September 17th, 2025 – In-person/Virtual
Meeting minutes are taken and submitted by Richard Voyles (2025-2026 SPE IMD Secretary)

Meeting Welcome
Tom Giovanetti opened the meeting and welcomed all.

Roll Call
Members present: Angela, Saeed, Tom Giovanetti, Brad, Laura, Joe, Davide, Ray, Susan (late), Siraj (late), Hoa, Edwin, Tom Turng, Chad, Richard.
Guests present: Chirag Thummar, Eric Anderson, Steve Logan, Kiray Tumer
13 Members present of 23 active members, so quorum reached. 4 guests in attendance.

Approval of Past Minutes
Motion to approve minutes by Edwin, seconded by Joe. Unanimously approved.

Appointment of Board Members
Tom Giovanetti has brought two appointees in-person. They can introduce themselves.
Chirag Thummar: From Performance Engineering Products as VP. Degree in ME. Expertise in mold design and working with aerospace companies in manufacturing design.
Tom Giovanetti: Chirag came in through HQ.
Eric Anderson: 1996 grad of Penn State plastics program. Automotive product design, mold design, R&D manager. Turned 50 and decided to make a change to Absolute Haitian as product applications manager.
Both Chirag and Eric are being appointed to the BOD.
This will be a one-year appointment and then they will go through elections.

Committee and Officer Reports
Financials – Ray
Fiscal year ends June each year. We finished the year at $45,838, down about $10K from last year due to
ANTEC reception. But, this is a typical balance for the past 5-year average.
• Year-to-date, not much change.
• Working with Cleveland section on joint meeting Oct 2026.
• Looking toward ANTEC 2026, we need to work on more sponsorships to have nice event without high cost to IMD.
• Hoa had questions on some details, which seemed confusing. But Ray explained them and pointed out the details are only for internal use and no longer submitted to HQ

Membership report – Eric (in absentia)
We’ve had a gain in membership of 1 – first gain in many years
Tom Giovanetti: The decline in membership may be partially due to the $10 fee
Ray: The Board can eliminate the fee, but then lots of people sign up.

Communications Report – Angela
Similar to last update
• Several increases in followers and 1 re-post
• If anyone has events to share, happy to post
• Need more material to post!
• Scholarship winner might be a good chance to post.

Counselor – Edwin
Council Roles:
• Council represents the divisions
• Advises on trends and
• Try to link groups for initiatives

Discussed some ANTEC 2025 highlights
• Attendance up 10%
• Doubled breakout rooms (& speakers)
• Survey
• Overall: very positive
• Content: high quality
• Suggestions: better space sizing, better signs
• Most professional orgs around 81% renew, SPE is 63%
• IMD membership dropped 53% vs. 2019
• HQ model: website for one-stop shopping (purchased 3Dnatives)

Nominating and election process:
(Some of you may run for Executive Board)
• At least one year of experience with plastic industry
• Don’t have to be an active member of SPE to run
• Nominating committee interviews candidates
• The make recommendation of candidate
• Some candidates withdraw, some do not
• 4 meetings per year (2 in-person, 2 remote)
• Next meeting at PFAS Sept 22 (any potential proxies attending?)

Technical Director – Chad
Work with TPC for abstract submissions
Suggestions for ANTEC conference themes? (send to Chad)
Suggested changes to bylaws (merging education committee)
• First Reading: Technical Director will become Education Committee Chair
• 7.3.5.2 is the proposed addition
• Hoa: “as needed” clause may be problematic
• Chad reviewed vote from prior board meeting, necessitating bylaws changes
• Removed the “as needed” clause

Nominations – Hoa
Reviewed “transfer of power”
• Need volunteers for vacancies
• Ray as Treasurer and Board Member, is stepping down
• Tom Giovanetti: Jeremy will be next Treasurer (95% confidence)
• Membership Chair: need volunteer (1 year)
• Counselor Role: need volunteer
• Secretary: need volunteers for 2027 and later

Fellows & HSM – Tom Turng
• Nominating Jeremy for HSM
• Nominating Steven Johnson (UMass Lowell) for Fellow
• Deadline Oct 1 – on track

Cleveland Section Meeting – Susan
• Joint in-person conference with Cleveland Section Oct 22
• Identify keynote speakers
• Need co-chair or point person to help
• Discussed cost sharing model (spreadsheet)
• Chad: Get Angela’s input on social media
• Ray: IMD will get an out-sized share of revenue as we’re taking higher risk

ANTEC 2026 Update – Davide
ANTEC Submissions
Still have 3 weeks until the deadline, but we all need to promote submissions
Saeed: Like to thank board members who have already registered for reviewing. Deadline has passed for new reviewers. Please post and reach out to your networks to promote the ANTEC paper deadline.
Anon: Moldex3D is preparing some, as I expect AutoDesk, too.
Chad: Any prior examples of letters to send to networks? I plan to scour presenter lists from the past 3 years to encourage submissions from them.
Chad: Process is 1. Submit abstract, then, once accepted, you can decide paper or presentation. No mechanism to transfer ANTEC into journal.
Saeed: What about copyright? ANTEC is copyrighted, so journal needs something different.
Not to valuable to academics as you need to go through difficult process to get access to ANTEC papers.
Chad: Might be getting worse. Don’t get access to the library anymore, with basic membership. Need Premium. But it is accessible to attendees of the meeting.
Brad: I have no trouble getting access to previous papers with basic membership.
Chad: It is unclear when the new rules will take effect.
Saeed: Chance of citations from ANTEC papers is extremely low. Very unfortunate. Might be better for academics to go for presentation, rather than paper. Can publish the paper elsewhere.
Saeed: Cost for reception event is typically about $25,000. AutoDesk tends to sponsor for $10,000, so remaining cost to us is high. Need more sponsors. Maybe we can get more from AutoDesk this time.
Davide: Need to offer more options for publicity to companies in order to get them to sponsor. Get sponsors’ names out there to 400 people. Angela has done great for the last event, but sponsorships require personal relationships.
Richard: Are you worried about an appearance of AutoDesk having an exclusive sponsorship? Sponsors shouldn’t worry about their competitors co-sponsoring.
Davide: It was listed as the SPE IMD reception sponsored by AutoDesk.
Richard: But that shouldn’t imply an exclusive sponsorship.
Tom Giovanetti: IMD events are not tied into machine suppliers, well, compared to other sectors.
Davide: Venue options. The conference hotel is quite expensive, so we have looked at other options for the reception with headquarters. 4 places recommended. 1st spot is close – 10 minutes walk. All 3 others are across the river, a long walk. I do not know these options.
Anon: First is very walkable, but the others are not.
Anon: A river cruise on the Gateway Clipper is another option.
Anon: I will get quotes so we can decide.
We don’t want to repeat the venue of the other ANTEC event.
Tom Giovanetti: Next Board meeting in January. I’m thinking January 8th. Need somewhere warm. Saeed says Clemson is not bad in January. Have one at ANTEC again.
Saeed: We had the Board meeting at Tupperware headquarters. Also Florida Hotel. Maybe the hotel can provide lower cost Board meeting location.
Richard: We could host in Texas at UTARI. Could hold it in Arlington, TX, use DFW.

New Business
No New business
Ray: Move to adjourn. Davide: second.
Motion carried