From the outgoing
president,
My year as President went out on a very high
note with the November 8th, Annual User Group One Day
Conference. Many comments from the
feedback forms spoke highly of the conference and said, "It was the best
one yet." I certainly
agree. While not attending many
conferences myself, I was very proud to have been associated with this
one. It was easy for me to stand
in front of the day's attendees (about 60) with a smile and be proud. Many thanks to the attendees, for they
are the folks that truly make the day.
My hat is off to Cindy Schiess, who gets all
the credit of organization for this event. The whole team was very helpful, but the co-ordination was
very well done. It made the Emcee
job a treat.
I think too that the day was somewhat a
reflection of how the steering committee's year rolled out. Some changes were made to the
organizational structure to try and better manage the tasks of improving
communications and improving the quality of the organization's mission. I believe this next year we will see
more changes and improvements in MSUG.
I look forward to being part of that continuous improvement process and
the general membership can look forward to the improved quality of that work.
November 6, 2002 is a day you should
"pencil in" for our 8th Annual One Day Conference
(confirmation to follow). I look
forward to seeing everyone there!
Randy Combs, Outgoing President
Your Editor welcomes readers' comments as fuel for a "Letters to the Editor" column!
On May 16th, MSUG held its general membership
meeting in Grand Rapids at the corporate headquarters of Rapistan Systems, who served as the sponsor
for this meeting. Approximately 18
attendees enjoyed two excellent presentations. The first presentation was given by Professor Azim Houshyar from
Western Michigan University’s Department of
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Professor Houshyar gave a fascinating discussion on his use
of simulation in determining operating strategy and timing requirements for
maintenance activities at nuclear power facilities. The maintenance work that Azim simulated is very complicated
(numerous subtasks), expensive (millions of dollars in cost), and
time-consuming (requiring months and sometimes years). Simulation was used to explore
different alternatives for performing the work and to measure the cost and time
required for the different strategies.
Based on the results from Azim’s simulation work, the Idaho Falls, Idaho
facility that Azim was working with was able to make a more educated and
intelligent strategy selection.
They were also able to more accurately determine the cost and timing for
that strategy and were then able to receive additional funding from Congress to
complete their work. Several other
nuclear facilities are now looking to utilize at least portions of Azim’s large
simulation model.
The schedule for meetings during 2002 ("first
glimpse") is summarized in the table below:
|
|
Date |
Time |
Location |
|
Steering Committee Meeting |
14-Jan-02 |
12:00-2:00 |
Brooks Automation1 |
|
Annual All-Day Conference |
6-Nov-02 |
8:00-4:00 |
MSU Training Center, Troy |
1Detailed directions available from Dan Doss, (248) 324-3611.
|
Att |
Abs |
Name |
Position |
E-mail |
X
|
|
Randy
Combs |
President |
randy.combs@gm.com |
|
X |
|
Dan Doss |
Treasurer |
dan.doss@brooks.com |
|
X |
|
Onur Ulgen |
Membership |
ulgen@pmcorp.com |
|
X |
|
Wendy
Machak |
Membership |
wendy@pmcorp.com |
|
X |
|
Ed
Williams |
Newsletter
/ Website |
ewillia4@ford.com |
|
X |
|
HaiPing Xu |
Facilities |
haiping.xu@yahoo.com |
|
X |
|
Dan Cook |
Speakers |
|
|
|
X |
Eric Haan |
West
Michigan (Via Phone) |
eric_r_haan@email.whirlpool.com |
|
X |
|
Joe Hugan |
General
Membership Program Chair |
jhugan@forwardvision.com |
|
X |
|
Cindy
Schiess |
Annual Conference
Chair |
cschiess@dsi-solutions.com |
|
X |
|
Mike Smith |
Publicity |
msmith@lanner.com |
|
X |
|
Jon Booth |
Secretary |
jbooth@dsi-solutions.com |
Meeting called to Order, 12:17pm, by Randy
Combs
Agenda (as presented by Randy Combs)
1. Steering Committee Duties
2. Annual Conference Planning
3. MSUG Website
4. Next Meeting, Date and Time
Steering Committee Duties
(open discussion – thoughts and comments
presented in order)
1. Ed Williams will retype the Steering Committee Duties Sheet when it is marked-up complete.
2. Strategic Marketer is a new position and needs more description.
3. West Michigan Chair will go away next year.
4. Should Michigan Simulation Users Group become Midwest Simulation Users Group for wider participation?
5. What can be done differently in MSUG?
a. Have more debates instead of presentations (more open sharing of thoughts and ideas)?
b. Grow MSUG to be more regional, attracting participation within reasonable driving distance?
c. Joint Conference with IIE?
6. Strategic Marketer shall determine the definition of MSUG and chart a course for the group.
7. Strategic Marketer can get support from the Publicity Chair and an appointed MSUG Task Force.
8. Suggested changes to MSUG via the Strategic Marketer shall be voted on, and implemented, by the Steering Committee.
9. The Steering Committee shall make decisions for the General Membership.
10. MSUG should pursue more interaction with the Acedemic Community.
11. The Strategic Marketer shall craft and maintain the MSUG Mission Statement.
12. Workshops for Simulation Support should be created and fostered by MSUG.
13. At 12:45pm, further discussion on the Steering Committee duties were suspended until the next meeting in December.
14. Randy Combs called upon the Steering Committee members to approve the Steering Committee Duties as currently listed, All committee members approved.
MSUG Annual
Conference 2001
1. Wendy M. reports that (34) people, and (7) vendors have pre-registered for the Annual Conference.
2. To support the call to “Keep America Moving”, the end date for pre-registration has been extended until November 1st. Wendy M./Onur U. shall distribute an email to the general membership stating this fact ASAP. The remaining email announcements are as follows:
a. Friday, October 26, 2001 - One more week for pre-registration rates.
b. Friday, November 2, 2001 – Final notice for the MSUG Annual Conference.
3. All Conference Speaker biographies shall be sent to Dan C. Bios should be one to two short paragraphs. Randy C. shall use the bios for speaker introductions and they will be included on the conference CD.
4. MSUG Nominations and Elections
a. A short biography is needed for each nominee.
b. All nominee biographies need to be sent to Joe Hugan
5.
Annual Conference Speakers
a.
Dan C. reports that (5) speakers have been secured.
6.
Annual Conference Panel Discussion
a.
Randy C. is in the process of securing panelists.
b. Randy C. will create
some advance questions for the panelists, just in case.
7.
Annual Conference Food Service
a.
A continental breakfast will be provided for the registration period.
b. Snacks and beverages
will be provided during the morning and afternoon breaks.
c.
A lunch buffet will be provided, Randy C. and Hiaping X. shall
negotiate the final costs.
d. Suggestions on food
items are needed for the lunch buffet, please forward your choices to Hiaping
Xu based on Lunch Buffet contents handout.
8.
Annual Conference Facilities
a.
Hiaping Xu has secured two rooms for the conference.
b. Cindy Schiess’s laptop
PC will be used for the presentations.
All presentations will be loaded onto the PC before the conference. Jon Booth and Haiping Xu will test the
presentation PC in the Auditorium on a day before the conference to verify
operation. Date TBD.
c.
Haiping Xu and Jon Booth will be at the conference site at 7:00am the
day of the conference.
9.
Annual Conference Proceedings
a.
The Annual Conference Proceedings will be provided on CD to all
attendees.
b. A sample CD label was
provided by Cindy Schiess for Steering Committee approval, all members
approved.
c.
Jon Booth will collect the electronic versions of the presentations,
including the biographies of the conference speakers and create the CDs.
d. Jon Booth will need
all materials by Thursday, November 1st, 2001
e.
(100) copies of the Conference Proceedings will be created.
f.
The Conference Proceedings will be in Acrobat PDF format.
10.
Annual Conference Duties List
a.
Cindy S. provided an Annual Conference Duties list and is attached for
reference.
Newsletter /
Website
1.
Thanks to
Ed Williams and the Website Committee for the new and greatly improved MSUG
website.
2.
The list of
hyperlinks on the website sidebar was discussed. The Steering Committee selected Proposal 2 with slight
modifications in terms of the order of the hyperlinks.
Next MSUG
Steering Committee Meeting
The next MSUG is:
Date: Monday,
November 19th, 2001
Time: Noon
till 2:00pm
Place: Lanner
– Mike Smith to host and provide directions
Other items of business
None
Meeting was
closed at 2:10pm
Wrap-up
If there are any corrections
required to the items presented in these meeting minutes, please contact me.
Attachment
All Day Conference
Duties
a. Facilities
– Haiping Xu
Rooms
Food
Vendor
Exhibit area
Projector
Laser
Pointer
Laptop
with Presentations
b. Registration
Table – Onur Ülgen
Vendor
Responses
Attendee
Responses
Date
for next reminder e-mail
Registration
Table setup
MSUG
sign for behind table
Registration
Table Schedule
Prepaid
list
Pre-registered
list
Pens
for Registration table
Name
Tags
Name
Tag jackets
Membership
forms (new and renewal)
Conference
CD
Agendas
Receipts
Raffle
forms
Raffle
container
c. Elections
– Joe Hugan
Nominees
- Elect 5 (4 - 3 yr & 1 - 1 yr)
Bio
on each nominee
Ballets
Roll
off schedule
2001
Dan
Doss, Eric Haan, Onur/Susan, Cindy Schiess
2002
Randy
Combs, Ed Williams, Jon B./Eric C. (Position to be filled this year)
2003
Joe
Hugan, Dan Cook, Mike Smith, Haiping Xu
d. Panel
Discussion – Randy Combs
Panel
members
Questions
Forms
for Attendees to write questions
e. Speakers
- Dan Cook
5
Speakers
Bios
(to be given to Randy for introductions)
Intro
slide for each presenter
Abstracts
Powerpoint
Presentations
Common
header/footer?
Speaker
Evaluation Forms
Speaker
Thank you letters
e. Presentation
Review - Dan Cook, Ed Williams,
Eric Haan
f. Presentation
CD - Jon Booth
How
many copies
Label
g. Signs
- Randy & Dan Cook
h. Payments
- Dan Doss
$100
security deposits back to vendors
Facility
fee
Raffle
Gift Certificate
Respectfully submitted,
Jon Booth, MSUG Secretary
Design Systems, Inc.
248-489-4300 x2265
248-489-4321 FAX
MSUG Steering Committee Meeting Minutes, 19 November 2001
|
Att |
Abs |
Name |
2001 Position (see Mtg Min for 2002 Positions) |
E-mail |
X
|
|
Randy Combs |
President |
randy.combs@gm.com |
|
X |
|
Dan Doss |
Treasurer |
dan.doss@brooks.com |
|
X |
|
Onur Ulgen |
Membership |
ulgen@pmcorp.com |
|
|
X |
Wendy Machak |
Membership (Assistant) |
wendy@pmcorp.com |
|
X |
|
Ed Williams |
Newsletter / Website |
ewillia4@ford.com |
|
X |
|