1. Looking ahead to the future September 17, 2015

2.  The Promotion of Engineering and Scientific Knowledge Relating to Plastics  Educate the Membership  Promote Relationships with other Plastics Professionals  Have fun.

3.  The Origins - Newark – New Jersey Section chartered February 20, 1944 - Palisades Section chartered January 27, 1964  The Merger : 2008 – 2009  Stabilization, Operating Guidelines written - 2009-2010  Program Revitalization : 2010-2012  Building and Securing the Future : 2012 -

4.  >300 members  Rich Experience and Tradition  Crosses multiple polymer and process types  >15 Elected Officers and Directors  11 Active Program Committees  Winner of Gold Pinnacle Award  Successful golf outing  Financially Secure  One of the top Sections in the SPE

5.  Talks  Newsletter  Triennial Conferences  We will host Vinyltec in 2016  Tutorials & Courses offered in conjunction with conferences

6.  Sponsoring of Student Chapters  Recruiting student SPE members  Scholarships  Tutorials and courses offered in conjunction with conferences

7.  Communications Excellence Award  September issue  Advertisements from 16 sponsors  Golf Outing photos  Profile and Interview with Peggy Schipper (new BOD member)  Announcement of talk (Richard Chadwick) => The Spec Sheet is a self-supporting, award-winning publication that covers all aspects of Section activities and uses links!

8.  Many companies have left the area  Support of technical activity in industry has diminished  The pool of plastics professionals is reduced  Our membership (SPE data for August)  201320142015  539448393  But – 2015 includes 52 Students and 5 Young Professionals – Hope for the future.

9.  Succession planning through involvement of students  Two Directors have come from the Rutgers student chapter, one of whom became an officer  Subsidize meeting attendance by students  Transportation may be the hard part  Interaction with junior faculty  They’re the ones looking for relationships  Joint meetings with other sections  Lehigh? Philadelphia?  More involvement with local industry  Tours  Marketing Presentations

10.  Pinnacle Gold Award  Review and potentially revise Endowment Fund for support of junior faculty  Joint meeting(s) with Lehigh and/or Philadelphia Chapter(s)  Tours and/or marketing presentations with local industry

11.  Successful organizations need to change and adapt. The most successful organizations reinvent themselves periodically.  The Palisades – New Jersey Section is no exception. We are undergoing changes in order to grow, prosper, and effectively serve the membership.  We need to be cognizant of succession planning to ensure continued future operations.