April 9, 2021 Greetings to all Wisconsin Chapter IoPP members, affiliates and supporters! A very special Congratulations goes out to Gary Konop who is retiring from Pentair on April 9th. I got to know Gary from our days in Iowa as we traveled the state together while leading and growing the Mississippi Valley IoPP Chapter. I have grown to know and admire Gary’s professionalism, his continued support of IoPP and lasting dedication to the packaging field. Also want to thank Gary for his contributions and insights into getting the chapters combined into what’s now known as a single WI chapter. Wishing Gary all the best in the future, health, happiness and I hope you live your best life! That being said, I hope this communication finds you and your family well and staying safe. While we continue with the lingering impacts from the pandemic, which began for us over a year ago now, it is feeling like we are on the closing end of the long journey. This causes me to be hopeful that we will be able to orchestrate a real face-to-face meeting yet this calendar year! The following are chapter highlights along with some notes to pass along from IoPP National and/or other sources:
January 2021 meeting: The chapter hosted our first virtual meeting with ~25 folks in attendance on Jan 21, 2021. The discussion topics covered included chapter leader introductions followed by a short breakout session around the idea of capturing member input on the chapter and future event topics.
April 21st upcoming virtual chapter meeting: will be held later this month on April 21st. Invitation coordinated by National IoPP from Barbara Dykes (Click here to join the meeting). This will be a virtual meeting (like we held in January 2021) including a technical presentation of how to win customers using Specification Management by Ken Smith from Specright. I am learning that the possibilities seem to be endless and expect this to be an excellent presentation and discussion which include articles from recipes to tools and all packaging related items in-between. Please make plans to attend the meeting and learn how Specright can accelerate your functional area.
New Members: Please join me in welcoming 3 new members from the Mar 2021 report who are Emma Camlek, Jerome Schreiner, and Joseph Link to our chapter. I hope your membership can be mutually beneficial in the chapter.
Also worth noting, National continues to run a new member referral program which provides benefits to current members for recruiting new members. It was reported that one relatively active member has accumulated two years of free IoPP membership through new member recruitment efforts.
PINNACLE EVENT of the YEAR: Our Q3 2021 chapter event will be the GOLF OUTING at Royal St Patrick’s near Wrightstown, WI. The date is set for Friday, Aug 20, 2021. We are expecting to reach a milestone with the proceeds from the event, making this years event even more special and worth attending. Please contact Kyle or Mike if you are interested in donating or helping organize the event.
Donation to UW Stout Foundation: The chapter renewed our dedication to promoting education in the field of packaging with a $1000 scholarship to be awarded for the 2021/2022 academic year. The eligibility criteria was opened to include the entire state as we are now recognized as the "WI chapter".
Chapter finances remain healthy and a verbal update will be provided at the our chapter meeting later this month
“It’s Five O’clock Somewhere!”: If you haven’t yet, you should check out National’s Happy Hour series. All are welcome to join and is a terrific networking opportunity!
PackChat is a great source to find information on events, both regional and national. Some of the resources there include; Ameristar entry, Career Center, Referral Program, and Bookstore including the new entry “Packaging Notes”.
Advanced Education Opportunity: For those interested, Cal Poly is promoting a MS in Packaging Value Chain degree and Graduate Professional Certificate. Look for a link to the programs from our chapter website or feel free to contact Dr Jay Singh at Cal Poly directly.
In closing I’d like to thank you for your continued interest in our IoPP WI Chapter. I look forward to your participation in our upcoming meeting on Wednesday, Apr 21st. Until then, continued best wishes for you and your family’s health and safety.
Kind Regards,
Mike