ASME Section Minutes 06-24-04
At Kraft Headquarters
7 Campus Drive, Parsippany, NJ
Attendance: attendees noted by *
*Arnold Pristernik-Honors and Awards & Treasurer
Art Vasky
*Beal Moore-Chair, History and Heritage
Bill Koehler
Boris Khusid-Essex/Hudson Chair
*Bud Foster
Hugh Huntzinger
Iggy D’Agati
Jim O’Toole
Karen Ohland-Section Chair & Vice Chair, Bergen/Passaic
Larry Schmerzler
*Lisa Laplante- Industry relations
Pablo Ospina-Webmaster
Peter Hauser -Director, Northeast Region Office
Ramesh Gulrajani-Morris/Sussex Chair
*Richard Dolinsky-Bergen /Passaic Chair
Richard F. Tax, American Engineering Assoc
*Richard Touma
*Sid Goodman-Section Secretary
Karen called the meeting to order at 7:45 pm
Next Section Meeting:
July 15, Thursday – 7:30pm
Kraft Headquarters
7 Campus Drive, Parsippany, NJ
Directions:
Route 287 to route 10 west, Exit 39B (if coming south).
Merge onto NJ 10 west. Take Dryden Way ramp toward Ridgedale Ave/
Cedar Knolls.
Turn left onto Campus Drive.
Turn left right after Hilton Court. Parking lot for Kraft is there.
If coming east on NJ 10, take Dryden Way ramp and follow as above.
Karen Ohland is now a nominee for ASME Vice President Regional II
Karen is our present Section Chair.
Election and nomination of new
officers:
We need to elect or re-elect the following officers of the Section for a two-year term.
We must do this at the next Section meeting.
We need a Section Vice Chair to cover for Karen when she is away on regional or national
affairs.
Secretary of the Section - Sid Goodman has served for more than two years.
Bergen/Passaic Subsection Chair – Richard Dolinsky has served two years.
Please nominate someone or volunteer your own services.
Strategic Plan to Attract and keep ASME Members:
Richard Touma presented the draft of a plan to develop programs and meet the professional,
economic and social needs of mechanical engineers. The draft is an amalgam of plans prepared
for other professional societies by consultants. Dick said the following:
We must focus on the customer (mechanical engineer) needs, attracting engineers from emergingindustries to replace engineers from industries, which have vanished from New Jersey.
We must re-energize members who were once active in the Society.
We must answer the question, “What can you do for me?”
Previously, we have given out a multiplicity of monetary awards of relatively small amounts. He recommended giving out only one award in a larger amount to attract more attention
by the media.
In previous years, employers encouraged participation in ASME meetings. Some companies even paid for
ASME membership. Those days are mostly gone. How can we stimulate a rebirth of employerparticipatory encouragement?
Many engineers think that they can get all the technical information they need by using the internet. Practicalinformation is available by personal interaction with experienced engineers. If event attendees can walk awayfrom a meeting with advice or information that they can use on the job, they will see value in participation.
Beal Moore remarked that 30% of ASME technical meetings are out of the country and the feeand traveling expenses for these meetings is too costly for a typical engineering employee.
Event attendance has fallen to less than 1% of our section membership. How can we change this?
Science is advancing very fast. There is a general fear is that no job is safe.
Let’s do a few things well rather than doing too many things less well.
Karen Ohland wrote down an outline of points expressed at the meeting.
What kind of customers (engineers) do we want to focus on?
- Pharmaceutical people…HVAC
- Current engineering student members
- Recent engineering graduates
- Government facilities engineers
- Facility management, buildings with elevators,
apartment complexes for seniors, commercial/professional buildings
- Material handlers
- Licensed professional engineers
- Robotics/automation engineers
Issues
- Is the topic of sufficient interest?
- Is the location of the event convenient for commuting?
- Is the timing of the event appropriate?
What can we do to increase our potency?
- A larger membership has more clout in influencing government policy.
- As we divide and sub-divide ourselves we lose potency.
- Provide the largest service to engineers - help engineers get jobs in this era of out-sourcing and epidemic plant closures.
- Provide programs on coping with economic issues.
- Assist in networking by putting companies where our members work
on our web site. Describe what the companies do. It could be mutually beneficial for the companies and for members.
- What should we concentrate on in future activities?
Objective For the Next Section Meeting:
Think about the points outlined above. Come to the next meeting with practical suggestions.
Program on Least Lifetime Cost of Filtered Air in HVAC
systems:
Sid asked Armando Brunetti, top executive at Camfil Carr, Inc. (Riverdale, NJ) if Camfil Farr is
willing to present a seminar on filtering air at least overall cost while delivering a higher purity of air.
Inappropriate filters lose their efficiency very quickly, and needlessly inflict many thousands ofdollars a year in costs for large HVAC systems. The cost of an air filter is tiny compared to overall
operating costs. Sid asked for an October program.
Patent and Invention Program:
We will schedule this program for the fall.
Tour of Kodalux in Fair Lawn, NJ:
Arnold Pristernik will attempt to schedule a Tour for the date of Wed. September 29. The tourwould include photographic film printing, paper processing, paper cutting, and packaging.
ASME celebration of 125th Anniversary – February, 2005:
Volunteer coordinators for E-week 2005 and the anniversary are sought from each Section. Pleasecontact Karen at ohlandk@asme.org if you are interested in being either a volunteer coordinator or a volunteer.
Treasurer’s Report:
No report at this meeting
Section Picnic:
Saturday July 24th at Swartzwood Park.Richard Dolinsky gave artwork for a flyer to Karen Ohland. Karen will have it printed and mailed tomembers who do not have E-mail. We will undoubtedly used Master Repro again, for printing and
mailing the flyers. Members with E-mail will be sent the flyer electronically.
Swartzwood Park offers swimming, boating, and fishing. It has a concession stand. The Section will subsidize admission tothe park for members and student members.
Date for Honors and Awards Dinner July 20th:
The dinner will be held at the Hanover Inn. Arnold Pristinik has mailed invitations to honorees.Each honoree may bring one guest. Widows of former Section Chairs are invited.
Other Possible future programs:
- Picatinny Arsenal – Bud Foster said he would ask people at the Arsenal if they were willing
to present a program. No response yet.
- 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 panelists. No response yet.
- Visit to Sterling Mine and wine tasting event. Lisa Laplante will look into planning this.
Art Vasky advised us that he has a new site for a day trip to the Sterling Hill Mine in
Ogdensburg, NJ. A tour guide gives a 2.5-hour tour. There is an equipment museum before
the mine tour and a mineral museum at the end of the tour. The person to contact at the mine is Robert Hauck at 973-209-7212. His address is 30 Plant St. Ogdensburg, NJ 07439.
- Presentation by Glenn Corbett, revised construction specifications for high-rise buildings.
This suggested program is being kept on the agenda as a possible future event.
Federal Government Fellowship Program:
ASME has established a program whereby members may become advisers to Congress and the White House. Contact ASME headquarters for information.
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
ohlandk@asme.org
Special articles for the website are welcome.
See the website for other special events
Our website address has changed. It is now 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
Dates at Kraft
July 15th
August 19th.
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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