Pacific Northwest chapter of SPI’s Western Region disbands

North Bonneville, WA - The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Western Region of the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI; Washington DC) has been formally dissolved. Jeff Gage, president of Gage Industries, a heavy-gauge thermoformer and sheet producer in Lake Oswego, OR, made the announcement at the recent Chapter meeting held Oct. 6-7 in North Bonneville, WA. (MPW’s Clare Goldsberry was invited to attend the meeting and made the keynote presentation.)

Gage noted that the Western Region was the only SPI region that had separate chapters due to its large geographic size. The $11,000 in the Chapter’s treasury will be donated to the Merill and Ivy Roth Memorial Scholarship Fund at Western Washington University. SPI’s Western Region has supported the plastics engineering program at WWU each year with $2000 scholarships and wanted to maintain support of that program.

Rod Roth, president of R&D Plastics LLC, a custom injection molder in Hillsboro, OR, announced that he and a few others are working on a concept to begin a “loosely structured” organization for the region, the Pacific Northwest Plastics Assn. However, Roth wants to take a “wait and see” approach with respect to what the SPI plans to do to promote the region and help SPI members before moving forward with a new association. “There’s the potential for 300-400 members in this area,” said Roth in an interview.

Frank Capolupo, executive director of the SPI’s Western Region, said in a telephone interview that three chapters have been closed in recent months. In addition to the Pacific Northwest Chapter, both the Northern California and the Southern California chapters were dissolved. “We’re refocusing on one governing body for the entire region with our mission being to grow that body and refocusing our direction on membership—new members and retention—and grass roots issues,” Capolupo said. “We’ve been doing these things all along, but with the issues we’re facing now, we need to focus more intensely on the mission at hand. We will truly represent the 14 western states with our restructuring, looking for representation from the key states, where plastics is growing and where the issues loom largest, so we can be ready to respond to them.”—Clare Goldsberry; [email protected]