2009 Fall Conference

ASNT Fall conference

Message from America.
The Fall Conference took place in ASNT home city of Columbus Ohio at the end of October 2009.
Columbus is a large, flat, mid western city with low crime and homeless rates. It is home to the largest University in America, Ohio state and the University football team, "The Buckeyes" play their sell out games in an 105,000 all seater stadium. They are called the "Buckeyes" because that's what the Indians named the seed from the dominant local trees (it's like a horse chestnut) as it represented the eyes of the Deer / Bucks roaming the plains. In England they would be called the "Conkers" not the same is it.
They also have a top of the table Ice Hockey team The Ohio Blue Jackets and a league topping Soccer team The Columbus Crew (who are small compared to the other two).
NATL was represented by myself NATL chairman Mark Ormrod from RSA and a directors Jason Taylor from Oceaneering and Jim Knowles from Alstom . We arrived the day before the Columbus Marathon which predictably upset the hotel bookings as they regularly overbook on the basis people don't turn up, on this occasion everybody did and there was no room at the inn for Dave Gilbert from BINDT who was forced to sleep in the stable !!!
After registration it was the Annual Business Meeting, which was predicted to be a fiery affair and it lived up to its billing. A member from Chattanooga wished to make a point to the board and the board were hell bent on not allowing him to speak at this forum. The meeting descended into procedural debate, with motion and counter motion and a considerable amount of rule checking / verification. Both parties seemed to have agendas only they knew and the meeting finished (or so we think) with absolutely no meaningful steps forward and only half the allotted business completed.
If only they had adhered to the ASNT code of Ethics it would have been a more productive meeting, but not half as much fun.

The conference and exhibition was opened by Jocelyn Langlios cutting a red ribbon with a large pair of scissors and everybody flooded into the exhibitor hall to see the trade stands and look at the advanced products on display. Over 125 exhibitors ranging from colleges, equipment, training establishments and NDT employers. British interests were represented by AGR, BINDT, Lavender International and Sonaspection International, as well as the national business's of Olympus, Fuji, Carestream, Chemetall, Sentinel, Sonatest etc .
Jason Taylor undertook the Supervisory monitor training to provide greater coverage for NATL and I attended the Section operation council meeting and SOC full meeting representing the Regional Director David Griffin who could not attend.
103 presentations and 3 short courses were delivered throughout the Conference covering all NDT related disciplines / inspection methods to modes of failure and well being of employees.
Many exhibitors caught our attention, Jason Taylor was impressed with biodegradable penetrant systems and we hope to have this exhibitor present at one of our meetings. Fluorescent systems which can be carried out in normal light conditions and the new range of radiation containers which will phase out the 660's.
The American market is little more adventurous in naming products ie an ultrasonic flaw detector called "The Raptor" and miniature UT set called "The Avenger" come on Olympus does Omniscan really cut it ??

The conference was deemed to be a success and the exhibition closed on Wednesday afternoon and the sessions closed Thursday 5.00pm.

Chairman with Ricky The photo shows the NATL Chairman Mark Ormrod from RSA with ASNT Vice President Ricky Morgan, who is a great supporter of the NATL Section The conference offers opportunities to meet board members from ASNT, other Section leaders and express any concerns our members may want to raise. It's a chance to engage all areas of ASNT from the chief executive, Wayne Holliday to Betsy Blazar and Ruth Dheel who are marketing and membership.

ASNT Directors Jason Knowles from Oceaneering and Jim Knowles from Alstom relaxing at the bar. Jason runs the training school in Stockton for Oceaneering and this is where the 2010 October exams will be held. Jims section provides advanced NDT solutions for Alstom and he spends a lot of time in Switzerland proving NDT techniques mainly Phased Array

The Superwhites To keep a promise I made to Jocelyn at the 15th Anniversary conference we held in Barnsley, I presented her with two Bolton Wanderers shirts for her grandchildren, Jaxson & Taylor, whom I am trying to convert into Bolton Wanderers junior whites fans. I presented her with the two junior white shirts during the ASNT Presidents Party . As she explained only the big four get any coverage in the USA, so it's an uphill job but we have to start somewhere !!!!