PRESIDENT'S LETTER
Enthusiasm brings opportunities
SUBMITTED BY JILL KENIK, APMM PRESIDENT
"As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities" - Norman Vincent Peale
The APMM is now more than 3 months removed from our long-awaited and often-delayed biennial conference. Already the board has started discussing and planning an abbreviated virtual conference in March of 2022. Finally and confidently, we are beginning to plan our next in-real-life gathering in March of 2023. While our model making world may still need more time to feel normal and for business travel to begin again, we can’t help but celebrate some of the great opportunities that fell into our hands as APMM worked its way through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our first-ever virtual conference was an enormous success! Our thanks go out to the many members that Zoom’d with us and for the many of you that got in touch afterwards to share your favorite parts of the conference. This was truly a “next-best-thing” to a physical conference event, leaving many of us professionally recharged, re-energized and feeling much less house-bound as we shared tours from across the United States and from around the globe!
As typically happens at a physical conference, the APMM welcomed a few new member leaders. Wayne Forsythe of Steelcase stepped into the role of Vendor VP. Many of you will recall Wayne’s excellent conference presentation in which he increased everyone’s knowledge of Sheet Metal Forming. Aaron Williams of CBT Architects and Patrick Hebauf of Crown Equipment Corporation have joined the APMM leadership as members of development committees. Aaron interest falls in the Membership area and he will be working with current Membership VP Terry Wellman on ways to expand the APMM’s reach and improve membership offerings. Education is Patrick’s interest and he will be working with Education VP Will Strange to increase educational outreach to non-university programs. To further support up-and-coming model makers, and to help guide the APMM’s outreach effort, Chris Stanley stepped into the role of Education VP for North America, while Will’s focus shifts primarily to expanding our European university connections.
If YOU are interested in working either alongside one of our current VPs, or are interested in taking on a specific project, please get in touch with Sam, Jill or any of the APMM Board members.
One of the best parts of a conference is always the networking and after-hours conversations. Carrying some of that enthusiasm forward to fill the time between conferences, we are committing to presenting a regular schedule of Zoom Meet-Ups covering a wide range of topics. Meet-Up sessions will take place on the 1st Wednesday of the month at 10 AM PDT/11 AM MDT/12 PM CDT/1 PM EDT/6 PM BST and the 3rd Wednesday of the month a little later in the day at 1 PM PDT/2 PM MDT/3 PM CDT/4 PM EDT/9 PM BST.
There will be occasional adjustments to the Meet-Up schedule to allow the community to come together to celebrate some extra special Model Maker Holidays. If you missed it, our first holiday special was the (Tuesday) "May the 4th Be with You" Star Wars Meet-Up, with special guest model makers Jeff Hoefer and Fon Davis.
Meet-Ups are the perfect way for members to gain some presentation experience, or share their individual interests with the community. To suggest a topic, or to lead a session, get in touch with Sam at [email protected]. If you need help polishing a presentation, one of our board members can help guide you through the very simple process and you can gain some extremely valuable professional experience. We have quickly learned that once a group of model makers begins talking and sharing, there is no problem filling an hour, so do not hesitate to share your special skills or interests with the community.
I look forward to seeing each of you soon.
Fasten your Seatbelts and Stay Enthused!
Thanks,
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