Hello MPD Member,
Every month, we print a Fine Grind article in Mining Engineering to keep you in touch with the latest happenings, technical updates and other interesting news from the division. This is the Fine Grind that appeared in the January 2017 issue. We invite you to comment, discuss or ask questions.
Happy 2017!
Scott Shuey, Secretary Treasurer
Mineral & Metallurgical Processing Division Executive Committee
January Fine Grind
And the survey says…
by Amy Jacobsen, Technical Program Coordinator, MPD Executive Committee
As we all know, what we do as mineral processors and metallurgists is timeless. However, in an ever-changing industry and world, there comes a time when we need to take time for an internal checkup to make sure we are headed on the right course. This holds true for individual professionals, for companies and for organizations. During the past year, the MPD Executive Committee has been doing an internal checkup through the review of division bylaws to make sure it is poised to meet the challenges within our industry and the needs of our membership.
The objective of the MPD, as currently stated in its bylaws, is “to furnish a medium of cooperation among those interested in the basic unit processes and unit operation of mineral and metallurgical processing; and to promote the advancement of mineral and metallurgical technology through meetings for professional intercourse, and to stimulate the preparation, reading, discussion, and circulation of papers connected therewith.”
The MPD Executive Committee decided that it was important to determine if this objective was still valid so, in August, it sent out a survey to the MPD membership. In addition to assessing the validity and the soundness of the current MPD objective, the goal of the survey was to determine if we were actually meeting this objective to the satisfaction of our membership and to determine if there were changes needed in our programs and activities in an effort to meet the needs of our membership.
In the current times of survey fatigue, (Who hasn’t recently stayed in a hotel after which you were barraged with requests for feedback?), the committee was quite pleased with the response. We got a greater than 10 percent response from our 1,800-person membership. Statistically speaking, this is about average for this type of survey. We would like to thank everyone who participated.
The survey consisted of 14 questions ranging from the usual demographic questions (How long have you been in SME?) to questions regarding our current programs, questions about how to improve membership value and, finally, questions addressing the respondents’ participation in SME on both the national and local level.
What was found is that the responses were from a representative cross-section of our membership on the basis of time as an SME member. Overall, most of our current programs received a score greater than 3.7 on a scale of importance ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high) (Fig. 1). Identified as most important was the MPD technical programming at the SME Annual Conference & Expo. This was followed by the Minerals & Metallurgical Processing journal (M&MP), publications (books), preprints and OneMine.org and continuing professional development opportunities. Obviously, the respondents see the MPD as a technical, information-driven organization and a vehicle for the distribution of that information. We believe these results indicate that we are meeting the basic objectives as outlined in the current bylaws.
It is not always the best course to simply rest on our laurels, however, and there is always room for improvement. But change for the sake of change is not always the best way forward. To avoid this pitfall, the survey included a question to determine what other activities the MPD should be engaged in that would increase membership value. The two activities identified by the respondents were the recruitment of young people into mineral-processing careers and additional programming, such as miniconferences (Fig. 2).
When asked about the types of technical programming that would help in the respondents’ careers, the answer was nearly equally divided between short courses, webinars, technical articles (outside of the M&MP journal) and miniconferences.
Approximately 65 percent of the total respondents attend the SME Annual Conference & Expo at least 50 percent of the time. The remaining 35 percent rarely or never attend the annual conference. Of those who attend the annual conference, more than 75 percent responded that the MPD technical program met their expectations and needs.
However, only 25 percent of the respondents have presented during the MPD technical sessions within the past five years. The top six activities at the annual conference for the MPD members are the keynote session, the MPD plenary lectures, the SME book store, the exhibits, the MPD technical sessions and the MPD luncheon. Finally, more than 70 percent of the respondents indicated that they rarely participate in local section activities or that there is no local section available.
So, what is the takeaway from this survey for the MPD Executive Committee? Although we are still in the early stages, there were several conclusions that leaped out at us.
• There is a need to provide more support to local sections and regions from a technical programming standpoint. This could include organizing miniconferences and webinars with a regional focus and compiling a speakers list similar to the Krumb Lecture Series for easier access for local sections.
• A majority of MPD-related technical papers end up in the M&MP journal, which limits the audience. We intend to work toward greater exposure of authors and papers in Mining Engineering with an intentional mix of operations- and research-oriented articles and papers.
• There is a need to identify ways of increasing accessibility to information through webinars and increasing online access. This could include choosing presentations from the SME Annual Conference & Expo for recording. These presentations would be in addition to the Krumb lecture series.
• We can explore vendor “road shows,” which would provide a forum for vendors to present best-practice educational presentations in person or through webinar-style recordings.
• We need to increase opportunities for participation and networking within the MPD for the younger membership, including involving more individuals in the technical programming, increasing the MPD’s social networking presence and outreach, reaching out specifically to the Young Leaders and the younger membership, and continuing to grow the Scotch Nightcap as THE opportunity for networking within the MPD as well as its original purpose of raising scholarship funds.
We look forward to the challenges and rewards that the implementation of these programs and ideas bring to the MPD’s focus and direction. Although the survey has been completed, we welcome any additional thoughts and input that will help us to continue to improve your MPD.
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Scott Shuey PHD,QP
Manager of Refractory Hydrometallurgical Technology
Newmont Mining Corp
Englewood CO United States
(303) 708-4132
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