Hello Birmingham Chapter!

The March meeting was another stellar meeting! Thank you to Peter Reich for sharing how Laempe Reich has re-addressed market needs and now their individual team members fulfill those needs. Peter and his team understand how everyone meets a specific need for a customer. Peter also showed how Laempe Reich used AFS data to really specify what customers desire from them. It definitely made me think about my company's structure and how we meet customer needs.

Thank you to American Cast Iron Pipe Company for sponsoring students at this meeting. Our March meeting was preceded by the Furnace Maintenance mini-seminar. Bill Bush and Mike Murphy organized 5 speakers (a combined 160 years of experience!!) who spoke on coreless maintenance, channel maintenance, and maintenance planning. We had 56 in attendance! This was a great event with lots of useful information.

Our April 11th meeting will be at the Wynfrey and will feature the annual student casting competition. Lindsay Hamner has planned a fantastic competition, and I am excited to hear from the students. Be sure to check out the student castings on display before the meeting.

On the national level, CastExpo will be April 16-19 in Minneapolis. There will be over 300 exhibitors this year! See the AFS website for more information. While you are on the website, be sure to read about OSHA's finalized crystalline silica rule.

Jeremy Mowry
2015-2016 
​Chapter Chairman

​Hello Birmingham Chapter!
 
If you didn’t make the Meridian meeting, you missed a good one. Andy Rowzee and Bodie Cooper of Esco-Newton shared about their recent plant upgrade. They described, in detail, how they would increase tonnages, streamline the operation, and prepare for future expansions. Rowzee and Cooper explained how they were able to utilize the Mississippi State University CAVS Extension Center. Glenn Dennis of CAVS spoke about the services offered by CAVS and how they were able to help ESCO-Newton. The team at CAVS simulated the planned expansion in full operation. Using data gathered at ESCO, the simulation revealed production bottlenecks and possible production delays. Based on these results, ESCO made alterations to their expansion plan before construction started. I know that everyone thoroughly enjoyed this talk. Attendance was strong at this meeting as well; several Mississippi foundries were well represented (Laurel Machine & Foundry, C.L. Dews & Sons, Southern Cast Products, and ESCO-Newton). We even had 3 UA students! Let me encourage you to make the “travel meeting” next year; it is worth the trip.
 
Speaking of students, scholarship applications are due March 1st.
 
Our March 14th meeting will be back at the Wynfrey. It will be preceded by a Furnace Maintenance mini-seminar at 1PM. Total cost for the mini-seminar and the dinner meeting is $40. That is an unbelievable deal! Help us spread the word for this mini-seminar. For more details, see the announcement in this newsletter.
 
The 83rd Southeast Regional Conference is only a few weeks away (March 2-4) in Charleston, SC. The theme this year is Casting The Future. Visit the AFS-Piedmont website or www.seregional.org for more information.
 
On the national level, CastExpo will be April 16-19 in Minneapolis. There will be over 300 exhibitors this year! See the AFS website for more information (www.afsinc.org). While you are on the AFS website, check out the AFS Institute course offerings.
 
 
Jeremy Mowry
2015-2016 Chapter Chairman

For those of you that missed the November meeting, you missed a great night. UAB professor Dr. Monroe presented on resonance frequency testing research currently underway at UAB. His enthusiasm for metalcasting and for teaching was quite evident. Remember to encourage and support Dr. Monroe, Dr. Nastac (UA) and other metalcasting professors in our area.

The holiday season is now upon us. This period in when we take more time to be thankful, spend more time to be thankful, spend more time with loved ones, and plan for the upcoming year. I hope that all of you apply this to your work life as well. I am truly appreciative to work in the metalcasting industry and serve with such a close community. I hope that the upcoming meetings and events will continue to foster our strong, local impact. 

Be sure to mark your calendar with these two spring AFS events! The Southeastern Regional will be March 2nd and 4th at Isle of Palms, SC. Also, start making plans to attend CastExpo, which will be held April 16th-19th in Minneapolis. 

Our next meeting will be the Christmas Party on December 14th at the Wynfrey Hotel. Please bring a gift or donation for Toys for Tots! Be sure to make a reservation early. 

The first regular meeting of 2016 will be January 4th at the Wynfrey Hotel.

I look forward to seeing you on December 14th.

Merry Christmas!

Jeremy Mowry
2015-2016 Chapter Chairman

 If you missed the October meeting in Anniston, you missed a good one! Attendance was high, and the speaker's message was informative and entertaining. Jeet Radia, senior VP of EHS & HR at McWane Inc., presented on current environmental rule changes, how they affect us, and what we can do about them. As always, the food and social hour at the Classic on Noble was fantastic.

Be sure to mark your calendar with these two spring AFS events! The Southeastern Regional will be March 2nd and 4th at Isle of Palms, SC. Also, start making plans to attend CastExpo, which will be held April 16th-19th in Minneapolis. ​

Also, the coming of November means it is time for the annual FEF College Industry Conference. This is an even like none other I've seen; I don't know of any other industry that hosts an even where college professors are brought together to further our industry and where companies have the opportunity to meet and interview the top metallurgical students in North America. The Foundry Educational Foundation will again be hosting this conference in downtown Chicago (November 19th and 20th). At this event, several scholarships will be awarded, and the FEF/AFS Distinguished Professor Award will be presented. On an annual basis, FEF provides over $600,000 in scholarships and grants to metallurgical students and professors. FEF also serves to link companies and students to fill intern, co-op, and full time positions. If you are not already giving to the Foundry Educational Foundation, please consider doing so. Visit the FEF website or contact me if you would like more information.

Our next meeting will be held November 9 at the Wynfrey Hotel. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Charlie Monroe. Charlie Monroe is an assistant professor and the FEF key professor at UAB and will present research in radio frequency testing. Be sure to make your reservations early.

I look forward to seeing you on November 9.

Jeremy Mowry
2015-2016 Chapter Chairman 

If you missed the October meeting in Anniston, you missed a good one! Attendance was high, and the speaker’s message was informative and entertaining. Jeet Radia, Senior VP of EHS & HR at McWane Inc., presented on current environmental rule changes, how they affect us, and what we can do about them. As always, the food and social hour at the Classic on Noble was fantastic.
 
Be sure to mark your calendar with these two spring AFS events! The Southeastern Regional will be March 2nd-4th at Isle of Palms, SC. Also, start making plans to attend CastExpo which will be April 16th-19th; this year it will be in Minneapolis.
 
Also, the coming of November means it is time for the annual FEF College Industry Conference. This is an event like none other I’ve seen; I don’t know of any other industry that hosts an event where college professors are brought together to further our industry and where companies have the opportunity to meet and interview the top metallurgical students in North America. The Foundry Educational Foundation will again be hosting this conference in downtown Chicago (November 19th&20th). At this event, several scholarships will be awarded, and the FEF/AFS Distinguished Professor Award will be presented. On an annual basis, FEF provides over $600,000 in scholarships and grants to metallurgical students and professors. FEF also serves to link companies and students to fill intern, co-op, and full-time positions. If you are not already giving to the Foundry Educational Foundation, please consider doing so. Visit the FEF website (www.fefinc.org) or contact me if you would like more information.
 
Our next meeting will be November 9th at the Wynfrey Hotel. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Charles Monroe. Charlie Monroe is an assistant professor and the FEF key professor at UAB and will present research in radio frequency testing. Be sure to make a reservation early.
 
I look forward to seeing you on November 9th.
 
Jeremy Mowry
2015-2016 Chapter Chairman

 What a great September meeting we had! If you didn’t attend, you missed an excellent pro-gram featuring Dr. Jack Bergstresser and Anthony Bingham. Dr. Jack and Anthony told the story of how iron making brought them together. Dr. Jack has spent his career in Industrial Archaeology and focused heavily on Alabama iron making in the 1800’s. Mr. Bingham, as an artist, has studied and become entrenched in African and African-American metal working history. Together they walked us through a recent dig at Tannehill Iron works. In addition tothe fantastic presentation, the social hour and meal time were once again excellent. Thank you, Tommy Horton, for making sure the first Wynfrey Hotel meeting went smoothly!
 
Be sure to mark your calendar with several upcoming AFS events! The International Ferrous Melting Conference is October 7th-9th in Nashville. The Southeastern Regional will be March 2nd-4th at Isle of Palms, SC. Also, start making plans to attend Cast Expo in April; this year it will be in Minneapolis.
 
Besides our local meetings and regional/national conferences, here are a few other ways to enhance your AFS experience:
​ --Get involved with an AFS technical committee. There is a committee for every branch of our industry; these committees meet regularly to share ideas and work hard to grow their interests. For more information, visit the AFS national website.
--Take a class through the AFS institute. The Cast Metals Institute has been renamed and has reorganized its course structure.
--Reach out to a younger generation with Foundry in a Box. We will continue to announce dates for these events. If you are interested, contact Ken Murphy. This is a great experience!
 
Our next meeting will be October 12th in Anniston at The Classic on Noble. Our guest speaker will be Jeet Radia. Jeet is an environmental expert in the foundry industry and will review several hot topics that are affecting and will be affecting us. Be sure to make a reservation early. I look forward to seeing you in Anniston.
 
Jeremy Mowry
2015—2016 Chapter Chairman

Thank you to the officers and volunteers who made the Ben Dunning Golf Outing an outstanding event! Early this summer, Jon Pollard and Tommy Horton began coordinating the transition to Oxmoor Valley, and did a fantastic job. I am grateful for all of the volunteers who made and placed signs and banners, who kept up with the teams, who coordinated college students, who registered golfers and lunchers, who handled the door prizes and trophies, who put gift bags together, who entertained with bingo and cornhole, and who ran the multitude of errands that made this outing run smoothly.
 
Thank you also to the contributors. Your donations and tee box ad purchases gave us more opportunities to enhance the golf outing. Also, the chapter sponsorships for this year are off to a great start. As always, I am very appreciative of our sponsors! There is still time to send in your sponsorship for this year.
 
The first regular meeting is coming up soon (September 14th) andwill be a the Wynfrey Hotel in Birmingham. Our guest speakers will be Anthony Bingham and Dr. Jack Bergstresser. They will speak on antebellum iron making in Alabama and will focus on local ironworks. Be sure to make a reservation early.
 
I look forward to seeing you at the September Meeting.
 
Jeremy Mowry
2015—20156 Chapter Chairman

On behalf of the Officers and Board of Directors, I would like to welcome everyone back for the 2015-2016 AFS Birmingham Chapter year! I am looking forward to this year, and I hope you are also. The current slate of directors, officers, and committee chairmen have brought forward some exciting plans for this year. 
The year kicks off with the Annual Ben Dunning Picnic and Golf Outing on August 29th. For the first time, the golf outing will be held at Oxmoor Valley in Birmingham! For those of you who aren’t familiar, Oxmoor Valley is part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Jon Pollard and Tommy Horton are working hard to make sure this a smooth transition and to incorporate some new exciting ideas. This is sure to be a fun day. We do have a maximum number of golfers; so register as soon as you can.
Following the golf outing, we have an excellent lineup of speakers for our monthly meetings. Bill Bush has arranged a full schedule of interesting and relevant speaker topics. We have also booked some great new entertainment (dueling pianos!) for the Christmas Party. So make sure to reserve our meeting dates on your calendar! Bring a friend! a coworker! a colleague! For those of you who can’t attend Birmingham meetings, I hope to see you at the Anniston or Meridian meetings.
Last year, Brandon Partain and Mike Murphy coordinated two informative and well-attended mini-seminars. Our chapter education committee is again planning 2-3 mini-seminars for this chapter year. Be on the lookout for announcements with details for these!
I would like to extend a special thanks to our financial contributors. Because of your support, our chapter is able to provide college scholarships, great educational opportunities, outreach programs like Foundry-in-a-Box, networking events, college chapter support, great food, and ideal meeting locations.
This is building up to be a great year for the chapter, and I am honored to be chairman. I am proud to serve an organization that has given me so much and continues to do so. I hope to see you in August!
Jeremy Mowry
2015—2016 Chapter Chairman

Hello Birmingham Chapter. We are now coming to the end of another great year that was like a whirlwind to me. It seems like we just had the golf tournament last week! In reality, we have had a very successful year.

This past year, we have provided multiple educational opportunities to our members, informative dinner speakers, good social times, and an extremely successful Southeastern Regional. If you have not attended all of these events, we have missed you and hope to see you at the events of next year. I am confident that we have moved our chapter and industry forward this year.

As I was preparing to write my last Chairman's message of the year, I started looking back over a list of my predecessors. They have left a rich heritage for all of us to follow. Some of them I know well, some of them I've only heard about, and others I may never know about, but we all share a common interest in the foundry industry. I remember in the past years as Mr. Maurice Neptune (1958) has continued to come to chapter meetings, even after retiring. Then I look down the list and see Mr. Ben Dunning (1978) and remember the stories I've heard about how he loved the industry and the chapter. As I continue, I see Buck Barnhart (1980), Ralph Lyles (1984), Glenn Gardner (1985), and Arthur Edge (1988); all of which made an impression on me from early in my career. I see the names of Mike Sexton (1989), Phil Duke (1991), and Jerry Holcombe (2000) who still appear frequently at meetings. Then, there are the names of Tom Walton (1995), Tommy Horton (1997), Peter Reich (1999), Todd Lyles (2003), Jarek Olszak (2005), John Kersh (2009), Mark Cotton (2010), David Hughes (2011), Ed Boyd (2012), and Donnie Hoffman (2013) who are still being worker bees even when they would be justified in sitting back. In addition to these, there are others who have supported me and given me advice as I've moved through the offices, such as John Clay (1996), Jim Frost (2002), Mike Petrus (2006), and Kevin Crawford (2007). I believe it is safe to say that the Birmingham Chapter has never been at a loss for great leaders. This has everything to do with the dedicated members who make up the chapter!

It has been an honor to server as your 2014/2015 chapter chairman. The Birmingham chapter of the AFS has been an important part of my life and career from the time I was the UAB chapter chairman in 2001. I have made friends, found a network of like-minded people and even ended u with a husband from being involved in the chapter. So many of you have become like family to me over the past few years. Please know that I am eternally grateful for each and every one of you and for our chapter. I hope that I have served you and our heritage well as your first "woman" chairman! It has certainly been a blessing for me to work with such great people!

As we bring this year to a close, I feel confident that I will be turning over the ropes to competent officers. Please embrace them as you have me. We've all had big shoes to fill from officers of the past! I would like to say thank you to those who have come before me and those that will come in the future. No matter our differences, we all share a love for our great industry. I look forward to what the future holds for our chapter and can't wait to continue working with you all!

If any of you have thought about getting more involved and hove not yet done so, quit waiting! The chapter needs you, your ideas, and your leadership! You won't be disappointed. Thank you and I hope to see you all at the May Awards meeting.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Molly Cameron
2014-2015 Chapter Chairman