STLE local section visits
By Jack McKenna, STLE President | TLT President's May 2025
STLE local sections are engaged volunteer communities that want to see knowledge and shared experiences passed along to the next generation.
As I enter the final weeks of my STLE presidential term, I have but a couple more STLE local sections left to visit—the STLE Cleveland Section and my home section in Chicago. My STLE journey actually started back in 1997 when I joined Sea-Land Chemical Company in Cleveland and was invited to attend the dinner after an STLE Cleveland Section golf outing in Barberton, Ohio. This was a common meet up spot “back in the day,” as the STLE Canton and Cleveland Sections would jointly host some events like the golf outing.
A few short weeks later I attended an STLE Cleveland Section technical meeting and got to hear from a NASA Glenn Research Center speaker talk about current challenges in aerospace lubrication circa late 1990s. Perhaps a month after this I was brought along to my first STLE Chicago Section technical meeting and was volunteered to the Membership Directory Committee by my then boss Jim Hanesworth. He told me to get involved with the STLE Chicago Section as it was a great way to learn about the industry and make lifelong connections (he was right about both).
Some of my lifelong connections include two STLE past presidents—Dave Scheetz and Mike Duncan. Dave got me involved in the STLE Chicago Section leadership and then led me to join the STLE Board of Directors. Mike, now president of Daubert Chemical, was the one who asked me to join the STLE Executive Committee when he was chair of the STLE Nominations Committee.
What does all this talk of the past mean to today? I have been fortunate to visit, either in person or virtually, the STLE Hamilton, Detroit, Richmond, Houston, Lower Ohio River Valley, Pittsburgh, Northern California, Toronto and soon the sections where it all started for me. I see what I have always seen—an engaged volunteer community that genuinely cares about one another and wants to see knowledge and shared experiences passed along to the next generation of section leaders.
STLE local sections regularly provide quality programming on industry-related topics and host networking and social events. Joining an STLE local section is also convenient to keep up to date with your certification requirements and professional education opportunities. Thus, the benefits of belonging to STLE, the premier organization in your industry, are brought closer to you. Officers of a section are a diverse mix of researchers, educators, consumers and suppliers from a variety of employers who represent both technical and marketing interests. Feel free to contact your local section leaders if you have questions about volunteering or need other information. For more information, visit
www.stle.org/localsections.
I encourage each and every one of you to try to visit an STLE local section meeting either in person or virtually. You can find meeting times at
www.stle.org in the events calendar, or you can reach out to Julie O’Rourke, STLE membership manager, at
jorourke@stle.org to help you find options. Get involved in an STLE local section—you never know where it might lead you!
Jack McKenna is vice president of corporate accounts for Sea-Land Chemical Company located in Cleveland, Ohio, and is based in Elmhurst, Ill. You can reach him at jack.mckenna@sealandchem.com.