Message from the Chair
By Don DeCorte, RWMA Chairman
Hello RWMA family and friends!
Well what a year so far! I didn’t put an adjective in the previous sentence because I figure you could put any adjective you want in there. LOL!
This is our last newsletter for 2020 and I wanted to give a quick update on RWMA business.
We had a great “virtual” fall meeting and I truly appreciate all the participation and planning that went in to making the meeting a success. All our committee chairmen were well prepared and sent in all their agendas prior to the meeting which really helped things move smoothly. Adrian was also great handling the agenda and “Go To Meeting” management. Our Spring Meeting will likely be a virtual event as well.
Our Education Committee is planning to schedule our RWMA Resistance Welding School in June in Detroit. Obviously, we can only plan and push forward hoping sooner or later, COVID 19 gives us a break and we can move toward some “new normal.” Schools in Cleveland and Mexico are also being considered but we need to get over some “Covid 19 hurdles” first. The Education committee is also exploring the idea of a virtual school. Not easy to imagine yet, but they are discussing and considering how this could be facilitated. The AWS does have a list of individuals that want to attend the school. We just need to figure out best way to give it to them.
Kendall Ymker, Chairman of the AWS J1 committee, Mike Prokop our Education Committee Chairman, and several other people, are working on the J1M subcommittee to do the RWMA Manual update. THEY STILL NEED ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEERS to help make this happen. Working closely with AWS, the group has gotten AWS to offer the following incentives to anyone who helps one the committee.
- Your name and company will be listed in the chapters you work on.
- You will get a free copy of the fifth edition Manual when republished.
- You will get credit for one student in the RWMA RW school.
- Free individual membership for one year for non- members.
PLEASE VOLUNTEER TO HELP WITH JUST ONE SECTION TO HELP US GET THIS MANUAL UPDATED.
In August the Scholarship committee of the AWS awarded the two RWMA scholarships to two wonderful individuals.
- Kanyon Sherrick attending Ferris State University in Michigan
- Zachary King attending Pennsylvania College of Technology.
The AWS has worked out a way to give the CRWT (Certified Resistance Welding Technician) Pre-exam training in a virtual class. They actually offered this several weeks back but to my surprise and disappointment, NOT ONE person signed up for online CRWT training!!! The information did come a bit close to the schedule date for the first session but nonetheless, we really fell flat on supporting this initiative.
I am not exactly sure what happened, maybe everyone so busy, maybe bad timing for individuals? PLEASE STEP UP, GET PEOPLE SIGNED UP FOR THE NEXT DATE AWS SETS UP. With online options there is NO excuse for not getting people certified.
The bottom line is that we as an organization need to step up and support the AWS CRWT initiative and get our own people trained and CRWT certified. We also need to get the word out to our customers about CRWT and get them to sign up and get their people certified.
Last but certainly not least:
On Nov. 13th, the resistance welding community lost one of our “greats.”
Mr. Mark Siehling of RoMan Mfg. Inc. passed away. Mark was a long-time member of the AWS and RWMA. He was an instructor of the RWMA school for many years. He was chairman of the RWMA school committee for many years. He was a contributor to many articles on resistance welding for the RWMA and AWS. Mark spent his entire professional career in the resistance welding industry since the early 80’s. He was a graduate electrical engineer of Michigan Technical University and a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Michigan. He held three US Patents for RW equipment starting back in 1987 with the first patents for MFDC transformers in the world. I was personally blessed with the opportunity to now Mark for over 30 years and work with Mark for 26 years at RoMan Mfg. For many in our industry Mark was the “go to guy” when technical issues regarding RW equipment came up and no one else seemed to be able to figure out the answer. Mark was truly a gentleman, a scholar, and a wonderful person. You are missed by many!
Despite the obstacles of the year, I am very thankful for everyone stepping up and keeping the ball rolling on all our RWMA committees. We have made lots of forward progress in many areas and everyone is committed to do the same in 2021.
I truly wish all of you a safe and blessed holiday season.