HIGHLIGHTS ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | NOVEMBER 2026 53 FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK Moving Forward Together It has been an honor and privilege to work with President Elizabeth Hoffman and the ASM Board of Trustees over the past two years. And I look forward to serving the Society during my presidential year. Our Society has rebounded after a decade of struggles, mismanagement, and poor choices. Not just rebounding financially, but also in the confidence and enthusiasm of our members. We are now able to look forward to achieving new successes as we build on the restored stability of the Society. In addition, for the first time, ASM developed and completed the strategic initiatives of this past year during Dr. Hoffman’s presidency. And we plan to continue that momentum going forward. New Initiatives for 2027 In July of this year, the ASM Board along with the Staff leadership team developed three new Strategic Initiatives that will continue to keep our day-to-day efforts aligned with our long-term vision during the next year. Membership Lifecycle Initiative. This first initiative will produce a better understanding of the needs of ASM members across the lifecycle of their careers to improve services, messaging, and preferred communication channels. The 2026 Member Value Proposition Initiative established a clear promise for ASM membership: “An ASM International membership empowers you to learn, connect, and grow. Develop new skills through industry- leading education, access trusted technical resources and expert knowledge, engage with a vibrant community of materials professionals, and build lasting relationships that support your career throughout every stage of your professional journey.” Through this 2026 initiative, we also received signifi- cant feedback from members about what they value, where their needs are not being fully met, and where opportunities exist to strengthen the member experience. That work has given us a much clearer understanding of many of the gaps. The next step is to refine what we have learned, prioritize the areas of greatest need, and focus our attention on addressing those gaps. At the same time, member feedback will remain an ongoing part of this work. Through our Voice of the Member efforts, we will continue to listen and gather insights at key points throughout the member experience. This will include Member Service Center engagement FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK Dennies calls, retention initiatives and follow-up conversations, enhanced onboarding communications, and ongoing pulse questions. Together, these touchpoints will provide a continuous feedback loop to help us understand changing member needs and evaluate whether our efforts are improving the member experience. The Membership Lifecycle Initiative builds on that foundation by taking a deeper look at what “learn, connect, and grow” means at different stages of a member’s professional journey. The initiative will help ASM better understand how member needs, priorities, and expectations evolve from student and emerging professional through mid-career, senior career, and retirement. The goal is to move from defining ASM’s value proposition to intentionally delivering that value throughout the member lifecycle, ensuring members have meaningful opportunities to “learn, connect, and grow” at every stage of their professional journey. Strategic Partnerships Framework Initiative. This second initiative will develop a strategic partnership framework to identify, map, categorize, and prioritize current and prospective collaborations that align with ASM’s strategic priorities and advance its mission. This framework, or process, will provide ASM staff and board members with tools to be efficient and effective with their time and efforts in establishing strategic partnerships. In pursuing this initiative, we will establish partnership models that create meaningful opportunities for members and partners to engage with ASM while measuring partnership value through revenue, engagement, exposure, and strategic impact. We also plan to implement standardized collaboration practices and a prioritized partnership pipeline to strengthen relationships, foster innovation, and support long-term organizational growth. The goal is to develop partnerships that not only provide additional value to our education, events, content, and membership offerings, but also build up the greater materials community. Content Expansion Using Analytics Initiative. This third and final initiative will expand ASM’s technical content into underserved, high-impact topics—such as corrosion and high-temperature performance—and into adjacent materials systems beyond ASM’s traditional metals core, reaching practitioners who often don’t yet know solutions exist. Building on the 2026 Content Roadmap and AI & Partnerships initiatives, this effort applies ASM’s data and analytics capabilities—including Mat-E—to help identify and prioritize these opportunities based on the data points, rather than starting from predetermined categories.
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