Southwest District
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Advancing Productivity, Innovation, and Competitive Success


Southwest District Meeting


West Coast Student Case Competition Winners announced!

40 students from 7 different schools competed as 9 teams in the 2nd Annual Student Case Competition hosted by the Southwest District of APICS during the April 11-12, 2008 district meeting in Buena Park, CA. The first and second place winners were a team from UNLV and a combined team from Cal State East Bay and Cal State-Chico, respectively. The winning students will travel in September to Kansas City to the APICS International Conference and Expo, where they will again compete against the winning teams from the Midwest and East Coast case competitions.

All the students did very well under tremendous pressure – they had about 15 hours to work on the Case study. Each team had to write a 3 page paper and create a 6-minute PowerPoint presentation. Then, they presented their solutions orally to the chapter leaders of the Southwest district APICS chapters where they were judged by 3 oral judges, while their papers were judged by 3 written judges. Only 1 point separated the 1st and 2nd place teams.

Other schools represented were Arizona State, Boise State, 2 teams from Cal State University-Northridge, and 2 teams from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, the school whose team won the International Case Competition in 2007. The 2007 winners were present to assist district staff with this competition.

Congratulations to all the students who competed! You are a credit to your schools and will make wonderful Operations Management professionals very soon! Our 2009 3rd Annual Student Case Competition is currently slated for Feb. 5-6, 2009 in the Los Angeles area. More information soon!

The growth in this program has been phenomenal over the last 2 years. In the first year, we had 9 students from 3 schools competing on 2 teams. The growth this year to 40 students can be directly attributed to the efforts made by the District to reach out to Operations Management professors at schools within and outside the Southwest District area. To learn more about how the Southwest District put on this successful event, contact Barry Solomon, Director of Student Development at solombar@cox.net or Ellen Kane, Executive Council at: ek@theacagroup.com.

Names of the 1st place team members from UNLV are:
Cole Shinn
Denis Khantimirov
Joe Pignatiello
Nate Curtis
Shaena Friedman

Names of the 2nd place team members and their schools are:

Christina Tsao CSU-Chico
Gina Garitson CSU-E/Bay
Merrill Crowl CSU-Chico


There are 2 links to photos from the event. The first link shows the photos of each team as they were taken immediately following their presentations. The 2nd link shows 2 albums of candid photos from the event. Both are on Walgreen’s photo site and you do need to create a user ID to see them. But you can opt out of their advertising. Feel free to download any of the photos you like for your personal use.

Link to album of teams after their oral presentations: Click here
Link to photos taken by Darlene Morris (2 albums): Click here

 

MILT COOK AWARD NOMINATIONS


Milt Cook Award Nomination Process

It is time to submit nominations of the Milt Cook Award for 2008. The award is presented annually to the individual who best exemplifies the performance standards set by Milt Cook, a long time, dedicated APICS member of the San Fernando Valley Chapter who passed away in 1990. Anyone may nominate any APICS member they deem worthy of consideration. See the District SOP (available on the District Website) for information concerning the award and a list of those who have had it presented to them in the past.

The 2008 Nomination Form is available on the website. Click here for nomination form. Please carefully consider any APICS member you believe may be worthy recipient of this reward and complete the form outlining the accomplishments of the individual which makes him or her worthy of consideration. Please give this process the widest possible dissemination across SW District – dedicated volunteers are, after all, what makes APICS “go”. Jimmy Zepeda, SW District staff has agreed to chair this important activity so, please, return the completed form to him at jimmeyzepeda@sbcglobal.net not later than 7 June 2008.

 

LAPICS Grand Prize Winner

LAPICS has been recognized by APICS as among the 4th Quarter 2007 winners of the Chapter Incentive Program and was also named the Grand Prize Winner. The Incentive Program recognizes chapters for their contribution to increase the APICS presence in their local markets. Chapters across APICS are divided into 4 groups by size to ensure fairness and winners are selected based on reports of APICS certification, new members, and APICS Bookstore sales. The LAPICS Chapter was recognized as a winner in the area of new members.

As a quarterly winner, the LAPICS Chapter received a prize and became eligible for the quarterly Grand Prize Drawing. As the quarterly Grand Prize Winner, the Chapter was able to select either a laptop computer or an LCD projector for the Chapter; LAPICS selected the laptop computer.

 

New Web Address

Accompanying the change from Region 7 to Southwest District is the coming change of the web address from apics7.org to apicssouthwest.org. The official changeover will take place after the April District Meeting to allow everyone to become familiar with the new URL and to facilitate changes in the website itself that are not disruptive. In the meantime you can reach our website by using either

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Southwest District of APICS

APICS Southwest District represents the members and customers of Southern California, Arizona, Southern Nevada, and Baja Mexico. We have an active membership that includes over 4500 individuals and companies supporting APICS's vision of life long learning for lifetime success.

Each of the Southwest District's 15 Chapters allow members to hear real life success stories of production and inventory improvements through professional development meetings, workshops and seminars, and CPIM and CIRM certification preparation.

We at the Southwest District are working diligently to assist the local chapters with information, training, education products that will assist you and your company in the coming months and years. Your local Chapter professionals can provide classes, networking opportunity, in-house training and seminars to target and support the continuous improvement process that many of us are undertaking.

The Southwest District Staff is ready and able to assist you with any questions or suggestions that you might have as well as direct your inquiries to your local Chapter for more personalized service. Please give us a call or email to let us know how we're doing or how we may better serve your needs.

Sincerely,

Sue Thornton
District Manager
jssusit@earthlink.net
Preston Blevins
District Director
pblevins@batchmaster.com

 

About APICS

APICS -THE ASSOCIATION FOR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

APICS The Association for Operations Management is the global leader and premier source of the body of knowledge in operations management, including production, inventory, supply chain, materials management, purchasing, and logistics. Since 1957, individuals and companies have relied on APICS for its superior training, internationally recognized certifications, comprehensive resources, and worldwide network of accomplished industry professionals. To learn more about the APICS community, visit www.apics.org.

The organization is divided into fourteen regions consisting of over 270 chapters. The Southwest District consists of sixteen professional chapters in California, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. In addition, there are student chapters at universities and colleges within the region.

Membership

Membership applications for APICS are available on-line. Before submitting your application we suggest you contact your local APICS Chapter to learn more about the membership process and fees as well as the locations of meetings and classes.

District Meetings

Chapter presidents and volunteers meet three times a year to exchange ideas, techniques and methods to improve chapter operations and the delivery of educational and training services to the business community.