"WELCOME NEW SECTION OFFICERS" Todd Bridigum is this years Chairman. Todd is a Welding Instructor at Minneapolis Community & Technical College. Please check out Todd's comments on the Chairman's Notes page of this website. Bob Sands has stepped into the First Vice Chair position. Mike Hanson will be Treasurer and Mace Harris will take on the Secretary duties. If some of these names sound familar, they should. Three of these are past chairman and one is also our District Director. We need more support from our section members. If you want to be on the Executive Committee and help support your section, please conduct anyone of the Executive Committee members listed on the Section Officers page of this website.

The Northwest Section will be hosting the visit of AWS President Victor Matthews in January, 2009. Check back for more information.

The Annual Behind the Mask Contest will be held in February, 2009 at the St. Cloud Technical College. More information will be available soon. For other events and activities, please check out the Events page of this website.

The American Welding Society (AWS), Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International (FMA), and Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), cosponsors of the annual FABTECH International & AWS Welding Show, officially announced plans to take North America's largest metal forming, fabricating & welding event to Las Vegas, October 6-8, 2008. An estimated 20,000 people from around the world are expected to visit more than 800 exhibits at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Its never too early to think about applying for the National and District Scholarships. For more information click on "Scholarships"

The Northwest Section is giving an $800.00 Scholarship to each qualifying school this year. The Section gave out $7200.00 in scholarships last year, Go to the "Scholarships Page" for more information.

Thank-you to Production Engineering for donating another $1000.00 to our Section's Welding Scholarship program. This is the 9th year that PEC has donated a thousand dollars for welding scholarships. Check out the PEC Company Profile.

WSJ Article: "Where Have All the Welders Gone?..."

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