AKRON (April 21, 2011)—The ACS Rubber Division is showing financial recovery and doing well preparing for its fall exhibition, while a rubber group has expired.
At the division's business meeting during the group's spring technical meeting in Akron April 19-20, the Division Treasurer Leonard Thomas of Caterpillar Inc. said the association has a $420,000 surplus so far this year, thanks largely to income from companies that have signed up to exhibit at this fall's Rubber Expo and Advanced Elastomers event.
Additionally, the division has received $20,000 for managing the Tire Society meeting, and $18,000 for similar work with the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry's upcoming July conference, Thomas said.
Division officials also disclosed, in response to a question from the audience, that the Midwestern Rubber Group has expired. There was talk that one and possibly two other of the mostly regional organizations may dissolve, but after the meeting Division Executive Director Ed Miller said the Executive Committee has yet to receive any other request to disband from a rubber group.
Rubber groups—officially subdivisions of the Rubber Division—in most cases are geographically based organizations of rubber industry participants, hold technical meetings and social events throughout the years, and sponsor scholarships. The number of groups has declined over the years as the rubber industry has changed its geographic footprint.
Several groups also have merged in recent years. For example, the Akron and Northeast Ohio rubber groups joined together as the Ohio Rubber Group, and the Philadelphia and New York groups merged and became the MidAtlantic Rubber & Plastics Group.
The Rubber Division on its website lists 15 rubber groups in the U.S., excluding the Midwestern group; three in Canada; and affiliates in Mexico, Brazil and India.