MWFA, Pac-West and NCFA news
After my recent post regarding Fastener birthdays, I received the following note from Nancy Rich, Executive Director of the Mid West Fastener Associations:
"I read with interest all the anniversary celebrations. I always thought MWFA was old but I see there are groups, companies etc older. Kudos to them for surviving the good, the bad and the ugly times through the fastener industry to prevail. Last year the MWFA spent the whole year celebrating their 65th anniversary. I learned more about 1946 than I wanted to but found it interesting as I researched to celebrate at each meeting."
MWFA might be 65 years old but they continue to come up with some excellent events including the Fastener Tech show, their table top show, and regular fastener related meetings/programs. On February 16, they are hosting Harry Moser who will discuss the Re-Shoring Initiative. Then on March 15 they are hosting a Social Media Seminar. June 25 is the 31st Annual MWFA Fastener Show at Eaglewood Resort & Spa in Itasca, IL. I imagine there are some other events sprinkled in between those events and you can get an entire roster on their website at http://mwfa.net/.
I'm not sure how old the Pacific-West Fastener Organization is but Vickie Lester and her group are also a very active bunch. And, Vickie is an excellent communicator and keeps me posted on all of their upcoming events. I am not West Coaster but I hope to attend a Pac-West event sometime. I've got to admit, the Pac-West Spring Conference in San Francisco on March 22-24 is about as attractive an event as I can think of. There is a session called "Hiring, Building and Growing a Sales Team" that should be interesting to any Traveling Salesman or sales lady. Another session during that conference is "Fasteners and the Golden Gate Bridge". C'mon now...haven't we all been guilty of looking at some product and turning to our spouse or kid and saying, "I sold parts that are in that thing". How cool would it be to say, "Yeah, I sold some bolts that are in the Golden Gate Bridge". My personal best...I have parts on Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field) where the Cleveland Indians play, and if you think my kids have not heard about that a hundred times over the years, well then you are mistaken. They most certainly have. Back to Pac-West. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities and it would be awesome to write that trip off in the name of fasteners. Just can't do this one but I hope they repeat a trip to San Francisco in the future when I'm an empty nester. I should point our that on February 28, there is a meeting in La Mirada, California called "Maximize Marketing to Accelerate Profits in Mexico" which also sounds like a really great event.
I just attended a meeting of the North Coast Fastener Association this past week where a speaker from MAGNET (Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network) spoke about working with manufacturing companies in Northeast Ohio to increase business and manufacturing jobs. Similar in theme to a "re-shoring" meeting, I think there are a lot of groups hoping to see more domestic manufacturing which is certainly good for fastener companies. They also announced that the annual NCFA Distributor Social will take place on June 7 and the plan is to have their friends from Fully Threaded Radio come to town for some interviews, insights and cold Old Rusty Bolts.
"I read with interest all the anniversary celebrations. I always thought MWFA was old but I see there are groups, companies etc older. Kudos to them for surviving the good, the bad and the ugly times through the fastener industry to prevail. Last year the MWFA spent the whole year celebrating their 65th anniversary. I learned more about 1946 than I wanted to but found it interesting as I researched to celebrate at each meeting."
MWFA might be 65 years old but they continue to come up with some excellent events including the Fastener Tech show, their table top show, and regular fastener related meetings/programs. On February 16, they are hosting Harry Moser who will discuss the Re-Shoring Initiative. Then on March 15 they are hosting a Social Media Seminar. June 25 is the 31st Annual MWFA Fastener Show at Eaglewood Resort & Spa in Itasca, IL. I imagine there are some other events sprinkled in between those events and you can get an entire roster on their website at http://mwfa.net/.
I'm not sure how old the Pacific-West Fastener Organization is but Vickie Lester and her group are also a very active bunch. And, Vickie is an excellent communicator and keeps me posted on all of their upcoming events. I am not West Coaster but I hope to attend a Pac-West event sometime. I've got to admit, the Pac-West Spring Conference in San Francisco on March 22-24 is about as attractive an event as I can think of. There is a session called "Hiring, Building and Growing a Sales Team" that should be interesting to any Traveling Salesman or sales lady. Another session during that conference is "Fasteners and the Golden Gate Bridge". C'mon now...haven't we all been guilty of looking at some product and turning to our spouse or kid and saying, "I sold parts that are in that thing". How cool would it be to say, "Yeah, I sold some bolts that are in the Golden Gate Bridge". My personal best...I have parts on Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field) where the Cleveland Indians play, and if you think my kids have not heard about that a hundred times over the years, well then you are mistaken. They most certainly have. Back to Pac-West. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities and it would be awesome to write that trip off in the name of fasteners. Just can't do this one but I hope they repeat a trip to San Francisco in the future when I'm an empty nester. I should point our that on February 28, there is a meeting in La Mirada, California called "Maximize Marketing to Accelerate Profits in Mexico" which also sounds like a really great event.
I just attended a meeting of the North Coast Fastener Association this past week where a speaker from MAGNET (Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network) spoke about working with manufacturing companies in Northeast Ohio to increase business and manufacturing jobs. Similar in theme to a "re-shoring" meeting, I think there are a lot of groups hoping to see more domestic manufacturing which is certainly good for fastener companies. They also announced that the annual NCFA Distributor Social will take place on June 7 and the plan is to have their friends from Fully Threaded Radio come to town for some interviews, insights and cold Old Rusty Bolts.
I am always glad to share information about the regional fastener associations. I think they do a tremendous amount of good. The table tops, plant tours, guest speakers and other events are great opportunities for networking and learning. I think the regional associations contribute a great amount to the industry, and for the most part, the work is done by volunteers from the industry. If I did not mention your organization, please comment here and fill us in. Or, send me a note and I will post your info in the future. Nancy, Vickie and Lisa Graham of the NCFA are very good at keeping me posted and I am more than happy to pass along any details that help the regional fastener associations.
I sold fasteners for the Golden Gate bridge! No, I am not THAT old. It wasn't in the 30's, but I sold rivets to a metal fabricator back in the 80's and went to see them once and found out they were using them for replacement railing on the Golden Gate Bridge. Not only that, but their contract included removing the old railing that was being duplicated and replaced. The owner had six foot sections of the old rail for sale for 100 bucks each. I almost bought one then even though that was more than a whole day's pay, even in a good month, and it wouldn't have fit in the back of my little Nissan Sentra. With all of the great TV shows like American Pickers today, I now know I was right about the value and I should have bought it! I could have gotten it authenticated and everything. I found a picture of the railing now, exactly as I remember seeing these guys fabricating it and hot riveting with "my" rivets. I've got to get out in the field more. I had forgotten what fun it is to see fasteners in action.
www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABest_Frends_Forever_-_Golden_Gate_bridge_guard_rail_166.jpg">
I might try and crash the Pac-West event in SF since I am nearby. Since the company I work for is based in TX, we are not members. Maybe I can dress like a waiter and sneak in.
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I am officially in awe and slightly jealous. That is so cool.
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I'm serious. You have motivated me to hit the road more often.
That link for the pic didn't work. Here's a new one
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABest_Frends_Forever_-_Golden_Gate_bridge_guard_rail_166.jpg
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TS, thanks for the mentions of our upcoming events! We're kind of proud of what our teams have come up with on our education plan.
And, I'd like to remind Andy that you don't need to be a member to attend the conference in San Francisco. We have single-day registrations if you can't make the full conference. We'd love to see you (and all of the TS' readers there.
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Nice article and I agree that San Francisco sounds like a great convention location. Maybe next time.
The Southwestern Fastener Association is having their 'world famous' EXPO in Houston, TX on March 24,2012. The full conference starts March 22 at the Marriott Westchase Hotel. BTW, we got the fantastic room rate of $79 per night. OK, here's my point, you can't afford to miss this EXPO. It's going to sound like I'm name dropping but we have fantastic speakers and seminar panelists. Bruce Darling, Don Carr, Jim Witucki, Simmi Sukhuja, John Longyear, Mark Klosek, Ruth Dowling and John Wolz, to name a few.
Houston is a wonderful city. The weather is great and the golf, shopping, and restaurants are some of the best in the world.
Check out our website @ www.sfa-fastener.org or call our Executive Director John Elsner @ 713-952-5472. This is going to be the best party/fastener event of the year so don't miss it!!
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