Your local STLE community
By Rebecca Lintow, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report October 2024
STLE Local Sections provide you with a powerful team to make an impact in your own back yard.
For some members, STLE Local Sections are what comes to mind when they think of STLE. Many STLE journeys have begun through local sections. There are currently 16 active sections in the U.S., Canada and the UK. Local sections provide a specialized community for industry professionals to connect, learn and achieve close to home.
In his President’s Report column this month, STLE President Jack McKenna talks about the power of local sections to foster strong leaders. Many STLE Past Presidents have honed their leadership skills through their local section volunteer work, working through the leadership ranks at the local level before transitioning into national leadership roles.
In the post-pandemic world, in-person networking and education are back in demand, and one of the best ways to supplement your STLE Annual Meeting experiences and STLE professional development is by getting involved with your STLE Local Section. Local sections can support your career growth by boosting your industry connections, improving your leadership and communication skills and enhancing your expertise on essential technical topics.
STLE Local Sections also provide you with a powerful team to make an impact in your own back yard. Local sections host their own community events, such as STEM nights at local schools, and support their own scholarship programs with matching funds from STLE. Additionally, STLE celebrates local section scholarship winners by featuring them here in TLT. Participation in your local section is a great way to give back to your local community and promote the field to the next generation of tribologists and lubrication engineers.
If you aren’t sure how to start volunteering with STLE, sections are a great place to dip your toe in. You can help plan an event, find speakers or coordinate scholarships.
STLE provides recognition to local sections and local section volunteers through its awards program with the Outstanding Section Award and the Vic Joll Award. The Outstanding Section Award is given to one small section and one large section annually to recognize excellence in the 12 months prior to the STLE Annual Meeting, based on recommendations from designated members of the STLE Board of Directors. The Vic Joll Award recognizes an STLE section member who has worked tirelessly and continuously for the benefit of the section.
The topic of local sections also brings up an important reminder to check your STLE profile to make sure it is up to date. A recent update to the profile system removed all areas of interest from your profile, and it is important to update your interests to ensure STLE provides the content that is most important to you. While your previous local section membership was not impacted, it’s a great reminder to double check your local section selection; you are not automatically assigned to a local section when you become an STLE member, even if you live in the same city as one. If you participate in a local section, please make sure you have it marked in your profile.
STLE is working to better support our local sections by collecting feedback from local section leaders during ongoing STLE Local Section Townhall meetings. This collaboration helps us to provide new supports and resources, as well as more visibility and active promotion of section activities. To find out what STLE Local Section events are happening near you, visit the STLE Calendar
here. For questions or to get your local section event on the calendar, please contact Julie O’Rourke, membership manager and section liaison, at
JORourke@stle.org or (224) 985-0016.
Be sure to watch our social media accounts for the #STLEinMotion tag to follow all the exciting things our local sections are up to. We can’t wait to see where your local section takes you.
You can reach Certified Association Executive Rebecca Lintow at rlintow@stle.org.