SAMPE Journal - May/June 2022 - 9

Interestingly, I attended more meetings of SAMPE chapters during the last
two years of virtual events than in the same time period
at any other time of my membership.
W
hat made you first want to
volunteer at SAMPE?
Two things come to mind. On
the collegial level, I recall the
encouragement I received from
Susan Ruth, a SAMPE Past
President and SAMPE Fellow, who
invited me to a gathering of SAMPE
leaders and global members which
was a delightful experience with
wonderful people who had similar
interests, challenges, and problemsolving
mindsets. On a business
level, SAMPE was an excellent forum
to prepare for technical initiatives
and to showcase programs or
technical areas.
Whether it was
showcasing the Air Force Minority
Leaders Program, accelerating
qualifications, or developments
in out-of-autoclave processed
materials, for example, working
with conference organizers and
leading sessions, pulling together
panel discussions, or reaching out
to keynote speakers for SAMPE
made good business sense for those
involved.
S
hare your favorite SAMPE story
or memory:
It is hard to pick one favorite, but
certainly memorable was the time
period
manufacturing technology
working non-autoclave
with
the late Dr. Katie Thorp, who was
in leadership roles in SAMPE at the
time. Katie, Gary Bond (another
Mid-West SAMPE Fellow), and I
hosted program related meetings
during the week of SAMPE that
soon became part of the session
tracts at SAMPE conferences, often
with standing-room only crowds
and occasionally with static display
articles in the exhibition as well.
The idea to use the forum was likely
inspired by Dr. Charles Lee, another
SAMPE Fellow who regularly
hosted his program reviews on the
Friday after the SAMPE program
was completed. Additionally, the
encouragement of Dr. Leslie Cohen,
Dr. Allan Crasto, and the late Dr.
James Sutter, all SAMPE Fellows,
was very much appreciated.
W
hat takeaways
have you
learned from your volunteer
experiences?
I certainly hope SAMPE continues
to nurture the technical collegial
environment of academics, government,
and industry networking
to understand problems and issues
from different perspectives and to
develop solutions with meaningful
peer review. When conference
technical planning committees include
all three groups and tracks
are planned with invitations for key
presentations, rather than simply
sorting what abstracts come in at
random, the tracks are more meaningful,
the invited speakers are
more committed, the networking
is stronger, and the satisfaction is
higher for all. Seeing programming
innovations and the energy created
within SAMPE at the Global level is
very encouraging for productivity
within the organization for years to
come.
SAMPE Fellows in attendance at SAMPE 2021 from left to right: Kay Blohowiak, Bill Avery, James Mazza, Gail Hahn,
George Hansen, Ranji Vaidyanathan, Brent Strong, Scott Beckwith, Tony Vizzini, Alan Crasto.
www. sampe.org
MAY/JUNE 2022
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SAMPE JOURNAL |
9

http://www.sampe.org

SAMPE Journal - May/June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAMPE Journal - May/June 2022