ASME Section Minutes 11-20-03
At Fairleigh Dickinson University, Muscarelle
Building
1000 River Road, Teaneck, NJ
Attendance:
attendees noted by *
Anold
Pristernik-Honors and Awards & Treasure*
Beal Moore-Chair, History and Heritage*
Boris Khusid-Essex/Hudson Chair
David Greenhut
Doug Longo
Hugh Huntzinger
Iggy D’Agati*
Jim O’Toole*
Karen Ohland-Section Chair & Vice Chair,
Bergen/Passaic*
Keith Olasin-past Section Chair
Larry Schmerzler
Lisa Grenier
Lisa Laplante- Industry relations*
Bud Foster
Pablo Ospina-Webmaster
Peter Barry*
Peter Hauser -Director, Northeast Region Office
Ramesh Gulrajani-Morris/Sussex Chair
Richard Dolinsky-Bergen /Passaic Chair
Richard Straussman, Patent Attorney*
Richard F. Tax, American Engineering Assoc.*
Richard Touma*
Sid Goodman-Section Secretary*
Steve Liss-Past Section Chair
Vikey Suwanprutsachati
Karen called the meeting to order at 7:45 pm
Next Section Meeting:
December 18, Thursday.
Charlie Browns, restaurant.
Calstadt, NJ, on Paterson Plank Road at 7:30pm.
ASME Program:
-
Your
Money or Your Life?
December 2, at NJIT
Presentation by Sid Goodman, author of “Asleep at the Geiger Counter”.
-
Nuclear
Programs, an Irreverent Analysis.
December 2, at NJIT
Presentation will be followed by discussion, and comments by faculty and
students.
See our Website for details: http://sections.asme.org/northjersey
Program on Patent Law:
Richard Straussman, a patent attorney from
the Morgan & Finnegan firm offers to provide an introductory
presentation. Morgan &
Finnegan has 110 attorneys who are involved in different types of patents,
copyrights, trade secrets, and trademarks.
It was agreed that we should try to present this program in the late
afternoon, with a meal, at Stevens Institute, and invite all engineering
students as well as members, and graduate students, and alumni associates.
Dick Touma suggested getting the Dean involved, to arrange a program
in March or April. Karen will contact Stevens to ascertain their
willingness to host this program.
Richard Straussman may be reached at (212) 415-8500 –direct dial.
His E-mail address is rstraussman@morganfinnegan.com.
The website for Morgan & Finnegan is www.morganfinnegan.com.
Richard mentioned that there are employment opportunities for engineers in
patent law firms.
Engineering Week Dinner and Keynote
Speaker:
Gregory T. Lenteris PhD. will be our keynote
speaker. His
lecture “Fire in Space” is based on his
experience in space missions. His
talk covers what happened when fires occurred.
The Engineering Week Dinner is set for Thursday, February 12.
This date has been confirmed with Dr. Lenteris.
Richard Dolinsky will be asked to make arrangements at the Hanover
Manor, 16 Eagle Rock Road, East Hanover, NJ.
Lisa will check with Richard on the availability of equipment that Dr.
Lenteris needs for his talk. This
equipment is a 35 mm slide projector, a wireless microphone, a laptop or a
video projector, and a laser pointer. If
necessary, Beal Moore said he can rent items which are not available. If one of our members can provide equipment items, contact
Richard Dolinsky (dolinskyr@asme.org)
or Karen Ohland (Karen.ohland@metmuseum.org).
The manager, Mr. Angelo Kontogiannis was sent a thank you letter expressing
appreciation for his excellent arrangements at our last Engineering Week
Dinner.
Section Picnic for next summer:
Richard Dolinsky has obtained information
about Swartzwood Part next July, preferably on a Saturday, with a Sunday as
a second choice.
The park offers swimming, boating, and fishing. It has a concession stand.
Richard found out that the park can not provide a catered meal.
A reserved pavilion can accommodate 80 people.
As of now, all weekends in July are available for reservation except
the July 4th weekend.
The July 10th weekend is also a “no”, because of conflict with some
important matters.
Karen said she will select a remaining weekend and make the reservation.
Planned Date for Honors and Awards
Dinner:
June 10, 2004
It was suggested that we invite widows of past presidents to this dinner.
ASME Program on the Meadowlands Feb 21:
A program on the Meadowlands is set for
February 21 (Sat.) between 10:00am to 11:30 am.
Hugh Carola, program director of the Hackensack Riverkeeper will make
a presentation on how a conspicuously inappropriate development plan for the
Meadowlands was replaced by an appropriate plan.
He is a very dynamic and entertaining speaker.
The saga he unfolds is the story like that of Don Quixote beating the
windmill. A speaker from the
Meadowlands Commission (possibly an engineer) will also address attendees.
If possible, the talks will be followed, by a tour of the Meadowlands
laboratory. The event will take
place at the Environmental Education Center where there are interactive
exhibits. Attendees will be
welcome to interact as desired.
Protecting Engineering Jobs in New
Jersey:
Richard F. Tax, Vice President of the
American Engineering Association (AEA), said that Department of Labor
reports about a shortage of engineers were fabricated and false.
They resulted in encouraging the enrollment of students to study engineering
when there were in fact no jobs for them once they graduated.
Also, government policy has favored the flight of engineering work to
overseas nations. NJ. Legislation
has been proposed to correct this condition.
The largest opposition to this legislation comes from overseas engineers in
India.
Richard is also serves on the Professional Activities of the IEEE, which
addresses the off-shoring of NJ State jobs.
For information on regular meetings pertaining to protecting NJ jobs,
contact Richard at 201-664-6954 or 201-664-0803. His E-mail address is rtax@aea.org.
The website for the AEA is www.aea.org.
Richard was invited to submit articles to our web page on legislative
alerts. We will notify other
Sections, upon receiving alerts.
Endorsement of Karen Ohland in
nomination for ASME Regional Vice President:
The Section unanimously endorsed her bid for
the Vice Presidency.
Multitech won a TMG Award:
Lisa asked if it was appropriate to put an
announcement about this award on our website.
We agreed that since Multitech is a strong supporter of our activities,
notably the Engineering Week Dinner, inserting an announcement would be good
industrial relations. Also, having a webpage for other industrial relations
events would encourage more participation by industry.
NJIT students received ASME Clarke
scholarships:
Among six winning schools, NJIT won a
scholarship. Each of these
schools received $6,000 for incoming freshmen interested in Mechanical
Engineering Department chairs at each school determined the process, the
criteria, the number and the amount to be distributed.
The recipients at NJIT are William Seppelt, John Sowden, and John
Westenberger.
ASME Reorganization – ASME Change
and Continuity Initiative:
The ASME has engaged consultants who have
proposed plans for revising the organization.
Their proposals include:
- A generalization of engineering disciplines for affiliation with other Societies.
- Demanding that Sections must satisfy minimum requirements to receive allotments from headquarters. Some sections do not hold meetings or have programs, yet they receive allotments.
- Proposed minimum requirements are to hold at least 2 programs a fiscal year and at least 4 Section meetings.
- Reduce the number of Vice PresidentsChange the names of Sections but for all practical purposes they will still be Sections.
- Use fewer volunteers and more paid staff members.
A general meeting will be held to discuss the
Proposed changes at Storrs, CT, on January 24, 2004.
Finalization of changes will be adopted March 3, 2004.
Dick Touma, who will be at the January 24th meeting, asks for inputs on what
the Society should focus on to change for the better.
At a past Section meeting, we agreed that far too many meetings are held
overseas, at great cost to the society’s resources and in some cases at
danger to participants.
Another needed improvement, which Dick himself articulated, is for the ASME
to do more to protect jobs from being outsourced to foreign nations.
Many engineers will not join ASME because ASME doesn’t do enough to
prevent job flight from the USA.
Possible future programs:
- Management/Consulting/Starting a business – Dick Touma will coordinate a discussion. Brian Boden (a manager at Kraft) and Iggy D’Agati (established a successful business) agreed to serve as panelist. Dick said he has not yet been able to put together a program. As an aside, he commented that the most successful program we ever had was for students on what it is like to work in the field. Anything to do with jobs gets young people interested.
- Engineering Design/Inventions. Boris asked professors at the New Jersey Institute of Technology if they are willing to present a program. They did not respond affirmatively.
- Picatinny Arsenal - We have asked Bud Foster to find out if people at the Arsenal are willing to present a program. If and when a willingness is actualized remains undetermined. Karen said she will follow up with Bud.
- Visit to Sterling Mine and wine tasting event. Lisa Laplante will look into planning this.
- Tour of Kodalux in Fair Lawn, NJ – Arnold Pristernik will make inquiries, targeting the months of either April, May, or June.
- Presentation by Glenn Corbett, revised construction specifications for high rise buildings?
- Aviation museum in Teterboro?
Habitat for Humanity:
The Habitat is seeking volunteers for
Paterson construction. They
need volunteers for November 29, December 13, 20, & 27, and every
Saturday in January. Contact
Lisa Laplante if you are interested (phone: 973-872-2182) or llaplant@nji.com)
Website and Webmaster:
Submissions to the Website by members or
student chapters should be in Front Page or a Microsoft Word document.
Before items are posted on the site, they must be proof read.
Submit e-mail articles to:
Lisa Laplante llaplant@nji.com
Richard Dolinsky dolinskyr@asme.org
Sid Goodman goodmans1@asme.org
Final approval of submissions will be made by
Karen Ohland Karen.ohland@metmuseum.org.
Special articles for the website are welcome.
See the website for other special events
Our website address is
http://sections.asme.org/northjersey
Section Officers:
Chair – Karen Ohland
Treasurer – Arnold Pristernik
Secretary – Sid Goodman
Bergen/Passaic Subsection Chair – Richard Dolinsky
Morris/Sussex Subsection Chair – Ramesh Gulrajani
Essex/Hudson Subsection Chair – Boris Khusid
Future Section Meetings:
(unless otherwise notified – please mark
your calendar)
- Date at Charlie Brown
December 18
- Dates at Kraft
January 15
February TBD
March 18
April 15
May 20
June 17
Time of meeting will be at 7:30pm unless
otherwise noted
Submitted by Sid Goodman, Secretary
E-mail address: goodmans1@asme.org
Phone no. 201-327-5158
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