In this second newsletter of the year, we are pleased to share with you the activities of our committees. The
Conference Committee
is working on conference programme with a special focus on interactivity; the
Membership Committee
is organising working lunches with our members in different countries; the
Technical Committee
is planning the next training in Dubai and the
Industry Relations and Communication Committee
prepared a technical fact sheet comparing polyurea, polyurethane and epoxy.
The Board had two conference calls since the last newsletter, one in March and one in April and also met in May. The Board reviewed the work plan of the working groups and discussed progress on our short term objectives.
Our members approved the new mission proposed by the Board and the secretariat will now process its publication in the Moniteur belge, the Belgian official journal where any amendments to the Statutes must be recorded.
I would like to wish you a nice summer break but before that I also wish to remind you that our next
Annual Conference and Exhibition will take place from 12 to 15 November in Bucharest, Romania. I hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Dirk Uebelhoer,
PDA Europe President
on behalf of the PDA Europe Board of Directors
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The PDA Europe
new mission was approved by a majority of members in an electronic vote that took place between February and May. The new mission better reflects the association's objectives in a clear and simple way via five objectives:
- Promote awareness of polyurea and its applications
- Setting industry standards and promote the safe and correct use of polyurea
- Be a neutral knowledge center
- Be a networking place to connect with industry stakeholders
- Grow the market by participating in European and national standardization committees
It has been published on the website and will soon be integrated to the association's bylaws.
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3. New Chairs of the Conference and Technical Committees
The Board would like to thank Marc Ferre, Gama, and Jos Degraauw, Degraauw Trading, who chaired the Conference and Technical Committees over the past year. They both decided to step down from the chairmanship to pursue other personal objectives. The Board is pleased to welcome Keltoum Sakour, Albemarle, and Alain van Oorsouw, BASF Nederland, both long standing Board members and involved in the committees for a long time, who took over the positions.
Keltoum Sakour,
Alain van Oorsouw,
Product Manager EUMEIA
T
echnical Development
Albemarle
Construction E-PME,
BASF Nederland
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This year, the PDA Europe Conference Committee is working on an interactive programme to bring you a more powerful and engaging learning experience. A
panel discussion will take place in the morning session of
Tuesday 13 November. We are looking for speakers interested in sharing long term experience with polyurea from different sectors:
- system house
- raw material supplier
- applicator
- equipment supplier
and our media
partners
:
Registrations will open on Monday 1 July!
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5.
Local events for members
The membership committee of PDA Europe will organize working lunches for PDA Europe members
.
Please email the secretariat with your interest if you wish to be part of a PDA Europe working lunch and to join our association.
The first three working lunches of our series will be:
- United Kingdom and Ireland PDA Europe members: 19th July
- Belgium and Netherlands PDA Europe members: 31st July
- Italian PDA Europe members: Date to be confirmed
Venue and location will be communicated at a later stage.
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6. Calendar of meetings and events
- 25 September: Joint PDA Europe and UTI webinar for members and non-members
- 26 September: Board meeting in Brussels
- 12 November: Board meeting, Bucharest, Romania
- 13 November: Annual General Meeting of Members, Bucharest, Romania
- 12-14 November: Annual Conference and Exhibition, Bucharest, Romania
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7.
Website updates, new resources available
Our committees work hard to provide useful information to our members. The most recent additions to the members only section of our website are:
-
Polyurea, polyurethane, epoxy - Performance feature and chemical performance comparison
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10 new case studies from Sika and VIP
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Minutes Board meetings and conference calls
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8. News from the Secretariat
- Helena Coughlan joined the secretariat in March
Further to the departure of Isabel de la Horra Calvo who returned to Spain, her home country, in March, Helena Coughlan joined the PDA Europe team as Assistant. Helena is Irish and also speaks French with good proficiency. She is a graduate of Agricultural Science from University College Dublin with additional training in Business Administration and Development from the Irish Management Institute.
- Change of address of the Secretariat
The PDA Europe Secretariat is moving on 1 July. The new office is located in the Montgomery area, closer to the European institutions but still easily accessible from Brussels' airport. It offers state of the arts meeting rooms facilities
that can be used for PDA Europe meetings upon request
.
The new address is:
Avenue de Tervueren, 188A, 4th Floor, Postbox 4, 1150 Brussels, Belgium. Telephone and email will remain the same.
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REACH restriction dossier for diisocyanates moved to the European Commission
On 18 May 2018, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published the consolidated opinion of the Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) and Socio-Economic Assessment Committee (SEAC) on the restriction of diisocyanates. This is an important step in the legislative developments towards the final proposal of the European Commission.
The restriction proposal focuses on setting up training measures for the safe handling of the substances, with the intention to integrate a mandatory training with a certification scheme that empowers workers to safely use the substances. PDA Europe fully supports this and contributes to the development of uniform and adequate training materials.
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