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Committee Connection
SMI Board Meets in the Bahamas
S
MI president Steve Kempf of Lee Spring presided over his last meeting of the association’s board of directors when the group met March 8 at the Atlantis, Bahamas. Kempf welcomed the newest member of the board, Jennelle Carlier of S3 Wireform. Kempf noted that the committee meetings were well attended earlier in the day. This was reflective of the fact that they were being held a day later than usual, on Sunday. Here are some of the highlights from the meeting.
Workforce Development SMI will continue to be a part of the Dream It. Do It. program and to support the annual Manufacturing Day event in October. The association wants to produce a video to be used in schools to promote springmaking and the spring industry. There is also a plan to have workforce development regional chairs who would meet periodically by conference call. The regional chairs would represent companies in their region, who are using their local contacts and resources to promote manufacturing.
Technical Offerings/Services The 100 series “fundamental” videos on spring design are available for free on the SMI website. The 201 spring design class has been taught several times in person; SMI is promoting the availability of private classes, in which companies can have SMI come to their facility to teach the course to their employees. There is also an option of making the class a combined class for designing compression and extension
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springs that would stretch over a day and a half. SMI is working to make its budget for technical services closer to break-even. It was announced that the price for SMI’s ASD software will increase for the first time in 12 years.
Metal Engineering eXpo Plans are moving forward toward the 2021 SMI Metal Engineering eXpo at the Southpoint Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. SMI will also host the international TC227 meeting at the hotel. It was noted that SMI associate members are pushing toward combining the eXpo with CASMI’s SpringWorld. They want to pursue a “one show” idea with CASMI, while making sure that that CASMI doesn’t lose money and keeps their programs funded. There have also been conversations with doing some kind of collaboration with the Wire Association International and PMA. In addition, the International Fastener Show is traditionally held in Las Vegas near the same time as the eXpo. It was suggested that SMI might
team up with the Fastener Show to have a reciprocal agreement so attendees could attend either show.
Associates The associates committee also suggested that SMI institute a suitcasing policy. If an associate member would be able to exhibit at the eXpo and chooses not to, they would not be allowed to attend the eXpo. In addition, non-exhibitors would not be permitted to have an outside event within 24 hours of the event. The associates committee also requested that SMI pursue a best practices policy written by an attorney, as insurance against sexual harassment and other issues.
Convention Planning The 2021 SMI Annual Meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale. For future meetings, the committee suggested looking at more budgetconscious resorts to attract more attendees. They also suggested looking at offering discounted registration fees
