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PAST MEETING NOTES

SOCAL ACHMM GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES

    FEBRUARY 20, 2003

MR. RICH CARTWRIGHT

Our annual Burbank meeting held at the delicious Tony Roma's restaurant was a success.  The SoCal ACHMM chapter was honored to have Mr. Rich Cartwright present us with great ideas and interesting commentaries on his experience growing an ACHMM chapter.  We look forward to our next board meeting in April when we can implement some of Mr. Cartwright's ideas.  Comments from our members were very positive on Mr. Cartwright's ideas for networking and career enrichment.  The SoCal ACHMM would like to offer him a gracious thanks for his time and useful information and we hope to see him again sometime at one of our future meetings.

Attendees:

            Jeff Wheeler        Amanda Mawaad        Gil Armange            Jim Bright           Rich Cartwright

            Mel Kantz             Thuy Fleming             Chris Chang            Tejpal Basra         Jack Kennedy

            Charles St. John

Who ever has the attendance list, please forward to Doug K. at fax 714-593-0012 or dougk@phaseoneesa.com

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SOCAL ACHMM GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES

    NOVEMBER 21, 2002

DR. STEPHEN LAVINGER, DEPARTMENT OF TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL

Our final meeting of 2002 was a resounding success.  Dr. Stephen Lavinger provided us with a professional presentation on the operations and procedures at the Department of Toxic Substances Control that had all of the members taking copious amounts of notes and asking questions extending well beyond our scheduled adjournment time.  We so enjoyed his presentation, we hope to have an encore presentation next year and we hope to see Dr. Lavinger at future meetings.

Attendees:

            Gil Armange        Oscar Perez        Tom Bernitt        Barb Taylor        Tawfig Deek        Claude Stephenson

            Darrin Domingo   John Slayten       David Seitz        Chris Ingalls        Troy Cox              Doug Kochanowski

            Nick Perez          Tom Konecsni     Allen Quignon     Jeff Wheeler      Mel Kantz            Charles St. James

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SOCAL ACHMM GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES    

MARCH 22, 2002

VOPAC

The SoCal ACHMM chapter was treated to one fantastic evening touring the largest chemical distribution center in North America.  Courtesy of Mr. Michael Escobedo and Mr. Clay Kussler, ACHMM members were take around the 20-acre facility and its over 250,000-square feet of warehouse space and room for over 80 rail cars.  The VOPAC state-of-the-art packaging, loading and storage facilities made for a very exciting and insightful evening into the business of chemical distribution.  The facility also has 36-solvent tanks, 18-corrosive tanks, 2-neutralization tanks, 12,000-gallons of DI water, laboratories and over 4,000-totes in service.  Due to security concerns, no photographs were take on the facility.  A great big thank you to the kind people at VOPAC for their time and for one fantastic tour we will not soon forget. 

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SOCAL ACHMM GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES

JANUARY 24, 2002

US BORAX

Charles St. John provided the SoCal ACHMM Chapter with a grand tour of the US BORAX facility in Wilmington, California.

The January meeting was very interesting and involved the participation of all members.  Pizza and refreshments were served for dinner.  Charles provided us with a fascinating look at some of their eight processes that include refining borate minerals to buric acid.  Due to the nature of the tour, all attendants were required to  wear closed toed shoes and slacks along with hardhats, safety glasses and some very clunky steel-toed galoshes.  A great time was had by all and we would like to thank Mr. St. John and the people at US BORAX for a fantastic evening.

Here are some photographs from the meeting tour.

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SOCAL ACHMM GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES

OCTOBER 25, 2001

LONG BEACH WORLD TRADE CENTER

The SoCal ACHMM October meeting was held at the Pacific Room at the Long Beach World Trade Center on October 25, 2001 at 6:30 pm.  The meeting began with a no-host bar and lively conversation between local members and the visiting ACHMM Board of Directors.  The meeting was called to order by our acting President, Dr. Mel Kantz.  Mel offered a grand welcome and introduced the visiting Directors.  In the interest of time, the chapter decided to hold off specific chapter meeting business until after dinner and the guest presentations.  A summary of the speakers’ presentations can be seen below. 

After the presentations, meeting minutes from the previous meeting were reviewed.

Acting Treasurer, Joe Mathewson, pointed out that annual dues would be due at the January meeting.  The annual dues are to be $25.00 and the meeting fee is to be $15.00 to cover the cost of food, drinks and presentation materials if needed. 

The Board of directors were nominated.  Acting Secretary, Doug Kochanowski, agreed to add the names of the persons nominated to the Board of Directors to the web site.  It was agreed that voting would take place at the January meeting and the Board members would become official.  As a consequence, every January will constitute the election or re-election of members to the Board.  The persons nominated to the Board of Directors for 2002 are as follows: 

President                   Dr. Mel Kantz

Vice President            Mr. B.J. Atkins

Treasurer                   Mr. Joe Mathewson

Secretary                   Mr. Doug Kochanowski

 Submitted 1/2002, acting Secretary, Doug Kochanowski.

  OCTOBER'S MEETING REVIEW

Our October meeting was a GREAT success and was well attended by CHMM members throughout southern California.  There were approximately 32 attendees present to meet and listen to speakers from the ACHMM Board of Directors.  The Directors flew to Los Angeles from various cities across the nation to give presentations on the philosophies of the institute and guidance for the development and successful proliferation of a new ACHMM chapter.  Presentations from Mr. Chuck Bessey and Ms. Elizabeth Pfeiffer (summaries of their presentations are below) were of great value and had the whole room engaged and hurriedly taking notes.

The SoCal ACHMM Chapter would like to thank the Directors for attending our October meeting and for graciously paying for the event which included a delicious meal and a beautiful meeting place at the Long Beach World Trade Center.

Chuck Bessey

 Mr. Chuck Bessey offered us an informative presentation on the missions of the institute and suggestions for other chapters.  He stated that the institute’s mission has the following four main objectives: 

Chuck provided the following chapter objectives which have been adopted by the SoCal ACHMM chapter: 

Thank you again Chuck, we enjoyed your presentation and hope to further enhance the ACHMM organization through our local chapter.

Ms. Elizabeth Pfeiffer 

Elizabeth was an entertaining and informative speaker providing us with guidance on the development of an annual operating plan.  She suggested that we start with two simple goals.  First, we take small steps and have realistic goals on both the growth of membership and our financial condition.  Second, that chapter and committee goals are adopted and are the same (see Mr. Chuck Bassey’s presentation summary). 

Elizabeth suggested that we develop a mission statement, adjust the plan as needed and to keep it flexible.  We should insure that we add value to each meeting in order to keep people interested and in attendance. 

Elizabeth recommended that we follow a few simple guidelines in the development of chapter policies: 

Elizabeth suggested that we have an operating procedure that includes: a purpose, scope, references, attachments, step by step guidelines and is kept current.  She recommended we use a timeline to visually help us organize such items as: collecting dues, meeting dates and elections.  She stated that a marketing and membership plan can help us to get and keep members.

Leadership at the chapter should involve a “Champion” (Mel has been ours thus far), involve the full participation of the Board of Directors and involve all committee chairs. 

Documents Elizabeth recommended our chapter maintain include: the prior years objectives, committee reports, budget projections and the prior years financials with an analysis of the success of the budget.  She said that we should monitor our progress to see if we are on track and if we are behind our goals, ask “Why?”  If we are ahead of our goals, then we should make plans to keep the momentum going. 

Elizabeth summarized that the keys to successful chapter development include keeping good records, be specific, have measurable goals, be timely and be realistic. 

Thank you Elizabeth, it was a real pleasure meeting you and hearing your words of encouragement.

Here are a few photographs from the meeting:

Submitted by Doug Kochanowski, Secretary, 1/7/2002

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