10/11/2013
HEADLINES
PERSPECTIVE: Fastener Coalition Begins New Talks About Industry Collaboration
“Collaborate.”
“Expanded menu of products and services.”
“A platform for more coordinated and effective service to the fastener industry.”
“What can we offer members better?”
“Fruitful.”
Those are phrases Pacific-West Fastener Association president Russ Doran used to describe what most of the North American fastener associations were talking about on September 16, 2013.
At a Fastener Industry Coalition meeting in Chicago, representatives from eight fastener organizations discussed possibilities of working together for mutual benefit.
The Southwestern Fastener Association and the New England Fastener Distributors Association were not represented at the Chicago meeting.
The FIC was founded during the 1990s to coordinate industry response for the U.S. Fastener Quality Act process. It primarily involved executive directors.
Subsequently the FIC has held perfunctory meetings annually in conjunction with fastener trade shows in Chicago or Las Vegas and involved associations updating each other on current activities.
In Chicago the fastener organizations talked more seriously than ever before about cooperation.
Doran termed the Industrial Fastener Institute – the manufacturing-oriented organization – as “enthused” because the IFI wants more distributor involvement.
The IFI currently has a lobbying consulting firm in Washington DC watching legislation for fastener manufacturing interests.
A goal of any form of industry working together is creating a stronger industry voice in government without higher costs of separate associations lobbying individually, Doran said.
What is Next?
Those representing their organizations at the Chicago meeting will return to their boards to discuss future steps. Participants emphasized they aren’t going back with a set of orders.
Any FIC action must be approved by each board.
Participants want to avoid any appearance of any one association taking over others, Doran pointed out.
“We are not looking at elimination of regionals,” the western regional president emphasized in reference to efforts by the National Fastener Distributors Association a decade ago. What associations are talking about now “will not be the NFDA.”
Indeed, when NFDA’s then-president Jay Queenin in 2012 discussed more collaboration between associations he acknowledged it would be best not to even use the “National” name.
Possibilities down the road include an industry-wide publication and trade show to create funding for member services. After all, distributors want content in their association meetings and content can be expensive, Doran noted.
But those steps are “off the table” in current talks, Doran reported. The participants are “not prepared to go down that road” to creating a magazine or combined trade show.
Industry organizations will “move slowly” in taking steps toward something bigger, Doran said.
“This is a positive,” Doran declared to Pac-West members. “This is the most positive step we’ve had.”
Click on Fastener History on GlobalFastenerNews.com for stories of past efforts for fastener industry groups to work together:
The country-of-origin marking requirements, mandated by recently passed customs regulations, was unanimously considered the most important problem facing fastener distributors.
1980 FIN – IFI Plus 7 Trade Associations Meet to Discuss Future of Wire Rod Supply
The wire rod consumers agreed that the Trigger Price Mechanism (TPM) should be reinstated.
2000 FIN – Perspective: A Renewed Form of Consolidation?
Ruetz sees an advantage of some form of consolidation as eliminating the cost of redundancies.
2012 FIN – NFDA Seeks to Assemble Industry Wide Organization
IFI’s Greenslade: “There is value in all pulling together.” The alternative is “fragmenting resources.”
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