Welcome to STLE’s ‘first’ Annual Meeting in St. Louis

Edward P. Salek, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report June 2012

There’s nothing trivial about this global technical conference.
 

The wealth of technical information presented at STLE’s Annual Meeting is the society’s most valuable product.
TRUE OR FALSE: This year will mark the first time that St. Louis has hosted an STLE Annual Meeting. Extreme trivia buffs, or long-time members with a great memory, will know that the statement is technically true but only if you are seriously into splitting hairs.

St. Louis has hosted three of our annual meetings, but the first two were in 1962 and 1979 when the society was still known as the American Society of Lubrication Engineers (ASLE). To adapt and reflect evolving market and audience needs, the membership voted in 1987 to change the name to Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers. Both the 1962 and ’79 meetings were held at The Chase Park Plaza hotel, a historic property that is still in business about five miles west of downtown St. Louis near the city’s famous Forest Park district.

Now, 33 years after the last meeting in St. Louis, the 2012 version of what’s come to be known as the STLE Annual Meeting & Exhibition is making its own statement by gathering nearly 1,500 tribology and lubrication professionals from around the world at the America’s Center in St. Louis. This global conference is a respected venue for presentation of the latest technical information as this year’s meeting features 350 papers and 10 education courses, as well as business networking opportunities. In addition, the exhibits and Commercial Marketing Forum presentations spotlight the latest products and services of interest to lubrication professionals.

The 2012 Annual Meeting Program Committee has been at work for the past year to make the event a success. This year’s committee is chaired by Dr. Lewis Rosado, U.S. Air Force Research Lab, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The AMPC’s work is supplemented and complemented by hundreds of other volunteer organizers and contributors from STLE administrative and technical committees.

The wealth of technical information that results from these efforts creates STLE’s most valuable product. As we put that product on display, it’s important to remember that the annual meeting is part of the mix of membership services that combine to make the society a multimillion dollar business. In the case of STLE, we are incorporated in the State of Illinois and operate through a 24-person board of directors that must follow structure and governance procedures defined in a constitution and bylaws. The individuals who serve on the board will meet twice during the annual meeting in St. Louis to review the state of the society and to chart a future course based on a strategic plan.

Implementation of those plans falls to a nine-person professional staff, which operates from the society’s headquarters in Park Ridge, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. The STLE staff has a combined experience of more than 100 years in association and organization management. If you are in St. Louis, you can say hello to many of them stationed in the society’s membership booth, which is located on the second floor of the America’s Center. If you are not able to attend, you can view the expanded staff directory at www.stle.org to discover more about the individuals who administer and manage the organization’s key programs.

STLE’s leadership and staff is already looking ahead to next year’s meeting, which moves north to Detroit, Michigan, May 5-9, 2013. You can get reacquainted with all that’s happening in “The D” by visiting the information booth sponsored by the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau at the America’s Center in St. Louis. 

Following Detroit, future STLE Annual Meetings are confirmed in these locations:
• 2014 – Disney Contemporary Hotel (near Orlando, Florida)
• 2015 – Omni Hotel, Dallas, Texas
• 2016 – Bally’s, Las Vegas, Nevada

If you are attending this year’s meeting in St. Louis, we hope you’ll find the experience beneficial. If you are not able to attend, please visit www.stle.org during the coming months for news about ways that we’ll be making 2012 meeting content available to the society’s global audience.
 

You can reach Certified Association Executive Ed Salek at esalek@stle.org.