PalletCentral • September-October 2020
9
NWPCA Staff
President/CEO
Brent J. McClendon, CAE, brent@palletcentral.com
Vice President, Advocacy and External Affairs
Patrick S. Atagi, patagi@palletcentral.com
Senior Director, Business Partnerships
Mark A. Barford, CAE, mbarford@palletcentral.com
Membership Services Manager
Mishelle Cavanagh, mcavanagh@palletcentral.com
PDS and Membership Services Manager
Susan Cheney, scheney@palletcentral.com
PDS Structural Engineer
Kristen DeLack PE, kdelack@palletcentral.com
Vice President, Communications
Annette Ferri, aferri@palletcentral.com
Director of Science and Technology Integration
Brad Gething, PhD, bgething@palletcentral.com
Manager, Policy and Public Affairs
Grace Johnson, gjohnson@palletcentral.com
Advisor to the President
John A. McLeod III, jmcleod@palletcentral.com
PDS Software Engineer
Kevin Richey, krichey@palletcentral.com
PDS Associate Software Engineer
George Scharps, gscharps@palletcentral.com
PDS Finite Element Analyst
Farhad Shahabi, PhD, fshahabi@palletcentral.com
Vice President, Operations and Events
Isabel ("Mimi") Sullivan, msullivan@palletcentral.com
PalletCentral Design & Production:
Driven By Design LLC
Art Director: Caryn Smith, palletdesign@comcast.net
PALLETCENTRAL, Volume 20, Number 5.
PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL WOODEN PALLET
& CONTAINER ASSOCIATION
Advertising:
To advertise in PalletCentral, contact Mark Barford
at 703-519-0186 or mbarford@palletcentral.com.
Address changes and subscriptions:
To update your mailing address or to subscribe
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info@palletcentral.com.
©2020 NWPCA. All rights reserved.
The views expressed in all articles, editorials and
advertisements appearing in PalletCentral are solely
those of the author and advertiser, respectively, and
do not necessarily represent the views of NWPCA.
NWPCA's Membership Growth Continues
M
ore than 50 companies have joined NWPCA in 2020, and we are pleased
to introduce the newest members: A&Y Enterprises (Marrowbone, KY );
Carolina Base-Pac (Hudson, NC); Central Alberta Pallet Supply (Lacombe, Canada);
Eva Karlsson Agentur AB (Herrljunga, Sweden); Hupaco Wood Products (Ontario,
Canada); Mobile Pallet Service (Wayland, MI); Oscar Pallet Company (Phoenix, AZ);
Wilson Pallet (Sullivan, IL).
If you know of any company that can benefit from membership, please send referrals
to Mark Barford, Sr. Director of Business Partnerships, at mbarford@palletcentral.com.
NWPCA Call for Board
Nominations is Open
T
he call for nominations for
the NWPCA 2021 Board of
Directors election is now open.
All members are eligible to submit
a nomination or to nominate
themselves. This year, there are
six industry and one international
industry Board Member seats
open for election/re-election. The
Nominating Committee will review
all nominations received by October
22 to determine the slate of
candidates presented to the industry
membership for a vote later this
year. Submit your nominee by
COB Thursday, October 22,
2020, at www.palletcentral.com/
boardnomination.
CP-9 Pallet designed
with filler boards.
who will dive deep into the best-in-class
supply chain insights and solutions.
Transitioning from in-person to virtual
allows for a much larger, global audience.
The presentation will be shared when
available.
PDS Updates
T
renched Deckboards: NWPCA's
software developers, George Scharps
and Kevin Richey, have been busy creating
the code to specify and graphically display
filler boards added to block pallets. Filler
boards can be used to create smooth
bottom and top decks. The primary
benefits are to improve snag resistance on
conveyors and provide better support to
cargo. They are also essential for designing
a standard CP-9 pallet which is commonly
used to ship drums. This update will
greatly expand the types of pallets that
can be designed and analyzed using
the Pallet Design System™ (PDS).
This is George's first big PDS project,
and it is an exciting milestone
since his graduation from
VA Tech last spring.
On-demand
training: Interest in
unit load design has been
phenomenal. Following on the
success of our webinar series in
April, staff is developing on-
demand training for unit loads
of boxes. This training will introduce unit
load and help the participant form
a solid foundation for innovating with
PDS's new unit load analysis feature.
Kristen DeLack, PE and Brad
Gething, PhD, have been
consulting with experts to learn
how to develop world-class
online training courses.
"Online learning
is completely different
than webinars. The biggest
challenge is projecting
our passion for the subject
through the computer while
making it accessible and impactful for our
participants," remarked Kristen. She is also
busy preparing quizzes, animations, and
graphics to keep participants engaged.
