OCMA Officers, Trustees, Key Contacts, Environmental Affairs & HR Committees, & Members:

Just as Junior is one swing away from baseball immortality, the Reds come up with an apparent replacement in Jay Bruce "Almighty" hitting nearly .600 in his rookie week. Boy, the Indians could use a clone of him. In the NBA play-offs, it's Kobe against the "Boston Three Party"; should be exciting. Well, if the NBA and Stanley Cup finals are underway and the U. S. Open is only a couple of weeks away, it must be time to prepare for the annual meeting of the Ohio Cast Metals Association (OCMA). The meeting will be held on Thursday, July 17, 2008, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The meeting will start with lunch at 11:30 AM in Room E-151 and the general membership meeting will be held in Room E-150, beginning at approximately 1:00 PM.

As usual, we have an outstanding, all-star line-up of speakers for the meeting. However, we will also have a presentation by several members of the OCMA Board of Trustees regarding the future of OCMA including its financial situation. This presentation will summarize the discussions at the Board's Strategic Planning meeting held on Tuesday, May 13, 2008. We hope everybody will make every effort to attend this annual meeting to hear how the Board intends to prepare for the future of OCMA.

Ohio House of Representative Larry Flowers, (R-19 Reynoldsburg), Majority Floor Leader, will be our luncheon speaker. You may recall that Rep. Flowers was scheduled to address our January meeting, but was unable to make it due to a medical emergency. Rep. Flowers has been a strong supporter of business generally and manufacturing specifically during his service in the Ohio House. Rich Wile, MPP&W P.C., St. Louis, MO, co-author of "Research Pays Your Taxes" in the January 2008 issue of Modern Casting, will outline how your foundry may qualify for the research and experimentation (R&E) tax credit as you improve your foundry processes. As outlined in the article, a gray and ductile iron foundry claimed a R&E tax credit of more than six figures with the assistance of MPP&W P.C. Also, Tom Froehle, McNees, Wallace & Nurick, will provide a summary of the recent electricity restructuring legislation and how it may affect your operation. Finally, OCMA Vice President for Environmental Affairs Ryan Burke, OSCO Industries, Inc. will deliver an environmental update. (See attached agenda)

ATTENTION: OCMA Trustees will be elected at this meeting.

Russ