Report from Reliability Gives Voice to Autism at MARTs

The Reliability Gives Voice to Autism event went off extremely well on the evening of April 27, 2010 with about 100 reliability professionals, Autism Society of Illinois president and officers, and others in attendance. The SUCCESS by DESIGN event to celebrate the 2009 book awards received by Dr. Penrose (Axiom Business Book Award for ‘Physical Asset Management for the Executive,’ and the Foreword Book of the Year Award for ‘Electrical Motor Diagnostics: 2nd Edition’) was sponsored by Allied/GP Allied, Paragon Technologies, Maintenance Technology Magazine (through MARTS), and LuvBunny Confections. The reception and dinner was serenaded by the guitarists from the Guitars of Spain with sponsorship plaques being presented and a ten minute talk about his personal experience with his eight year old daughter’s autism challenge, Ken Arthur of GP Allied stirred the emotions of many in the audience.

The main speaker, Bob Miller, of IVC Technologies spoke for 45 minutes about his experience and what he learned concerning autism first hand. The presentation was illustrated by his autistic daughter. In general, the audience expressed that they learned a lot about autism and the spectrum of the affliction. Following Bob was a brief intermission as the belly dancers Gabriela Galvez, Tami Weeks-Pryor and Joanne Kucenski Wessels had a ‘wardrobe malfunction.’ Once repaired, they put on a seven minute demonstration. The video can be seen on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8XUEsIqjF4). During the break books were available with 100% of the books sales going to the Autism Society of Illinois (over $3400 in book sales was raised!).

Following the dancers came the full flamenco group, The Guitars of Spain, who put on another 45 minutes of music and entertainment. The one hour video can be downloaded (758MB: http://www.motordoc.com/autism/ReliabilityAutism.wmv) .

At the conclusion of the evening door prizes were handed out which included a blueray player donated by SUCCESS by DESIGN, a Sony video camera donated by SUCCESS by DESIGN, an Acer 120GB, 10 hr battery, Netbook by SUCCESS by DESIGN, several large candy baskets by LuvBunny Confections, and belly dance lessons from Tami Weeks Pryor.

Overall a great evening with over $7,000 raised for ASI after direct expenses. Dr. Penrose was invited to serve on the ASI Board of Directors following the success of the event and industry participants and sponsors requested that this event be tagged as a ‘first annual.’ If so, announcements will be made following the lessons learned meetings this summer. Contact Dr. Penrose at howard@motordoc.com if you are interested in participating in 2011.