LATEST
SECTION ACTIVITIES
April 2008 - Section
Meeting
April was a busy month in Houston. The Shell Houston
Open concluded the day before. It was the Astros home
opener and it was the Greater Houston Section’s Annual
Golf Outing on Monday April 7, 2008. We had a record
turnout of 140 members and guests for the event at
Deerwood Golf Club in Kingwood, TX.
All players
received gym bags, tee bags, golf balls, umbrellas and flash drives
monogrammed with the Section’s logo. Olympus NDT was the gold
sponsor. TechCorr USA was our beverage cart sponsor. North Star
Imaging sponsored the putting contest and each green had a corporate
sponsor.
It was a
picture perfect day on the shores of Lake Houston and as the golfers
returned to the club house for hot hors d’oeuvres and drinks you
could tell the event was a big success. Conam Inspection hosted the
first and second place teams. North Star Imaging and Magnaflux
hosted the third place team and CAN USA received their trophies for
most strokes accumulated.
North Star
Imaging & Magaflux Team (from left) – Brian Halata, Kim Hayes, Kent
Varner and Jett Miller
Greg Hudkins
won an iPod from Carestream Health for closest to the pin on #2.
AIP presented $250 gift certificates to James Vinson and David Dahl
for closest to the pin on #4. Jesse Fox and Steve Steen each won
$100 gift certificates for closest to the pin and longest drive.
Jack Long, Kent Varner and Jim Mattson each won gift certificates
for first, second and third place at the putting contest. Door
prizes included 2 foursomes of golf at Deerwood and club golf
shirts. Nobody left empty handed. Congratulations to Bob Dunn for
assembling another great golf event.
Two days
later the Greater Houston Section hosted 180 members and guests at
our annual Vendors Night and Job Fair at Brady’s Landing on April 9.
We had 32 sponsors staffing 42 exhibit and interview tables.
Section Chair Deal Moore welcomed everyone and thanked our event
sponsors – DTM Enterprisess and Iris Inspection Services. The room
included a full dinner buffet and bar, a projector and screen with a
slide show of photos from the golf outing and a microphone from
which Ron Hayden called winning door prize numbers throughout the
evening.
Golfer &
Exhibitor – Roche Faucheux of Ely Chemical
This is our
Section’s biggest event of the year and this one was no exception.
The free food and beer are draws but it’s the fellowship and
networking that make it a success.
The next day
was the ASME Plant Engineering, Inspection and Maintenance trade
show at the Pasadena Convention Center. There were over 100
exhibitors, many who exhibited with us the night before, and 500+
attendees from the surrounding plant facilities. Barbeque and beer
were provided free of charge. The event raises approximately
$30,000 for ASME South Texas Section’s scholarship fund.
Submitted By: Deal Moore
March 2008 - Section
Meeting
It was Awards Night on
March 12 and the Greater Houston Section welcomed 80
members and guests to the big event. We were gathered
to recognize our Technician of the Year and scholarship
winners. Over $4,000 would change hands this evening
and the excitement level was high.
Section Chair Deal
Moore opened the meeting by thanking our Awards Night
sponsors – Fugro Consultants, NDT Seals and The Ocean
Corporation – all 3 long time supporters of the event.
Ron Hayden and John Iman presided over the door prize
drawing to distribute Section logo mugs, CAN USA tee
shirts, decks of playing cards, calendars and caps. Ron
Jiron introduced our 13 new student members from San
Jacinto College and The Ocean Corporation. Each
received a Section gym bag after they gathered for a
photo at Bob Dunn’s impromptu photo studio by the bar.
Newest
student members of the Greater Houston Section
David McGrath hosted a
special drawing for those with 3 to 5 years experience
in the industry to attend a free CWI or API course from
DTM Enterprises. Jim Halley from Advanced Inspection
Technologies introduced his Employee of the Year and our
Technician of the Year – Jason Landers. Jason had a
brief presentation on phased array inspection of
dissimilar metals on LNG tanks. His talk prompted
several questions from the membership including what
experience Jason had to prepare him for phased array
inspection. His presentation confirmed him as our
Technician of the Year. Deal presented him with a
plaque and check on behalf of the Section.
Our 2008 Technician of
the Year – Jason Landers (center) and wife Callie
Next up was the
awarding of scholarships to 5 students at San Jacinto
College, 5 students at The Ocean Corporation and 1 at
Texas A&M University. We awarded $4,000 in
scholarships. Seven scholars were able to join us this
evening.
Greater Houston
Section Scholarship Winners – 2008
Vice Chair John Iman
presented Deal with an Extra Mile Service Award plaque
on behalf of the executive committee and past Section
officers. No check accompanied this award however.
Vice Chair John Iman
(left) presents Deal Moore’s Extra Mile Service Award
Ron Hayden and Deal
Moore were judges for the 49th Annual Science
& Engineering Fair of Houston on Friday March 14 at the
George R. Brown convention center and presented a check
for $300 on behalf of the Section.
Submitted By: Deal Moore
February 2008 -
Section Meeting
The Greater Houston
Section hosted 84
members and guests at
our annual Past Chairs Night at the restaurant on
Brady’s Island in the scenic Houston Ship Channel on
February 13, 2008. Doug Knode and Doug Lutz from GE Inspection Technologies were
on hand to demo GE’s new phasor during the social hour.
Janet Hudkins made her first appearance at our meeting
since her motorcycle accident in Galveston in November
and she looked great. She plans to start back to work
in March. And true to form she and Greg won prizes
during the opening door prize drawing.
Section Chair Deal Moore
welcomed everyone and thanked our sponsors for the
evening – Ashtead Technology Rentals, CAN USA, DTM
Enterprises and Weldsonix. Seven past chairs of the
Section were introduced and gathered for a photo.
Left to right – Jerry Fulin, Jim Turner, David McGrath,
Syl Viaclovski, Don Childers, Bill Arnoult and Greg
Hudkins
Moore thanked them for
joining us as many of our past chairs were attending the
NDTMA conference this week. Moore also recognized that
Bill Arnoult (1978-1979) was our Section’s Chair nearly
30 years ago and was directly succeeded by Jim Turner
and Don Childers. We had a lot of NDT experience in the
room which meshed well with the 29 new NDT students from
San Jacinto College and The Ocean Corporation in
attendance. Moore thanked Steve Rowland and Brian
Staley for bringing students to this Past Chairs Night.
Business announcements
included the finalized slate of officers for the 2008 –
2009 year. We have over 60 applications for
scholarships and Technician of the Year. A meeting on
February 20 will determine the winners and the awards
will be presented at our March 12 meeting. The Spring
Educational Seminar will be conducted on Ultrasonic
Phased Array on May 3 at Advanced Inspection
Technologies in Spring, TX. Applications will be in our
March newsletter and at www.asnthouston.com. The
Golf Outing on April 7 is filling up fast with golfers
and corporate sponsors. Our annual Vendors Night & Job
Fair will be April 9. The Section will support the 49th
Houston Science & Engineering Fair on March 14 with a
donation and four volunteers to act as judges at the
event.
Jerry Fulin from
Weldsonix and a past Section Chair was our speaker for
the evening with “A Look Back at the Section’s
Accomplishments”. The presentation included a look at
our Charter and the officers, technician of the year,
science fair and scholarship winners for each year since
our founding. Fulin noted we have awarded over $40,000
in scholarships over the years. His presentation also
included the conferences we have supported including the
1997 ASNT Spring Conference and 10 ICPIIT conferences
which contribute to our scholarship fund. He had photos
of former ASNT President David Culbertson riding a horse
in a rodeo and had filled a side table with the
proceedings from those conferences for members to thumb
through.
Fulin concluded his
presentation by awarding silver ICPIIT-X coins to two
members who answered historical questions correctly.
Each of the Past Chairs received a silver coin to thank
them for being part of this month’s meeting and for
their part in our Section’s history. It was another
great evening. One for the books.
Submitted By: Deal Moore
January 2008 -
Section Meeting
The Greater Houston
Section hosted 77 members and guests at our dinner
meeting at Brady’s Landing on January 9, 2008.
Section Chair Deal Moore welcomed everyone and
recognized our sponsors – NDT Seals and North Star
Imaging. The round of introductions highlighted
the large number of students attending from The Ocean
Corporation. The Section received 23 membership
applications this evening.
Dan Carnavale had an
exhibit table set up to demonstrate the latest trends in
UT gages with color waveform from Danatronics. His
hands on display was well attended during the social
hour and dinner.
Greg Hudkins reported
that his wife Janet was doing much better since her
motorcycle accident in Galveston in November and that
they appreciated all the cards and flowers received from
Section members. Greg presided over the door prize
drawing which included an assortment of calendars, ball
caps, tee shirts, flash lights, key chains, a leather
portfolio and cameras donated by CAN USA, North Star
Imaging, Fuji, Hocker, Inc. and the 4th
Middle East Conference on NDT.
The business portion of
the meeting included announcements that scholarship and
Technician of the Year applications are due at the end
of the month as are nominations for ASNT directors and
SOC Lou DiValerio Technician of the Year and Mentoring
awards. Dave Bajula has agreed to apply for our
Regional Director’s position. David Culbertson and
Greg Hudkins will co-chair ICPIIT-XI in June 2009.
Bill Cotter is reported to be recovering well from heart
surgery last month and appreciated the gift basket sent
by the Section.
Vice Chair John Iman
introduced our second annual “Captains of Industry”
speaker panel.
The forum was titled
“The Ties That Bind Us – Who we are and what we do.”
The intent was to introduce the various national
organizations that impact our Section and our industry
and to initiate discussion through a question and answer
session. Each panel member had a short
presentation about their organization that included
responses to advance questions such as “If you could
pick an organization to partner with in the inspection
industry, which would that be?” It was informative
and bold to have so many organizations in the same room
together. Iman asked questions provided by the
members at the end of the panel presentation and Moore
presented each with a silver ICPIIT-X coin to thank them
for their participation.
Seated left to right
– David Culbertson, Clint Britt, John Husfeld, Mike Moss
and Chip Evans. Standing left to right – John
Iman, Joe Mackin and Deal Moore
Submitted By: Deal Moore
December 2007 -
Section Meeting
The Greater Houston
Section hosted 82 members and guests for our annual
Christmas Party at Brady’s Landing restaurant on a warm,
Gulf Coast December 12th evening. The
price of a meal was waived for a donated toy and the
Section delivered about 40 gifts to the Toys for Tots
program the next day.
Section Chair Deal
Moore welcomed everyone and recognized our meeting
sponsors – DTM Enterprises, Fugro Consultants, Olympus
NDT, PetroChem Inspection Services and Stroud Systems.
The traditional round of introductions was our way to
say hello again to the spouses we get to see but once a
year, including Connie Bajula, Rita Hayden, Sheila
McGrath, Marilyn Fulin, Bonnie Blanchard, Nancy Dunn,
Claudia Stanford and Norma Schultz. We also
managed to rope in Charlie Pattillo and Al Baker for
their first meeting of the year.
Dwayne Witter and Bonnie
Blanchard
Bob and Nancy Dunn
Section business
announcements included a review by Ron Hayden of the
OSHA meeting conducted earlier in the day to compile
member recommendations to update the 29 CFR 1910.1096
regulations. Applications for Technician of the
Year and for our scholarships are due by the end of
January. Olympus NDT will be our golf outing
sponsor and we are starting to sign up teams for the
event.
Our speaker for the
evening was Stephen Anderson from Aptech Engineering
Services’ Petrochemical Group here in Houston. His
topic was one aspect of the Total Asset Integrity
Management services his firm provides – Forensic
Engineering. With graphic photos and videos – some
seen before in episodes aired on the History Channel –
Steve illustrated some of the catastrophic consequences
of not performing nondestructive testing. With
scenes from aircraft, offshore platform, refining and
processing plants, Steve demonstrated to a hushed
audience the critical role of nondestructive testing in
a variety of industries. His message was clear and
well received by everyone. Moore presented
Anderson with a plaque on behalf of the Section and
thanked him for joining us this evening.
Ron Hayden entered the
room with a white beard, red hat and coveralls as Santa
Claus and pulled winning gift numbers for all the good
boys and girls in the room. Nancy Dunn was Santa’s
helper this year. She bought and wrapped dozens of
gifts including power drills, chocolate assortments,
gift certificates, bubble bath sets, and other
surprises. Fuji donated single use cameras that
were instantly put to use and Fugro donated two huge
gift assortment packages that were big hits.
Winning ticket owners got to select their gift and the
trading and swapping of gifts continued late into the
night. It was a great evening and a wonderful way
to celebrate the season.
Richard Roth draws a
gift ticket
Ron and Rita Hayden
Submitted
By: Deal Moore
November 2007 - Section Meeting
While many of our
members were attending the ASNT Fall Conference in Las
Vegas, the Greater Houston Section managed to attract 63
members and guests to our November 14, 2007 meeting at
Brady’s Landing on a beautiful fall evening.
Section Chair Deal Moore welcomed everyone and
acknowledged the tremendous support of The Ocean
Corporation whose new students represented half of the
meeting attendance.
November meeting
sponsors included Ashtead Technology Rentals, CAN USA,
GE Inspection Technologies, Hocker, Inc. and Weldsonix.
Moore recognized their support and noted that their
participation helps to defray the increased meal costs
absorbed by the Section this year. The round of
introductions re-emphasized the number of Ocean Corp
students in the room and they were able to snare a good
percentage of the door prizes. Nancy Dunn donated
her door prize winning to one of the female Ocean Corp
students to welcome her to the industry.
The business portion of
the meeting included announcements of the fast
approaching deadline for Technician of the Year and
scholarship applications – both available on line at
www.asnthouston.com. The Section has 100 of
the silver commemorative coins left over from the
ICPIIT-X conference and we need to decide what to do
with them. Forward your suggestions to Deal Moore.
Director Steve Stanford sent an email to all members
requesting Technician of the Year submissions.
Moore noted too that past Section Chair Greg Hudkins’
wife Janet was injured in a motorcycle accident in
Galveston last weekend and has been released from the
hospital. Jerry Fulin shared news about the death
of a technician caused by carbon monoxide from a dark
room generator. That incident highlighted the
critical safety issues faced by many in our industry.
We had two speakers for
our technical presentation. Both were last minute
substitutes but they couldn’t have been better suited to
this evening with all of our student members.
Dwayne Witter spoke about key criteria for success in
this business including leadership, mentoring and
safety. He reflected on his own management style
and what he looked for when interviewing new
technicians. Bob Dunn shared his life experiences
and lessons learned. He encouraged our new members
to appreciate the wide scope of industries and
applications for nondestructive testing methods.
Consider forging or aerospace testing if pipe line weld
testing becomes too routine for you. Dunn shared
his experiences assisting the federal government in
detecting listening devices uncovered in the
construction of a new US embassy in Moscow. There
is no limit to where your knowledge of NDT can take you.
His comments were sincere and heart felt. He
received a standing ovation.
Dwayne Witter, CAN USA,
shares his criteria for a successful career in NDT.
Submitted
By: Deal Moore
October 2007 -
Section Meeting
The Greater Houston
Section’s Fall Educational Seminar on ultrasonic phased
arrays was held on Saturday October 6, 2007 with a
record attendance of 41 students. Jim Halley was
the primary instructor and the seminar was conducted at
his business Advanced Inspection Technologies (AIT) in
Spring, TX. It is a great facility with lots of
room for both classroom and hands-on training. The
seminar was rated a success by everyone. CEU’s
will be awarded by ASNT and each attendee will receive a
certificate of completion.
The Greater Houston
Section’s Fall Educational Seminar at AIT
Section Chair and
Treasurer, Deal Moore and Dwayne Witter, attended the
quarterly meeting of The Association of Plant Inspection
Professionals (APIP) on October 9, 2007. The event
was to mark the expansion of the APIP Texas Training
Consortium participating in the $3,000,000 grant from
the Texas Workforce Commission to train technicians and
inspectors in the Houston area. Over 120 people
attended. There were presentations by Bill Hatler,
APIP Chair, and Jan Lawler, CEO of the Economic Alliance
Houston Port Region, concerning the history and impact
of the grant. Over $5,000 in scholarships donated
by local companies and organizations were presented in a
drawing to about 15 lucky attendees. The Greater
Houston Section contributed two scholarships to attend
our Spring Educational Seminar on May 3, 2008.
They were presented as the John Dunlop McMillan Memorial
Scholarships.
Our regular monthly
meeting was held on October 10, 2007 at Brady’s Landing
restaurant where we welcomed 63 members and guests.
The round of introductions identified two transplants
from other ASNT sections – Richard Schram from northern
California and Jeff Wagner from the DC area. The
Ocean Corporation introduced 19 new student members.
Deal Moore opened by recognizing our sponsors – Conam
Inspection, Physical Acoustics Corp., Scan Systems and
Tuboscope NOV. He recognized the support of
General Manager Randy Sweet to encourage Conam
technicians to join us for the meeting and to see what
ASNT Houston is all about.
New and transplanted
members of the Greater Houston Section – Welcome!
The door prize drawing
was the prelude to the evening’s presentation and
included ball caps, golf shirts and Academy Sports gift
certificates all contributed by Conam and Physical
Acoustics Corp. Our speaker was Steve Mango of
Carestream Health (formerly Kodak NDT). The topic
was the Leonardo fossil project that incorporated
digital X-ray technology to unlock the secrets of a
mummified dinosaur. The same presentation was
included in the ASNT Fall Conference in Houston last
year and tonight’s presentation was equally well
received. The presentation generated lots of
thoughtful questions and comments. Steve included
a trailer of the project that was filmed for a Discovery
Channel special set to air in 2008. It was great.
Following the presentation, Carestream Health held a
second drawing and awarded an iPod to one lucky
technician from Conam. Deal presented Steve a
plaque on behalf of the Section thanking him for making
the trip from Rochester, NY to join us.
From left – Mike
Holloway, Steve Mango, Deal Moore and Ray Linn (All from Carestream
Health, except Deal)
Submitted
By: Deal Moore
September 2007 -
Section Meeting
The Greater Houston
Section hosted 49 brave souls at our meeting on
September 12, 2007 as Hurricane Humberto approached the
Texas Gulf Coast. Section Chair Deal Moore
welcomed everyone and recognized our sponsors for the
evening – Acuren Inspection, GCT Inspection, NDS
Products and North Star Imaging.
Upcoming events of note
to our Section include the “Meet and Eat” open house and
job fair at The Ocean Corporation on September 26; the
Section’s Fall Educational Seminar on “Ultrasonic Phased
Array” on October 6 and the Association of Plant
Inspection Professionals (APIP) scholarship award
drawing at their general meeting on October 9.
Board Chair Dave Bajula
shared a short eulogy for John McMillan who died
suddenly last week and lead the Section through a few
moments of silence in his memory.
Membership Chair Ron
Jiron conducted the door prize drawing with the usual
baseball caps, mugs and T-shirts and introduced the
newest 20 student members from The Ocean Corporation –
many of whom will be graduating in this month.
Photos of the newest members were taken by Section
Director Bob Dunn and Mike Oden, from The Ocean
Corporation.
Welcome the newest
student members of the Greater Houston Section from The
Ocean Corporation
One big reason we
attracted as many members and new members as we did in
the face of a pending hurricane was our topic and
speaker for the evening. ASNT President Marvin
Trimm was here to address the Section on the future of
the NDT work force. His presentation included the
challenges of getting the word out as to what NDT is and
how it affects the world around us. He gave us a
progress report on efforts at National to address this.
Attracting, educating and mentoring technicians are
critical activities world wide and responsibility is
shared between national organizations such as ASNT,
NDTMA and AWS. All of these organization’s web
sites have job postings. Attendance at section
meetings is an excellent way to network and to create
and nurture mentoring relationships.
Marvin’s presentation
encouraged a lot of discussion both from the oldest and
newest members. It was very well received and
timely. Deal thanked Marvin for making his way to
Houston to join us this evening and presented him with a
plaque on behalf of the Section.
(From left) ASNT
President Marvin Trimm and Section Chair Deal Moore
Submitted
By: Deal Moore
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