AutoCAD Enhanced* (a new intensive 45-hour course combining the fundamentals of AutoCAD 2000 Level II with select advanced design and customization features of 3-D modeling).

Dates: 6 Saturdays, 9/9/00 - 10/14/00
Time: 8:15 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Cost: $665 TMA members, $895 nonmembers
Prerequisite: Working knowledge of technical drawing.

AutoCAD 2000 - Level I: The Basics*

Dates: 6 Saturdays, 9/9/00 - 10/14/00
Time: 8:15 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Cost: $665 TMA members, $885 nonmembers
Prerequisite: Working knowledge of technical drawing.

AutoCAD 2000 - Level II*

Dates: 14 Tuesdays,9/12/00 - 12/12/00
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Cost: $650 TMA members, $885 nonmembers
Prerequisite: AutoCAD 2000 Level I or equivalent.

Introduction to CNC*

Dates: 9 Wednesdays, 9/13/00 - 11/8/00
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Cost: $325 TMA members, $445 nonmembers
Prerequisites: Basic PC knowledge, math, DOS, Windows, blueprint reading, and shop knowledge taught in the TMA Related Theory program or equivalent.

MasterCAM Mill v8.0*

Dates: 12 Thursdays, 9/21/00 - 12/14/00
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Cost: $650 TMA members, $885 nonmembers
Prerequisites: TMA's Fundamentals of CNC course or equivalent experience and one year general machining experience.

*PS 2000 Information

All classes mentioned in this brochure are covered by the State of Illinois' Prairie State 2000 reimbursement program. By filling out a short form, the cost to TMA members can be cut in half through this retaining grant program. An application form will be sent to you with your confirmation. (Note: All fees are payable in advance - PS 2000 reimbursement is sent to your company several weeks after the class ends.)

Coming soon - Mechanical Desktop. Watch for details in upcoming News Bulletins.

Sign up for:                                                 Start Date

____AutoCAD 2000 Enhanced                                        9/9/00

____AutoCAD 2000 Level I                                        9/11/00

____AutoCAD 2000 Level II                                       9/12/00

____Intro to CNC                                                9/13/00

____MasterCAM Mill v8.0                                         9/21/00


Student's Name_________________________________________________________

Company________________________________________________________________

Address________________________________________________________________

City, St, Zip__________________________________________________________

Phone_________________________EXT__________Fax_________________________

Method of Payment

____Check Enclosed (nonmembers must send check with registration)

____Bill Company (TMA members only)*
    10% team discount on any of above classes when registering 3 or more
    people.

Signature______________________________________________________________

Design classes begin September 5

Space is still space available in the TMA Die Design and Mold Design classes for the fall term. Prerequisites: Candidates for admission to this program must have completed a TMA recognized related theory program as a tool and die maker or mold maker or possess equivalent on-the-job experience, be proficient in AutoCAD 2000 Intermediate level or CADKEY 99 and possess basic drafting skills.

TMA is the only Midwest location where companies can send employees for this exclusive, hands-on training in a state-of-the-art computer lab. Don't miss this opportunity! Call the Education Department today for a descriptive flyer and registration form.

Government statistics on WWW

More than 70 agencies in the United States Federal Government produce statistics of interest to the public. The Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy maintains this site to provide easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by these agencies for public use. So for you fellow numbers addicts, see you at www.fedstats.gov. Statistics are also by state on this site so you can focus on Illinois numbers.

Group Insurance growth

From 1952 to 1975 the TMA Group Insurance Trust paid out $30 million in claims. Premium in 1952 was $25,000 and the number of participating companies was 26. Premium in 1975 was $4.7 million and firms totaled 625. In 2000, firms total 845 and annual premium is $46 million. Employee count has grown from 10,326 in June 1999 to 11,501 in June 2000.

Lose Manufacturing, Lose the Future

Reprinted with permission. - VIEWPOINTS

We are witnessing the inexorable decline of American economic and military power, and most citizens of the United States don't even recognize what is happening. Unless something is done soon to halt this slide. All the nations of the world will suffer.

The ruins of empires should remind us that a nation's standard of living and national security are not hereditary rights, but privileges that must be continuously earned and secured. Anyone who visits Macedonia today will find it difficult to believe that this country once ruled most of the known world. Only Italy's ancient Roman roads (some of which are still usable), aqueducts, and colossal ruins, plus elements of Latin found in the languages of western Europe, survive to remind us that Rome also once ruled most of the Western world.

Spain discovered the New World in 1492, and Spain and Portugal soon availed themselves on Mexican and South American treasure. By 1600, Europe recognized England, not Spain, as the dominant power.

Captain Alfred Thayer's Mahan's great book, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, explains exactly what happened to Spain's power and prosperity. Treasure from the New World encouraged Spain to buy manufactured goods from other countries, including its rivals England and Holland. "The mines of Brazil were the ruin of Portugal, as those of Mexico and Peru had been of Spain: all manufacturers fell into insane contempt" (the emphasis is mine). English and Dutch manufacturing grew, and both nations built shipyards to produce merchant ships capable of importing raw materials and exporting finished goods. The next step was to build powerful navies to protect the merchant ships. "The tendency to trade, involving of ncessity the production of something to trade with, is teh national characteristic most important to the development of sea power." concludes Mahan.

The world looked to England, not the United States as the dominant world power less than a century ago, and Britain's navy enforced the Pax Britannica all over the world. Although it is still prosperous and militarily secure. England is largely irrelevant in world affairs today.

As the "Arsenal of Democracy" the United States entered the Second World War with an overwhelming capacity for mass production of weapons, merchant ships (the famous Liberty Ships), and other goods. This manufacturing capability, which the war left untouched, then became a cornucopia of immense postwar wealth: one spouse with only a high school education could often support a family, and own a house and at least one car. And the United States, in its postwar role as the greatest economic and military power among the Western nations, certainly played the decisive role in the West's battles, and final victory, in the Cold War.

We need to remember that today's high-tech service jobs, for example, in information technology, do not create any wealth by themselves. They contribute to the creation of wealth only by making it easier and cheaper to manufacture more goods of improved quality. An SPC package is valuable only if someone needs it to run a manufacturing process. Software that operates robots is only useful only when those robots are making something.

The hot new field of Internet commerce can thrive only as long as someone produces things to sell. Anyone who regards "high-tech service jobs" as cleaner, more desirable replacements for factory jobs is making a terrible mistake. If those factory jobs disappear, many information technology jobs will soon follow.

There is an adage that, although a frog will jump out of a boiling pot of water, it will remain in tepid water that is gradually heated. By the time it notices the problem, the frog will be on its way to someone's dinner plate. America is now neck-deep in the water, and the temperature is rising. The perception of factory management as a job for executives who can't make it in marketing and finance doesn't help either.

The United States must reverse this gradual descent to disaster, not through protectionism, but by recognizing and affirming manufacturing as the keystone of its security and prosperity. Failing to do so will end the ability of the US to function as a great power, leaving a vacuum that will only be filled after a period of global instability which may well end in world-wide war.

William A. Levinson, CMfgE, CEI, PE
Staff Engineer
Intersil Corporation
Mountaintop, PA

Member news

Laystrom Mfg. Co., Chicago, a full service metal forming company specializing in custom components and assemblies for OEM manufacturers, achieved ISO 9002 registration by Quality Systems Registrars, Inc. Web site is www.laystrom.com.

New Surgeons of Steel T-shirts available - order today!

A new design in the "Surgeons of Steel" T-shirt series is now available. "Chicago-Precision Metalworking Center of the World" and "Surgeons of Steel" on the back over a colorful world design, TMA crest on the front, all on a high quality, 100% preshrunk cotton black T-shirt. Apprentices love them. Every T-shirt a member purchases supports industry career promotion. See order form with this Bulletin. To view design, go to www.tmanet.com/career.

Now available from TMA

75th Anniversary video TMA history and progress. (8 ½ minutes) $10 plus $3.50 S & H