Board Meeting

Location: Damian’s
Date: April 22, 2008

1. Call to order, Safety, Antitrust, Agenda Overview – Donna Davis

• Exits and anti-trust were discussed.
• Congratulations to Harish and company for Pinnacle Award for 2006-2007!

2. Roll Call – Kurt Hayden

• Five voting members in attendance.
• Donna appointed Proxies:
• Marty proxy Gerry Fusco
• Suzanne proxy for Gerry Wissle
• Quorum was met with 5 voting members and 2 proxies.
• More board members arrived as the meeting

3. Minutes of last meeting – Kurt Hayden

• January Meeting Minutes
• Kurt moved to accept minutes as distributed; Kelly seconded; motion carried unopposed.

4. Treasurer’s Report - Glenn Rasberry

• Report Spreadsheet attached at the end of the minutes.
• Financial update –Spreadsheet submitted by e-mail.
  Chase Business High Yield Savings: $191,019.50
  Chase Nonprofit Business Classic STSPE Checking: $40,592.28
  Total Account Balance: $231,611.78
• Checks Outstanding: $9,722.75
  Bills Outstanding: $12,062.66
  Total Outstanding: $21,785.41
• More funds remain in the bank accounts that project at this point as Education committee had not yet spent their budget.
• Report moved to file report for audit by Don W and seconded by Bill T; Motion carried unanimously.

5. Polyolefins 2008 Final Report - Suzanne Biggs

• Drop in money raised through PO08 due predominantly to housing cost increase.
• PRELIMINARY FIINANCIALS:
  Income: $ 304,516.30
  Expenses: -$ 167,889.54
  Payout to SPE International: -$ 27,325.35
  Payout to partners: -$ 41,534.54
  Seed Money for ’09: -$ 10,000.00
  Net to Chapter: $ 57,766.87
• Outstanding Income: $ 7000
  Outstanding Expenses: $ 11442

6. Polyolefins 2009 Committee - Don Witenhafer.

• Medical Plastics division will be included in PO09. This brings the total number of division involved to four.
• Don plans an early kick-off because of the increased number of groups involved in the topcon will require more co-ordination.
• Publicity will be critical: ANTEC and NPE are rolled together; Economy is down.
• Flex-Pack will not be named in the conference title, they may label their room.
• National SPE will put on the seminars. Seminars will be run at the headquarters hotel after the conference.
• Booth price has been increased to $500. Exhibition space will be expanded.
• Review of endorsement proposal.
• Don moves to accept petition; Don Seconds; during discussion Donna stress the importance of providing value to the attendants, partners are key to providing this perceived quality; motion carried unanimously.

7. Education Committee Update - Mark DeMark

• Committee met on 4-14-08 at Damian’s. The minutes from this meeting are attached at the end of these minutes. These minutes were read and discussed.
• The committee decided to payoff their financial commitments. Excess funds from previous years allowed for these expenditures.
• Student chapter status:
  ~ Seven schools @ $2000 each. Supported by the golf outing.
  ~ UT is still not performing.
  ~ Three schools are attempting to establish student chapters (Baylor, UT Houston, HCC).
• Discussion was held during the BOD meeting regarding standardizing the fund application and evaluation procedure as well as establishing some feedback mechanism to report how the funds were used. These procedures should apply to “special” requests and not the “standard” annual support we give to student chapters. Donna requested that the education committee investigate the practicality and establishment of these procedures.
• Science Fair winners, parents and teachers will be asked to attend the award meeting.
• $25000 Endowment for Lamar University will be considered for the 2009 budget.
• Plastivan was removed from the budget. However, it may be included if the chapter feel the van adds value to our services.
• Marty Husti moved to name the TTU endowment in Honor of Mark Demark; seconded by Jeff Applegate and Don Witenhafer; motion passed unanimously.
• Glenn Rasberry moved to give $500 to Plasitvan to bring students to ANTEC to see the Plastivan; seconded by Suzanne Biggs; Motion carried unanimously.

8. Bylaws update—Marty

• Marty read through the revision of the bylaws.
• Discussion regarding the election Audit Committee; future elections will be paperless, how will they be audited. Language will remain in bylaws as it is flexible.
• Format and grammatical corrections were discussed.
• Jeff Applegate moved to accept the revised bylaws with editorial corrections as discussed; motion seconded by Kelly Harrison; motion carried unanimously.

9. Golf Outing Report – Lynette Russo

• Attendance was steady compared to previous years; Sponsorships were down.
• Formal report will follow next month.

10. Membership Committee Report – Donna Davis

• As of the end of March, chapter membership was 639; 5 short of our goal.
• Board members will try to find these 5 people.

11. 2009 Section Planning – Jeff Applegate

• Will hold a smaller meeting with the officers to flesh out ideas before present to the BOD.

12. Review of 2007/2008 section goals and objectives--Donna and all

• Membership goal: need 5 more new members to meet our goal of 5% increase.
• Participation goal: 56 members have attended meetings out of 643 members.
• Communication goal: Newsletters and info cards set to membership (Mail and Web).
• Compliance goal: Update of bylaws complete.
• Discussion of expanding the “small meeting” aka breakfast and lunch bunch to Beaumont.

13. Other Business

• Don Witenhafer thanked and supported the P.O. 09 committee for their commendable work.

14. Planning of the next meeting

• May 12th 4:30 at Brady’s Landing.
• The awards meeting will follow.

15. Adjournment

• Bill Talbott moved to adjourn the meeting and Suzanne Biggs seconded.
• None opposed – Motion carried.
• With no opposing votes, the meeting was adjourned at 8:02 PM.

Frank Padula Memorial Golf Outing