June 2007

Thank you very much to the great group of CIS-ASME officers working with me this past year! Dale Miller, vice chair, hosted meetings when I was traveling, Aaron Perrault Secretary/Newsletter editor, handled many newsletters and meeting invitations, Ted Mikels, Honors and Awards, arranged a great meeting in Algona, Max Gassman, Professional Development, arranged many meetings and seminars at Iowa State U. Ashlee Klingaman, Treasurer, kept accurate financial records and arranged a speaker for our joint meeting in Waterloo. Of course, Dr Francine Battaglia completed her final year as Webmaster and Dr Eliot Winer completed his first year as Faculty Student Advisor.

As this year closes, we have identified member volunteers eager to fill the roles of us officers who are rolling off our three year terms. Our formal election will be held later this summer. John Zhang of Deere volunteered to be our new Secretary/Newsletter editor; Dave Polivka will run for Treasurer. Josh Crompton will run for Honors and Awards. Dale Miller and Aaron Perrault are both positioned to move up a level to Chair and Vice Chair respectively. Max Gassman will continue as Professional Development. Dr Eliot Winer will continue as Faculty Student Advisor. Keep your eyes open for our election notice and vote for these fine volunteers. Give them your vote of confidence!

Click on http://www.tbp.org/pages/Publications/Bent/Features/Sp07Fable.pdf for a good article on "mingling", or Networking as most of us think of it. The authors explain in three short pages why it is important, why Engineers need to Network, and how to initiate and maintain contacts. I still see plenty of us talking only to our co-workers in our CIS-ASME meetings so don't tell yourself you already know it all about Networking.

Have a great summer! Come back in September to a full calendar our new officers are planning for us already! I've heard talk of more plant tours, Business Economics Basics, Rocket Science, Entrepreneurial Engineers, and of course, good food and good networking. Let us know if you have ideas for meeting topics.

Ray Micheel, P.E., 2006-7 Section Chair ray.micheel@emersonprocess.com