Winn Hardin: [00:00:06] Hello, everybody. My name is [00:00:08] Winn [00:00:08] Hardin. Thank you for joining us on our latest episode of Manufacturing Matters, where we talk about the technology and the trends and the events that are reshaping the global manufacturing industry. As I mentioned, my name is Winn Hardin, and I’m lucky enough to be here with my co-host Amanda Del Buono. How are you doing, Amanda?

Amanda Del Buono: [00:00:23] Great. Always glad to be here, Winn.

Winn Hardin: [00:00:25] Fantastic. And then today, we’re also lucky enough to have a local Jacksonville, Florida, native, which is, by the way, my home base. Also author and original founder, I believe, of Iverson & Company CNC machining up in the Chicagoland area, if I’m not mistaken. Terry can correct everything I just said that was not exactly correct there. But Terry, thank you so much for joining us today.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:00:47] Thank you very much, Winn and Amanda. I appreciate you guys having me on. It’s an honor.

Winn Hardin: [00:00:52] Our pleasure. So why don’t you kick us off with a little bit about Iverson & Company and then a little bit about CHAMPION Now, which is, I think, going to be a big focus of our discussion today.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:01:01] Sure. Yeah. Iverson & company. Actually, I’m the third generation, Winn. My grandfather started back in 1931. My father had a run from probably about ’58 to, oh, probably ’99, probably, somewhere in there. And I joined in 1980, and I just recently sold the company about a year ago, about 13 months ago, actually. Yeah, it’s in its 94th year.

Winn Hardin: [00:01:29] So now you just play golf all the time! Which I know is not the case, actually.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:01:32] No, I don’t play golf. But thank you. Thank you for the thought though.

Winn Hardin: [00:01:38] All right. Well my pleasure. I know you’re staying real, real busy. So, before we get into CHAMPION Now, and that’s going to be a big focus of what we’re going to talk about today, guys. Like, the overarching theme for our discussion today are the labor challenges that are facing the manufacturing industry, and how a lot of programs from different schools and universities are approaching that and something special that Terry’s been putting together in his semi-retirement. But before we get into that, Terry, tell us a little bit more about your experience in the manufacturing sector. I know it’s basically a lifetime involvement, so share away in terms of what your background is in that area.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:02:14] Well, I was fortunate enough to be born into the family business. I initially didn’t think I was going to join it, and then I realized that I was really good in math and science and other paths didn’t seem real, you know, consistent or logical. And so I joined the company in 1980. We did a lot with super precision turning, general precision milling. So we were stockholders as a family of Hardinge as a company. At one point, our family owned about 10% of one of the stocks that Hardinge had. And my grandfather started Hardinge in 1925. So when the calendar hits January 1st, we will literally be celebrating our 100th year in the industry.

Winn Hardin: [00:03:07] Fantastic. 100 years. Not a lot of companies that can say that. One of the few other companies that I’ve worked with over the years was Leone, which is now mainly BizLink that was acquired from that, and they used to make thread for royalty. So it was always weird for me to be able to say, I’ve known a client who’s been in the industry for 300-plus years, but you’re nber two in terms of longevity. So that’s just amazing.

Amanda Del Buono: [00:03:29] Triple digits is still a good goal.

Winn Hardin: [00:03:31] Still, I’m saying.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:03:33] Yep.

Amanda Del Buono: [00:03:34] So Terry I think you have a unique perspective on this then. Can you kind of talk to us a little bit about the labor challenges that, you know, we’re seeing in manufacturing right now?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:03:44] Yeah. Amanda, you know, ever since I got into the industry, the chant of, you know, “we need more skilled people” has been gradually louder, louder, and now it’s, you know, it’s almost deafening now. But even when I started in 1980, people would tell me, Amanda, they said, “well, I’ll buy a CNC machine from you if you can provide an operator.” And I’m like, okay, that doesn’t really work that way. But, you know, nice try. So over the years, our culture, right around ’83, that was the first major recession that I lived through as an adult. And right around that time, apprenticeship programs were being closed down. School programs were being shifted aside, or closed down. And somebody made the dire comment that we were going to be a service-based economy. And I just shuddered when I heard that. So it’s taken us a while. I mean, it’s been almost a generation-and-a-half where, you know, people have been shunned from going into manufacturing and my chant to give young people an education or an inspiration on what’s possible started about in 1995. And gradually, ever so slowly, the needle has been moving very, very slowly and is now picking up a little bit more steam.

Winn Hardin: [00:05:14] So, you know, one thing we haven’t even touched on, Terry, is, if I’m not mistaken, during our lunch discussions a couple of times, you’ve authored a couple of books on the state of manufacturing. Can you tell us a little bit about that? And there was kind of a unique approach, I thought, that you took when you were writing those.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:05:30] Well, I started CHAMPION Now. CHAMPION now is an acronym, and I’ll explain why in a minute while I point that out. It’s changed how American manufacturing is perceived in our nation. It’s the longest acronym ever. So in 2013, my daughter and I, who worked for us at the time, took a flight to Taiwan. And you probably don’t know this about me, Amanda and Winn, but I’m really ADHD. Focusing is really hard for me and I have to be constantly engaged. So school——I was an AP student——but school was really hard for me because I just couldn’t pay attention. So when I’m locked in a cylinder, a metallic  cylinder, you know, 40,000 feet or 30,000 feet up in the air, you know, I get bored in the first five minutes. So I started writing because I had been involved in so many advisory boards and national committees in DC and Florida and here locally in Chicago. And I thought, you know, what good is all this involvement unless I share it with somebody? And Harry Mosher, who is a dear friend, got me involved in talking to young people in class, and it just wasn’t doing it for me. Not that it wasn’t a great thing to do, it’s just I could only talk to 20 young people at a time. So after I put aside the 40,000 words that I had finished on the flight, then I picked back up the computer and I started realizing that I had a lot of really cool people that I knew in Jacksonville, in Chicago, in Wisconsin, all over the country. And so this is “Finding America’s Greatest Champion.” I finished it in 2018. I had a press conference at IMTS, and that’s when this came out.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:07:20] And you’ll see that the word “champion” is in every book, in both books. You know, “every book” remains to be seen, but what I’m really proud of on both of these is the subtitle and this one, “Building Prosperity Through Manufacturing, Mentoring, and the Awesome Responsibility of Parenting.”

Winn Hardin: [00:07:38] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:07:39] Mentoring has always been important to me because I was mentored as a young child and a young man, and I had a single parent. So my dad, even though I ended up working with him for 40-some odd years——30, 40 years——I didn’t live with him. I lived in Jacksonville and my dad lived in Chicago. So I think the one you’re talking about that is quite novel, no pun intended, or unique, is this is my second book. Now, the first book is for educators, industry members, students and parents. The second book, this is the parent side. And I did a two-cover component. There’s two front covers 180 degrees apart. This is a student version. And then this is the parent version. So, once again discover the path to a debt-free career. You know, young people going into debt with student loans is just a tragedy in every sense of the word. And you know what? Maybe out of every three children, you know, maybe one or two of them, college is perfect for.

Winn Hardin: [00:08:45] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:08:45] But it’s not for everybody. And to, you know, even if the college is paid for for whatever reason, if they don’t have a link to a career path that makes sense, then you’re delaying a young person’s success anywhere from three to seven years.

Winn Hardin: [00:09:01] Right. Another unique feature of——I know for the second book, I’m not sure on the first book——was that I think you brought a lot of prominent names in the manufacturing world to co-author some of those chapters and essays with you. Is that correct?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:09:15] I did, I did on both. The first book I kind of brought in people from all different walks of life because I really wanted to be more value-add than just about manufacturing. And if they just happen to stumble upon this big secret that we have the best kept secret in careers, [those] being manufacturing careers, then that’s even better. But yeah, in the first book, Greg Wasson, former CEO of Walgreens, wrote the foreword. My son married his daughter and so he was kind of like my test case. I said if he felt that this was a book worth writing, then it’s worth writing because he was he wasn’t directly in any manufacturing. The first book was written during the MeToo movement. So I really speak up for the female gender in the workforce, or the lack of the female gender in our workforce, I should say.

Winn Hardin: [00:10:17] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:10:18] And then this [second] one I was finishing during Covid, and it was during the, you know, the racial awakening, so to speak. And I thought, you know what? I didn’t do a very good job speaking up for people of color. And so I made that a focus also in the second book.

Amanda Del Buono: [00:10:34] Curious with you kind of talking about that, how do you see, is outreach different from maybe your perspective or CHAMPION Now to women or people of color or these minorities that aren’t as prevalent in the industry?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:10:49] Well, Amanda, our industry is a bunch of old white guys for the most part. Right? And, you know, we’re at the average age of probably 55. A lot of us have been doing it for a long time, and we’ve been very blessed, right? But there’s not enough women in our industry. And, now it’s starting to change. And there’s certain components, like you’ll see in assembly, you’ll see a lot of women involved in assembly, facets or inspection facets. But there’s not enough in management. There’s not enough in women in ownership, in being lead people or programmers or setup people, so to speak. But when you get to people of color… Oh my gosh. I’ve been in the industry for 45 years and I can almost name on two hands the number of people of color——I should say of black people——that I’ve met in our industry. And then those in the Hispanic realm, so to speak, which I guess would also include, you know, maybe Indian descent. Hispanic families and employees and workers have been pretty well represented in our industry for a while. And, I know my my uncle has had a fair number of Hispanic workers in his machine shop, in his job shop. But when you get particularly to the black ethnicity, there’s there’s hardly any. And that’s wrong.

Amanda Del Buono: [00:12:27] What’s the barrier there, do you think? What’s preventing them from diving in? Is it your first book, the “perception” of the industry? Is it just access to education? What are you hearing?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:12:39] Well, I think it’s a couple things. One, I think, us manufacturers and those of us in the manufacturing world, you know, we’re so used to one type of advocacy and one type of recruitment and some really don’t even have a set recruitment other than, you know, let’s hire the guy from across the street type thing, right? And so, it’s really… The general public as a whole, Amanda, doesn’t know what manufacturing is anymore. And even back in the heyday, they knew MORE about it, but now, in today’s world, they know very little. Well, in the black community, they just don’t have access to knowing. They just don’t know. And then who can mentor them? Who can, you know, teach them? And I hope to change that because, as desperate as the need is in our industry, the black community or the people-of-color communities, they need jobs and they need these jobs that are good paying jobs.

Winn Hardin: [00:13:44] Yeah, yeah. Don’t we all? Do you think that the racial breakdown of manufacturing is very similar to the racial participation levels of engineering at large, or is there basically two different problem sets between just technical engineering disciplines and manufacturing, which you don’t, as we’ve said, need to have a four- or six-year degree necessarily to be a player in that space. But is engineering the same as manufacturing or are they not?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:14:12] No, it’s different. It’s different, let’s face it. I mean, if you go down the engineering route, which I went to engineering school for, I’m sad to admit, six years, three years of pre-study and three years of night school after I got married. But if you go down the engineering route, you better have a lot of money or you better have access to a lot of tuition money. Right?

Winn Hardin: [00:14:35] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:14:35] And so, I’ll answer that question that, you know, there’s not, unfortunately, and I’m not trying to be stereotypical, but there’s not a lot of people of color that have access to that type of capital. And, so going the engineering route is very, very difficult because of that. And there’s exceptions to everything, obviously. When it comes to manufacturing, I think the route is much easier and much more seamless if they only knew. Because, you know, they could go into a community college or they can get a job in a company and then the employer, many times, will pay for their education in manufacturing, whether it be programming or stackable credentials or whatever it is. And, the one thing that, you know… If you’re on LinkedIn, and a lot of people are these days, Drew Crow, who’s rapidly becoming kind of a poster child for more people of color that should have access to our industry. He makes some comments in the book about how he got in and how he was able to, very creatively, wedge his way into the industry, into the profession. But he said, “Terry, downtown St. Louis is 85% black, but if you go into a shop, unless it’s a janitor or two, you’re not going to see any people of color at all.”

Winn Hardin: [00:16:06] Yeah.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:16:06] Certainly not programmers or owners or managers or any of that.

Winn Hardin: [00:16:12] Yeah.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:16:13] And so I give him a lot of credit for vocalizing that because being able to see a role model in somebody that looks like you, there’s a lot to that for us. You know, for me, once again, our industry is, you know, a bunch of old white guys, right? Case in point, it didn’t take me, just panning any shop, where I had a dozen or more people that I saw that were the same ethnicity and quote unquote “look like me.”

Winn Hardin: [00:16:43] You know, I couldn’t agree more on everything, on all the planks of that platform you were just talking about. I know that in “Manufacturing Matters,” we’ve committed to doing at least quarterly shows where we highlight women’s involvement, minorities involvement. I know that some of our friends, like Jake Hall and Chris Luecke, have done a lot of work in that area, in particular, I think Jake Hall, as well as, of course, the Manufacturing Mavens and Manufacturing Ladies, you know, bringing their own influencers and singing their own songs. So, you know, at least I guess we’re starting to see some incremental change in a more public environment which, I think maybe leads into the next topic that we were going to talk about, which is more on the CHAMPION Now side, because one of the big questions I have is, what should manufacturing do to change themselves to be more welcoming? But at the same time, with a program like CHAMPION Now, what channels do you use to reach a more diverse population segment, younger population segment? So, that’s like four questions all crammed into one. I’m just going to let you go with with whatever you think is best, Terry.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:17:47] Well, one of the things that you’re alluding to, I think, Winn, is that we developed a camp——and I have to give my eldest son some credit as well, because he was involved in helping me with this. But we developed a camp that was with a tabletop CNC machine, and we make pens and we make pen cases. The pen case is on the CNC mill and the pen bodies, the segments, is on a CNC lathe. And so what we do… Let me take a step back and say that, you know, I didn’t see people, many people writing books about this subject matter. So I started with the first book and, of course, the second book. But when I started to talk about making a camp, I didn’t see anybody making a camp that was portable or that would go down to the middle schools.

Winn Hardin: [00:18:40] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:18:40] Particularly with the CNC machine, because it takes a lot of moving parts. Pun intended. So what I did was I developed a camp where the middle schoolers, we have a morning—-and let me credit iMac, the Illinois MEP for piloting the program in Illinois. Now, I hope this to be a national program, but they’ve just piloted it in 2023, and then they came back for a second round in 2024.

Winn Hardin: [00:19:10] Okay.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:19:11] So what we do is we make these CNC machines that are about maybe 150 to 180 pounds, and we make them mobile. We put them on a scissor lift on wheels, the scissor lift goes up and down, and of course we can wheel it along. It’s 110 power. We’re not using coolant. Too much fuss and mess. And so what we do is we have six stations. We used to do this at our company when, years ago, we had an article in 2009, where Modern Machine Shop did a write up about what we were doing, introducing both parents, instructors, and kids to manufacturing. But we had six stations. Well, in the camp——we call it Camp CHAMP, once again, CHAMP short for CHAMPION. In Camp CHAMP we have six stations——CNC lathes, CNC mill, laser engraver, assembly, inspection, and then programmable rotary. Hopefully, that’s six. And then what we what we do is we have 24 young people so that we only have four young people per station. And then we rotate every 15 minutes. And so in quantity of four, you know, you can keep them in check and make sure that they’re not misbehaving or getting rowdy or anything. And then we have a high school CTE student mentoring the middle schoolers.

Winn Hardin: [00:20:38] Okay.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:20:39] And then this can be conducted either at a technical college or it can be conducted at an industry member. So when you really look at everything laid out, you can get from middle school to high school, high school to technical college, technical college to industry. And so everybody that’s involved, basically the pathway goes all the way through. The nice thing about it is one of the things we do is we laser engrave.

Winn Hardin: [00:21:07] You initially developed that at Iverson & Co., up in Chicago. Is that where you beta tested this? Okay?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:21:13] Yep.

Winn Hardin: [00:21:13] And now now there are multiple installations or primarily just in Illinois?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:21:17] Primarily just in Illinois. Right now, you know, CHAMPION now houses the Camp CHAMP. I did leave one in Florida for the time being, not too far from you, Winn, and then I have one that I’m duplicating. And what I did was I bought the manufacturing rights to the tabletop CNCs so I can make as many as I want.

Winn Hardin: [00:21:38] Gotcha.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:21:39] And so the concept is——and then I’ll point out what I want to mention about the young people——but the concept is that a region or a state or an association or a group, you know, on the shirts that we make, that the kids get, on the back we tag manufacturing localism. So what we want is the high school kids to be from the high school that the middle school kids are going to go to. That way, you know, two years, three years hence, the middle schoolers are now the high schoolers and they’re mentors for the next middle schoolers.

Winn Hardin: [00:22:13] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:22:14] And so, you know, it’s pretty much a known entity that people like to work and live where they grew up. And there’s rare exceptions to that. But generally speaking, that’s something that, you know, tells true.

Winn Hardin: [00:22:29] Yeah.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:22:30] So the other thing that we do is, every young person gets a shirt that has the school name on it and where it is and Camp CHAMP and then sponsors of CHAMPION Now and whoever else sponsors it. And then when they go home, they have a pen that they’ve either assembled or watched assembled. And then we give them a box. We don’t give them the wooden case because it takes an hour to machine that. So we give them a box, and then we give them a laser-engraved nameplate with their name on it.

Winn Hardin: [00:22:59] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:23:00] So not only do they have a nice shirt, they got a nice case that has their name on it with a pen that they were involved in making.

Winn Hardin: [00:23:09] Yeah.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:23:10] And then, you know, when young people show up, out of 24, there’s only one or two that even know the word manufacturing, much less what it is.

Amanda Del Buono: [00:23:19] Uh huh.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:23:19] And then we get probably close to 10, maybe 50%, pretty excited about it, maybe even more. Well, here’s where this comes in. So they go home and they say, “Mom, Dad, this manufacturing thing is so exciting. And I had so much fun.” And then mom and dad say, “Wait, what? You’re looking to go into manufacturing to make money and as a career? No, you’re not going to do that, no.”

Winn Hardin: [00:23:45] Right, right. So then the college discussion, then the student debt discussion.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:23:49] Exactly. So then this gives the parents——and I’ll mention this is endorsed by the CEO of Siemens, which I’m very honored to have received——and then also the students, they have all the inspirational stories, the data set, the careers, the salaries to augment that. So maybe out of the 10, maybe five of them, or more, actually take that path. So everything is kind of like stackable to make a part of the big picture.

Winn Hardin: [00:24:22] Gotcha.

Amanda Del Buono: [00:24:23] Absolutely. Kind of curious about if you’ve been working with any other organizations? I mean, there’s people like First Robotics who are kind of engaging with students as well. Have you been able to, you know, create any partnerships or have any discussions with any other national organizations?

Winn Hardin: [00:24:41] You’re about to go to IMTS. I know you’re going to have a big presence there, so…

Terry M. Iverson: [00:24:45] Yeah, the people at AMT have been very, very generous in helping us. And so we had a 10 x 10 booth in 2018, a 10 x 10 booth in 2020. Of course 2022 didn’t happen. Wait a minute. I’m sorry. 2020 didn’t happen. 2022 did. And we had a 10 x 10 booth. Now we have a 10 x 30 booth. So the booth is much larger. We can have more people involved. I might have two CNC lathes so I can make that many more pens that we can give away.

Winn Hardin: [00:25:22] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:25:23] But, case in point, you know, I did have a nice conversation with SkillsUSA the other day. When I was in DC, i was lucky enough, fortunate enough to talk to Barbara Humpton, once again, the CEO of Siemens, who is very supportive. I went to NIMS, met with Montez King of NIMS. And then there’s a lot of other organizations, the packaging machine association I reached out to; I have an event at the TMA, the local TMA, next Wednesday. Or next Tuesday, pardon me. So, we’re just trying to get momentum, but the goal at IMTS, Amanda, would be to either have a kit——I call these kits——that can be leased for some period of time, or rented, or the kit can be co-branded and purchased and everything’s turnkey. So, for those people that really don’t do a good job of advocating for our industry or for manufacturing careers, this is kind of a plug and play. You know, you’ve got the machines to show and tell. You got the books to inspire the parents and/or the educators, industry members or the students.

Winn Hardin: [00:26:37] Right. That’s beautiful. And for those who don’t know, IMTS, I believe, is September 9th through 14th, if I’m not mistaken, up  in the Chicagoland area. Mccormick Place, of course. Hopefully, me and Jimmy Carroll, one of our Manufacturing Matters co-hosts, plan on being up there and running into Terry. Maybe we can do a quick live stream while we’re up there. Just to say hello to the audience again and see this new booth and the new experiences, maybe show the kit a little bit more, get a little bit more social awareness for it. So, that’d be fun if we can manage to arrange that.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:27:09] That’d be great. I’d love it.

Winn Hardin: [00:27:11] Absolutely. I’m curious when we talk about labor issues, and I know that I’ve written and talked a lot about these, you know, I mean, we’re talking about 20% open positions in, like, the ’20s. BLS is predicting, you know, 20, 23% gaps in the number of welders, forklift operators, lots of different key positions in manufacturing. Do you think that——and I love the fact that we made it this far into the show, and I’m going to blow it, but we didn’t even talk about Covid and the pandemic and the labor blip that we all talked about, how that impacted——but was that just a non-event really? Are we past that? I mean, as you mentioned, your efforts started long before that in the ’90s——

Terry M. Iverson: [00:27:53] Right.

Winn Hardin: [00:27:53] ——with the awareness that manufacturing was already going to have labor supply issues. Are we still getting the hangover from Covid or are we just continuing the existing path? Did that accelerate us? Was that accelerant on the problem of manufacturing labor? What are you hearing in real time these days from your friends at Siemens and others?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:28:12] Well, I’ll cite some things from Harry Moser. There was an accelerant. Covid was an accelerant for people reshoring and, you know, the Reshoring Initiative is Harry’s baby. And, you know, when Harry and I met initially in the mid ’90s, I thought to myself, I go, “Harry, this is awesome. I mean, I can’t believe it took this long for somebody, yourself, is the person to do it. And your passion is phenomenal. But who’s going to make all the parts when the companies come back? You know, we already have an existing problem with the numbers in manufacturing,”

Winn Hardin: [00:28:56] Right.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:28:56] So yes, there was an accelerant for sure. Covid accelerated the companies coming back to the US. There was a profound appreciation that we need to make things in this country. And then I think, as a result, there is, you know, one of the things that was in my second book that I came to notice is General Motors, for the first time, was not requiring a four-year degree for every position when they hired. And when one of the largest car manufacturers on the planet makes a statement like that, that’s pretty profound.

Winn Hardin: [00:29:37] Plus, we had a bunch of early retirements, you know, during the pandemic time, right? A lot of people——

[00:29:42] Yeah.

[00:29:43] We’ve already got an aging workforce, but a lot of that tribal knowledge is hopefully enjoying the beach somewhere, a little bit more rounds of golf. Although I’d be surprised if a lot of those folks didn’t get sucked back in because manufacturing has just been on a tear, it seems like, ever since the world woke up again. So that’s a good thing. At least it has been for North American economies.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:30:02] Sure.

Winn Hardin: [00:30:02] And, you know, considering North America against the other major economies in the world, I’d say maybe that’s something the rest of the world should pay attention to, because it’s been working pretty good for us. So, something to think about. But, if folks want to learn more about CHAMPION Now, is it CHAMPION Now.com?

Terry M. Iverson: [00:30:19] Dot.org. CHAMPION Now dot.org. One point that I’ll point out, you made a really good point that I think, you know, speaks volumes about our country——

[00:30:30] Yeah.

[00:30:31] ——is the American, US American manufacturing sector economy is the… it’s either eighth or ninth largest economy in the world. So, when anybody says, you know, do we really do anything in terms of manufacturing in this country? That one statistic——you know, when you’re comparing an entire country’s whole economy, to think that the US manufacturing economy is eighth or ninth largest in the world, that speaks volumes.

Winn Hardin: [00:31:00] Yeah.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:31:00] But, yeah, I mean, we have a lot of information on our website, CHAMPION Now.org. You can email me at Terry at CHAMPION Now.org. And we have a lot of information on there about both books, about Camp CHAMP. I just started a——I hope to, at my dad’s and my uncle’s high school that they came out of in Chicago, to have a scholarship program, hopefully housed from that high school——

[00:31:30] Yeah.

[00:31:31] ——which I started when my dad passed away. And then, we have 22 YouTube videos. During Covid, the gentleman at Cutting Tool Engineering magazine and I, Dennis, we filmed about 22 educational——manufacturing educational——videos that reside on our YouTube page.

Winn Hardin: [00:31:52] Fantastic, fantastic. And it sounds like you’re very in the early adoption phase. I mean, there’s a lot of opportunities for us, for the world, to spread the word and also for people to participate. I mean, this is kind of where robotics clubs might have been, say, 15 years ago at the high school level. You know, where you’re seeing a lot of those and at least, you know, in more well-funded districts, I would say.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:32:14] Well, I think the other thing that I’ll mention, and I haven’t really had the acceptance that I would like about this facet, is both the first and the second book I wrote with Manufacturing Day in mind. And a lot of people——and the camp, as well. I mean, there’s a lot of people that, you know, could buy a kit and then use it for their Manufacturing Day, but literally take it on the road to all the local middle schools and be a tremendous champion for themselves and the industry. But, Manufacturing Day… I encourage people, you know… We do have volume discounts for the books, whether it be either book. And we also encourage that when people buy books from the CHAMPION Now site, we can put their logo on the book and then every book that goes through the CHAMPION Now site, I make sure I sign. Not that anyone cares, but I make sure I sign every book.

Winn Hardin: [00:33:16] I look forward to when most… I have a bad feeling that the majority of middle school students right now, if you ask them, “What is manufacturing, where is it done?” probably say, “Oh well, Amazon does that.” You know? So, even though I’m an Amazon addict, like all the rest of us, that’s still a little bit terrifying.

Terry M. Iverson: [00:33:32] Yeah.

Winn Hardin: [00:33:33] Doesn’t speak well to the next generation of where we’re going. Terry, can’t thank you enough for taking some time out of your day to join us today and talk about CHAMPION Now. And learn more again at CHAMPION Now.org. Be sure to come see Terry up at the IMTS show in Chicago next month. And, until that time, if anybody has any questions, please feel free to reach out to Terry directly through his website. [Or] shoot ’em over to us. You can reach us through manufacturing-matters.com. Hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. Of course, you can see all of our back episodes on whatever your favorite podcast platform is. And until next time, just remember, that folks like Terry and the rest are helping all the rest of us to remember that manufacturing still does matter. So until our next episode, thank you.