Meeting minutes are taken and submitted by Saeed Farahani (2024-2025 SPE IMD Secretary)
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Welcome & Opening Remarks (Kusuma)
• Welcome, everyone, to this board meeting.
• Thanks to Brad Johnson and Penn State Behrend for hosting this meeting
• Introduction of Steve Trapp as the new president of the Cleveland section
Roll Call: Participants 16 out of 26 active board members on the roster: quorum achieved. Sue Wojnicki from SPE National and Steve Trapp from the Cleveland section attended
Approval of previous Meeting Minutes (David Kusuma)
Motion: March 6, 2025 (ANTEC) – Motioned by Tom G., seconded by Ray Lawrence; approved.
Committee and Officer Reports Reports Discussion
1. Financial (Ray McKee)
• IMD’s financial conditions are stated as presented in the attached presentation slides.
• No major expenses from the last meeting
• Ray wants to leave this position. He needs a break after 18 years of being on the IMD board. As such, the board needs to select someone to take this role.
• An important comment from Ray to whoever takes this responsibility: try to take advantage of the online tools with almost zero expenses for IMD financial management.
2. Membership Update (Erik Foltz)
• We are still going down as we haven’t offered too many new activities that can promote the number of members.
• In terms of demographics, we are shifting toward the professional membership category.
• Premium membership is also increasing, and the number of young professional members is steady.
• Potential KPIs are presented as detailed in the attached slides.
• The membership chair position will be available from the beginning of 2026 for whoever is interested in this position.
• An important point that needs to be discussed/brainstormed by the board members is how we can make our activities more relevant and valuable for IMD members. This would be a critical pathway towards promoting IMD membership.
• Sue: Thank Erik for his effort. This position is an appointed position and can be appointed by the IMD chair
3. Communications Update (David Kusuma on behalf of Angela Cengarle)
• KPI’s for 2025 presented as detailed in the attached slides
• Emphasize the importance of reposting the IMD posts by the board members to increase the visibility
• Several ideas for creating new content for IMD as listed in the slides. An important suggestion is how we can summarize ANTEC papers and share them with our members
• LinkedIn page performance is presented as shown in the slides
• A spike during the ANTEC and a drop after that, which would be normal due to the activities we delivered during this event.
4. Council Report (Edwin Tam)
• We have no report for this meeting
5. Technical Director’s Report (Chad)
• Previously discussed how to restructure the technical director’s role. As such, a new structure and definition of this role are presented as detailed in the attached slides.
• It would be ideal that the technical director lead the educational committee as well; this may require some changes in the IMD bylaws. Further investigation may be needed in this regard.
• Supporting TPC would be an important role of the technical director’s role.
• David Kusuma: How can we prepare a new write-up to be included in the bylaws for formulating the combination of the technical director and the educational committee chair
Action Item: Call for a vote to place the education committee under the direction of the technical director and for the technical director to prepare a write-up that can be added to the IMD bylaw to reflect this change; motioned by David Kusuma, seconded by Susan Montgomery
6. IMD BOD Nominations 2025 (Hoa)
• Ballot Results as presented in the slides
• Luara Kender was appointed by the chair (David K.) for this year
• Three members show interest in joining the board. One person is willing to provide volunteer support, and two other members are interested in sponsorship opportunities
• Maybe the membership questionnaire needs to be revised, especially by adding some details
• A summary of Ballet 2025 and an overview of chair progressions are presented
• David K.: The treasurer’s role should be filled by someone who is committed to attending all the meetings in person or online.
• Tom G. showed his interest in taking the treasury role after his chair role
7. HSM & FELLOWS (Tom Turng)
• Honored Service Member candidate qualifications were explained.
• The most effective nomination and recommendation is through the IMD board members direct network.
• Whoever is interested can communicate with Tom Turng for self-nomination or nominating others.
8. SPE foundation (Linzie)
• Some interesting highlights are shared with the board members
• Scholarships are growing and an awesome program to support
• Demand is outpacing the resources
• Two new endowed scholarships are introduced
• PLASTIVAN activities were explained
• Girl Scout council patch program was explained
• David Kusuma: Suggested that the SPE foundation report these activities and the number of new programs
SPE Cleveland Section (Susan Montgomery and Steve Trapp)
• Susan presented on their recent in-person event titled “ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING: PRINTING THE PLAN FOR THE FUTURE”
• It was a well-attended event for a local event.
• They would like to know how the Cleveland section can collaborate with IMD in such events
• It would be a great opportunity to engage companies from Rust Belt and even Chicago
• Potential topics
• AI, Re-shoring, Tooling
• Ray: How can the Cleveland Section help with these new initiatives, and how can IMD leverage these events to promote membership and IMD engagement
• David K. and Tom G. are both supportive of such joint activities.
SPE East Africa Chapter (Susan Montgomery)
• The activities of this new chapter were explained as presented in the slides.
• David K. suggested communicating with them in terms of some mutual activities, especially if they are interested in injection molding.
Action: Schedule a call with them to understand how we can support them
Week of Injection Molding (Davide Kusuma)
• A recap of W.of.IM 2025 was presented.
• Some considerations for 2025 were suggested.
• Lynzie: The date is very important. A half-day event would be more attractive for the potential attendees. We shouldn’t burn out our volunteers, and we don’t need to put too much effort
• Saeed: We can limit the W.of.IM to a couple of one-hour sessions throughout the week rather than two full days
ANTEC 2026 Wrap-Up (Davide Masato and Saeed)
• Davide: provided a recap of ANTEC 2025
• Meeting once a month to coordinate the sessions
• Awards and plaques were new activities and also new expenses, but were received well.
• Notes for improvement are presented as listed in the slides
• Technical program – 2026 vision
• Sue: SPE will be trying to improve the abstract review and how we can do better to reshape ANTEC
• Saeed and Davide will be working together to plan for review the coming ANTEC submissions.
IMPACT Awards Update (David Kusuma)
• The postponement of the competition was fully explained
• The whole procedure was well developed. But due to the low number of submissions, it was postponed to the next ANTEC (2026)
• Relaunching the program in 2025 can be done as soon as possible for SPE.
• Submissions will start from September and will be finished before the end of the year.
Chairman Report (David K)
• The key objectives of the 2024-2025 board terms are explained as listed on the sides
• IMD performance objectives (KPIs) are highlighted as an effective way of tracing the performance of each committee and our performance
• Recommendations for the incoming chair were noted as listed in the slides
• Board members need to participate in the committees and help with the activities. Attending the meetings is not enough.
• Maximizing the sponsorship to enable more activities
• Attending board meeting in person at least once per year.
New Chairmans Report (Tom Giovannetti)
• Adding members from the injection machine manufacturers
• Continue Previous Chair Work
Plastic Innovation Conference(Brad Johnson)
• A good number of attendees and sponsors this year
• Many of these companies can be engaged in the IMD or even the Cleveland activities as well
• The conference schedule was explained
New Business
• No new business
Adjournment
• Motion to adjourn: Motioned by Ray, seconded by Tom Turng; approved
