LATEST SECTION ACTIVITIES
January 2012
The
Greater Houston Section hosted 70 members and guests at our January
11 meeting at Brady’s Landing restaurant. Section Chair Skip Hoyt
welcomed everyone and recognized our meeting sponsors – NDS
Products, Olympus NDT and Scan Systems.
Announcements
included requests for scholarship, Technician of the Year and
National award applications, updates on the annual golf outing and
vendors night and that the Section will host a blood drive at our
February meeting for a directed donation to Al Baker’s daughter
Leigh Williams at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital.
Ron Hayden as
Chair of the Nominating committee will be publishing our proposed
slate of officers for the 2012 – 2013 year in the February
newsletter. The slate will be voted on at our March meeting. We
have had an excellent response from members willing to serve.
Our speaker for
the evening was Gary Gries from Olympus NDT. He gave an excellent
presentation on detecting stress corrosion cracking in pipelines
using eddy current array. The presentation also included phased
array corrosion mapping. He and Lloyd Graham brought lots of
equipment to demonstrate the technologies that attracted many
members long after the presentation ended. Skip thanked Gary for
being our speaker and presented him a plaque on behalf of the
Section.
Olympus NDT
equipment display
(From left) Gary Gries and Skip Hoyt
We concluded the
evening with a door prize drawing that included canvass totes
donated by Scan Systems, money clips, light clips and ball caps
contributed by Turbo Non-Destructive Testing. Most everyone went
home a winner this evening. It was a great start to a New Year.
December 2011
The Greater Houston Section hosted 133 members and guests at our
annual holiday season dinner at Brady’s Landing restaurant on 14
December 2011. It was a warm, foggy evening with lots of traffic in
the area. Janet Hudkins logged one of the longest commutes to the
meeting at over 2.5 hours to travel less than 20 miles. Section
Chair Skip Hoyt and his wife Amy welcomed everyone and recognized
our meeting sponsors – Ashtead Technology, Fugro Consultants, IRIS
Inspection, Olympus NDT, PetroChem Inspection, Stroud Systems and
Turbo Non-Destructive Testing.
Discounted meal prices were offered to those who brought an
unwrapped gift for the Toys for Tots program and the Section
collected 76 Christmas presents including a bicycle donated by Dale
Tucker of Quest Integrity. This was one of our most successful toy
drives ever. Deal Moore and Tom Roberts delivered the toys the
next day to the Marine Corp’s collection headquarters at the
convention center.
Gifts collected for the US Marine Corp’s Toys for Tots Program
A round of introductions included the many families in attendance
including Ron and Rita Hayden, Greg and Janet Hudkins, Bob and Nancy
Dunn, David and Norma Schultz and David and Sheila McGrath.
Everyone enjoyed the chance to gather for the holidays, share a
drink at the bar and savor the food at the buffet. After dinner the
room transformed into a Monte Carlo casino with black jack, poker,
craps and roulette tables to test our luck.
Door prize winners were announced each half hour to collect one of
50 gifts that Amy Hoyt purchased and wrapped – many from the annual
Nutcracker Market benefiting the Houston Ballet. Each table of ten
also raffled off the nutcracker centerpieces. Everyone went home a
winner tonight.
(From left) Greg Hudkins, Janet Hudkins, Dwayne Witter and John
Iman
At right, Section Chair Skip Hoyt and the door prizes purchased and
wrapped by Amy Hoyt. Thank you Amy!
November 2011
The Greater Houston Section hosted 64 members and guests at our
November 9, 2011 meeting at Brady’s Landing on the historic ship
channel. Lloyd Graham hosted a demonstration table of the latest
Olympus NDT equipment. Treasurer Jeff Wagner and Membership Chair
Becky Judkins staffed the sign in desk. Section Chair Skip Hoyt
welcomed everyone and thanked our meeting sponsors Olympus NDT and
Weldsonix.
The round of introductions highlighted once again a big turnout of
students and faculty from The Ocean Corporation. Door prizes were
contributed by Roger Jordan’s Turbo NDT and distributed by John Chen
and Jeff Wagner.
Section announcements included a successful Fall Educational on
Phased Array in which 10 attended at Stork Testing on November 5.
Section Historian Jerry Fulin and Skip presented the Section’s
President’s Gold Award trophy that they collected at the Fall
Conference last month in Palm Springs. Our December holiday party
will include a Monte Carlo casino and discounted prices for those
who bring an unwrapped gift to donate to the Toys for Tots program.
Members were encouraged to apply for National Director at Large
positions and award categories including Fellow, Mentoring and
Technician of the Year. Applications are due early 2012.
President’s
Award Presentation Speaker’s Plaque
Presentation
Jerry Fulin (left) and Skip Hoyt Raymond Lindeen
(left) and Skip Hoyt
Our
speaker for the evening was Raymond Lindeen owner of Houston
Analytical Systems Company on “Advancements in Portable XRF for
Alloy Analysis and PMI”. He opened with a question for the group –
who was the inventor of the first stainless steel car? It was not
DeLorean but Henry Ford. His presentation focused on hand held XRF
training on radiation safety and operation. Skip thanked Raymond
and presented him a plaque on behalf of the Section.
October 2011
The Greater Houston Section welcomed 97 members and guests to our
October 12, 2011 meeting at Brady’s Landing. Section Vice Chair
Mike Oden opened the meeting by thanking our sponsors for the
evening – National Oilwell Varco, Olympus NDT and Weldsonix.
The round of introductions highlighted the large number of students
and professors at the meeting from Brazosport Community College,
Lone Star Community College, San Jacinto College, and The Ocean
Corporation. It was especially appropriate that they were able to
attend this meeting because the first order of business was the
formal presentation of a check in the amount of $12,451.12 to the
Section’s scholarship fund from the ICPIIT-XII host committee
co-chaired by Dave Culbertson and Greg Hudkins.
From left – John Chen, Deal Moore, Jerry Fulin, Greg Hudkins and
Dave Culbertson
The conference was a huge success with 200 registrants and 39
exhibitors representing 11 countries. Fifty attended the industry
tour and 16 attended the post conference training session. It was
through the generosity of our sponsors – Shaw Pipeline Services,
Acuren, GE and JanX – and the revenue sharing policy of ASNT that
made this donation possible.
Our speaker for the evening was our own Joe Mackin, past president
of ASNT and current chair of the Methods Division for the Technical
and Education Council. He reviewed in detail the newly published
Recommended Practice No. SNT-TC-1A. This edition provides updated
training and certification requirements for NDT Level I, II and III
personnel and new content for Guided Wave, GPR, Radiological Testing
and Ultrasonic Testing methods. His presentation held everyone’s
attention and several took notes on the changes that will directly
impact them. Joe responded to the many questions and comments
offered by the membership and made a point to invite anyone
interested to participate in the next edition slated for 2016.
Mike Oden presented Joe with a plaque to say thank you on behalf of
the Section.
Joe Mackin (left) scores a plaque from Section Vice Chair Mike Oden
September 2011
The Greater
Houston Section hosted 112 members and guests at our first meeting
of the new fiscal year on September 14, 2011 at Brady’s Landing on
the scenic Houston Ship Channel. Section Chair Skip Hoyt welcomed
everyone and recognized our meeting sponsors – Ashtead Technology,
GCT Inspection, Mistras Group, NDS Products, PH Tool Reference
Standards and Turbo Non-Destructive Testing.
Skip
introduced this year’s executive committee and board members
including Ron Hayden, Mike Oden, Jeff Wagner, John Chen, Bob Dunn,
Becky Judkins, Steve Jackson and Adam Zambrano. Skip presented Ron
a certificate from National and a lapel pin to thank him for serving
as Section Chair last year.
Section
Chair Skip Hoyt (left) presents Ron Hayden a certificate and lapel
pin for his role as Section Chair last year.
Skip then
introduced himself. He has been involved in NDT since 1985; worked
overseas for 10 years and has been published in Materials
Evaluation. And though he has been a member of ASNT for 26 years it
wasn’t until the Section invited him to speak at one of our Captains
of Industry panel discussions that he decided to become an active
member of ASNT. He has served as Director, Secretary, Treasurer,
Vice Chair and now Chair of the Section. He considers the Greater
Houston Section to be his NDT family and he thanked the many
volunteers and sponsors that have made the Section what it is today.
Our
traditional round of introductions highlighted the many attendees
from TechCorr and The Ocean Corporation. The door prize drawing of
ball caps, T-shirts, golf shirts, mugs and flash drives was a big
success and most everyone received a ruler from PH Tool at the
sign-in desk.
Our speaker
for the evening was Joe Schwartzel who outlined the measures being
implemented by the Department of Energy’s Global Threat Reduction
Initiative (GTRI). His role in that initiative is with the new
Industrial Radiography Security Working Group that is exploring the
state of radioactive source security within industry and proposing
options to enhance that security.
The medical
industry is a primary user of radioactive materials. MD Anderson
here in the Texas Medical Center has hosted the working group and
implemented enhanced security measures. The NDT industry is another
and through the NDTMA the working group has 5 inspection companies
participating in the source security review process. The working
group hopes to approach ASNT to determine if source security could
be incorporated in the current 40- hour TCIA program.
Joe attended
the meeting with a GTRI physical protection expert from Sandia
National Laboratory, one FBI rep from Washington, DC and one from
the Houston Field Office. Together they responded to the lively
discussion that followed the presentation. Skip Hoyt thanked them
for attending and presented a plaque to Joe on behalf of the
Section.
Section
Chair Skip Hoyt (left) presents speaker Joe Schwartzel with a plaque
on behalf of the Section
August 2011
Ten members
of the Greater Houston Section’s board of directors met at Brady’s
Landing on August 10, 2011. Board Chair Ron Hayden and Section
Chair Skip Hoyt called the meeting to finalize the budget for the
2011 – 2012 year, review the calendar/yearbook proof and to confirm
the technical program for the year ahead.
(From
left) Mike Oden, John Chen, Bob Dunn, David Culbertson, Ron Hayden,
Steve Jackson, Skip Hoyt, Deal Moore and Tom Roberts
New members
of the board this year include Secretary John Chen from Schlumberger
and Directors Steve Jackson from BP and Adam Zambrano from TÜV
PetroChem Inspection. On all fronts the Greater Houston
Section is ready to roll. Happy New Year y’all.
June 2011
June was an
excellent month for the Greater Houston Section. On June 4 we
hosted 125 members and guests for a Family Day cruise on Clear Lake
and Galveston Bay. This was the second year for this event
that included a barbecue lunch and open bar. Guests ranged
from toddlers to great grandparents and this year’s cruise included
a 3-piece live steel drum band. Al Baker, Raj Bose, Winfred
Lang, Oscar Rodriguez and Whitey Young each had 8 or more guests.
The weather was perfect and everyone enjoyed the food, music and
conversation. Section Chair Ron Hayden and wife Rita were the
official hosts of the event. Captain Jim Keller let the kids
pose for photographs behind the ship’s wheel wearing the captain’s
hat.
.jpg)
