Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/617505
2 ista views • December 2015 • www.ista.org Inside ISTA Headquarters Goodbye ISTA Members, It's been a quick twenty years and every day has been wonderful. I am sure I will miss ISTA, but the time has come to take life down a notch. There are just so many people to thank that I have to just resist the temptation to start naming them. However, I do have to mention two of them. First Dennis Young: together, he and I made up one full time person when we took over what was then called the National/International Safe Transit Association. We got the contract in 1995 when we told the Board of Directors that Dennis knew everything about distribution dynamics and pre-shipment testing and I knew everybody. It worked and we quickly turned around an association that was about to financially go under and brought it into the new age of package/product testing. The second person I want to thank is Bill Kipp. We worked together back in our Lansmont days and then Bill joined ISTA when he retired. That brought on the second transformation of ISTA which pushed it far ahead of all the other organizations that develop package testing standards. That said, the real key to the success of ISTA and where it is today is the member volunteers who work on councils, division boards and the global board of directors. From the very beginning in 1995 all that have served and are now serving, with their brilliant minds have guided me and I sincerely thank them for their support. The transition that is about to take place will be seamless to everyone, because it has been taking place over the past couple of years under the leadership of the transition team led by Matt Daum and Dwight Schmidt. ISTA is in great hands. A.J. Gruber is more than capable and is ready to assume the role of President. Kathy Joneson with 20 years and Lisa Bonsignore with 15 years have been a part of our success almost from the start. Megan Riegel was one of our first employees back in 1996 for a couple of years and returned to ISTA two years ago to be a part of our successful team. Eric Hiser is the relative newcomer to the ISTA staff, but has easily fit perfectly into his role as VP of Technical. I have also been fortunate to work with my wife, Barb, a CPA who has been the ISTA accountant for the last 10 years. Barb is also retiring at this time. I appreciate and celebrate these people for their contributions to making ISTA what it is today. I have been truly blessed to work with so many great employees and industry leaders who have been very supportive members, served as board members and volunteers. We have been a family here at ISTA and that is truly the secret to our success! After almost 50 years in packaging, I can't just stop "cold turkey" so I won't be just golfing, boating, skiing and visiting the grandkids. I am going to be working with A.J. and ISTA on some projects over the next year and available for "tribal knowledge". I'll also be working with Dr. Jay Singh at Cal Poly with their Packaging Research Consortium. It's a well keep secret, but when you work in packaging, you know that the packaging industry is absolutely the best and it's all about the people in it. That's what I will miss the most. Edward A. Church ISTA President President Edward A. Church echurch@ista.org ext. 211 Executive Vice President A.J. Gruber ajgruber@ista.org ext. 212 Vice President - Technical Eric Hiser ehiser@ista.org ext. 218 Lead Instructor Larry Dull larrydull@ista.org Vice President - Special Events Lisa Bonsignore lisa@ista.org ext. 215 Vice President - Communications Kathy Joneson kjoneson@ista.org ext. 214 Director - Membership Megan Riegel megan@ista.org ext. 217 ISTA HEADQUARTERS 1400 Abbot Road Suite 160 East Lansing, Michigan 48823 USA tel: 517.333.3437 fax: 517.333.3813 www.ista.org ISTA welcomes questions and feedback from our members and non-members. Please feel free to contact us to help you find the information you need.