President’s Message

Greetings,

Many of our members hopefully enjoyed their summer vacation along with visiting family and friends during the summer holidays. In the upcoming 2019/2020-year, SPE-STX will continue to improve our outreach efforts by holding social as well as technical meetings. The first SPE-STX meeting is purely social and is an outing to see the Astros play the A’s on September 10th. Tickets are attractively priced and include a $15 food credit; I hope to see you attend that function. Along with the traditional outings like the baseball game, SPE-STX will explore new venues such as Sporting Clays this Fall and will re-establish the Golf Tournament in the Spring. Technical programs similar to the successful “Additive Manufacturing/(3-D printing) meeting held last year are being lined up and these meetings may have co-sponsoring organizations like ASME/API etc... Keep on the look-out at the SPE-STX website for dates and specific on these exciting events.

As always SPE-STX is looking for new members to participate with the organization. We have a number of committees that provide guidance to the SPE-STX Board for education, help operate the annual Polyolefins Conference, and run the various social or technical event. If you have any interest, or know a person that would have interest in volunteering for SPE-STX, please email me so I can assist in finding the most rewarding position.

We continue to plan our 2020 Polyolefins Conference and need many volunteers to ensure a success event. For many SPE-STX members, it is truly a great networking event along with providing fabulous presentations detailing the economic state of the polymer industry of the US, the Americas, and the world. I highly encourage members to attend and to volunteer (which allows access to the event). We look forward to having another successful year for the Society of Plastic Engineers – South Texas Section. For additional information please visit our website.

Sincerely,
Peter Lauzon, President

Don't Miss Our Kickoff Social at Minute Maid Park

Join the South Texas Section for an evening of baseball.

Here is the information you need to know:

September 10
7:10 pm
Minute Maid Park
Cost: SPE Member $25 Non-Member $35

Your ticket price includes a $15 food credit and as an added bonus it is Dollar Hotdog Night at the park.

Limited seating available—REGISTER TODAY!

Questions: Dell Doyle 940-636-1509



New Officers

Please welcome your new 2019-2020 officers

President: Peter Lauzon
President-Elect: Iman Bahrani
Vice President: Dell Doyle
Past President: Steve King
Secretary: Tom Walsh
Treasurer: Richard Keeler
Councilor: Robert Portnoy
Member at Large: David Hansen
Member at Large: Robert Portnoy
Member at Large: Clifford Lee
Member at Large: Chris Jorgenson
Member at Large: Monica Rodriguez
Member at Large: John Wagner
Member at Large: Preston McDaniels
Member at Large: Pau Arjanan
Member at Large: Matt Zwick

Mark your calendar and join us for the first SPE-STX Sporting Clays Shoot Fundraiser this November

Sporting clay shoots are played like golf events. Each participant shoots at targets and mark their scorecards with either a “hit” or “miss” mark. Participants shoot from different stations similar to golfers playing 18 holes.

Date
November 13, 2019

Times
9:00-11:00 Corporate-sponsored games and warm-up
11:00-12:30 Registration and quick lunch
12:30-1:00 Safety talk and get to starting to first station
1:00-4:00: Tournament
4:00-6:00: Dinner and prizes

Meals included and provided by Jerry Mikeskas BBQ & Catering

Lunch: Pulled pork sandwiches and fixings (grilled chicken alt)
Dinner: BBQ brisket and sausage (grilled chicken alt)

Fees
$180 (Playerwill be placed on a team)
$720 (Corporate team of 4 players)

Corporate sponsorship opportunities are available.

Location
Westside Sporting Grounds
10120 Pattison Rd.
Katy, TX 77493

Visit the Westside Sporting Grounds Website

Creep in Carbon/epoxy Composites Manufactured by Filament Winding

José Humberto S. Almeida Jr, Heitor L. Ornaghi Jr,
Natália P. Lorandi, and Sandro C. Amico

Investigation of carbon-fiber-reinforced epoxy laminates shows that
their viscoelastic behavior depends on both fiber orientation and creep
performance.

Read More...

South Texas SPE 2018-2019 Board Meeting

May Meeting Minutes – 05/13/2019

The location for the SPE-STX BOD meeting was at the Houston Technology Center, 410 Pierce Street, Houston, TX 77002. Dinner to follow.

Agenda 

Open the meeting, roll call.

Attendees: Robert Portnoy, John Wagner, Richard Keeler, Bill Diecks, Steve King, David Hanson, Tom Walsh, on conference call, Pete Lauzon, Janell Helton, Iman Bahrani, Dell Doyle, Preston McDaniel

April's Minutes – Approved

POC Update - reported to be on track for 2020.

May Technical Meeting - St. Arnold's update, currently have 31 registered. Presentation will be for Additive Manufacturing.

Adminstration salary applied to the POC Budget as an expense - Proposal from POC Committee is to absorb 50% of admin cost due to work given. Apply to 2019 expenses. A motion was made by Bill, Seconded by Tom. The Board voted and the motion passed unanimously. The cost was applied.

It was recommended that a line item be added into budget to cover Counselor’s expenses, Janel will add a line item for this.

Clay Shoot – Schedule to be moved to fall, goal is to get 10-15 sponsors to support this event. $108-225 per person, Solicit give aways, survey response very good. Pete recommends pushing to October. (after the 15th of Sept), approach additive manufacturers & distributors for sponsorship.

Fall Golf Tournament - Bay Oaks? Looking at next spring for 2020. Too late to organize something before summer.

Payments to SPE International - Treasure reports payment made.

Educational Update - # of Scholarships - six student has submitted applications for scholarship. Tom made a motion to make each scholarship $2,500 each, Bill second. The motion was passed and the amount was approved unanimously. This summer the Education Committee will meet to set budget for next year. David Hansen is looking for help on the educational committee.

Board Member election status - 19 votes. Sending our second notice on 14th and the last last May 28th. Plans are to report results June 10th and appointments will be assigned.

Membership Update - no update.

New Business - Pete will look into investing savings to increase gain, report at the next meeting. 

Dell will investigate additional venues for our technical events in an attempt to reduce expenses. If we are averaging 30 or less, we can find smaller venues. Richard will get with Dell to share his ideas.

Minutes of the Meeting of the South Texas Board of the Society of Plastics Engineers - June 10, 2019

The location for the SPE-STX BOD meeting was at the Houston Technology Center, 410 Pierce Street, Houston, TX 77002. Dinner to follow.

Opening - Steve King opened the Board meeting at 6:00 PM.

Agenda - The agenda was presented by President Steve King

May Minutes - The Minutes of the May Meeting were approved by a unanimous voice vote.

2020 Polyolefins Conference - An update on POC 2020 was given. It is on track for 2020.

Board Election Process - The results of the Election of Officers and Board members is shown below:

The candidates were all elected to the indicated positions.

Presentation from Chase Bank on investing savings money - The presentation was postponed.

Fall Social (Houston Astros Game) - It was agreed to sponsor an Astros Game outing. Dell will purchase 50 tickets for the September 10th game vs. Oakland ($33 per ticket with $15 food allowance). The prices will be $25 for members, $35 for non-members and a limit of 2 or 4 tickets for each member purchasing tickets.

Fall Clay Shoot - Peter Lauzon reported that this will be scheduled for mid- October. The cost will be $121 per participant. The goal is to obtain a minimum of 14 sponsors at $500 each and set the target price at $180 per participant. The goal is to have a profit of between $8,000 to $16,000 depending sponsorships and the number of attendees. Pete will report later in the summer on his progress.

Spring Golf Outing - Peter Lauzon reported that he will schedule an afternoon golf outing for late March to early April at a country club somewhere close to Highway 225. It will be located to make it convenient to the plastics industry operating plants in the area. The goals are between 100 to 150 participants and raising between $8,000 to $16,000 for the section/

Compliance Insurance - We need to follow our covenants (our By-Laws). The officers are insured, and the Polyolefins Conference Committee is insured.

Activity during summer break – Next meeting of the Board. The new Board will meet on July 15th. Pete will inform the Board of location and time. This will be mainly an organizational meeting. Pete will coordinate a presentation by Chase on investment options.

New Business - Dell Doyle reported that he feels our meetings at St. Arnold’s are becoming too expensive and the food service inadequate. He will investigate the Karbach Brewery for our November Monthly meeting site. The Board members supported this decision.

Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 PM.

Plastics Information: Check It Out

Houston Public LibraryThe Houston Public Library on McKinney has resources on plastics and polymers. Check out their catalog. If you are not near the McKinney location, you can arrange to pick up your books at your local branch.

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.

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 here.

Calendar of Events

Board of Directors

Need to contact one of us?

Web Content/Section Coordinator

Janell Helton
Houston, TX 77084
713-503-6729
jdhelton@comcast.net