Message from the Chair
By Don DeCorte, RWMA Chairman
Hello everyone! Spring 2021 is upon us and soon we will see April showers bringing May flowers here in Michigan and most of the upper Midwest. For those of you in warmer southern climates, you are likely starting to get green grass and really warming up! We had an overall mild winter here in Michigan but still got our fair share of snow and cold. I am truly ready for warm weather!
We recently held our “virtual” Spring 2021 meeting and thanks to all of you who participated and made it a great success. This is the second virtual all member meeting and I hate to say it, but we are getting pretty good at this virtual “thing.” I must say, I for one really miss our spring and fall IN PERSON meetings. The camaraderie, casual socializing, and social events are always great and help us reconnect personally and as a group. It looks like we may get to plan an in-person meeting by the end of this year depending on how things go with the vaccine and social gathering “norms.”
At this time, we are tentatively planning to have our fall 2021 meeting in conjunction with the AWS FABTECH Show in Chicago in Sept. No specific plans have been made yet, we will keep you informed as the year progresses and plans are finalized.
We had a great year in 2020 with progress in many areas we wanted to work on. COVID-19 slowed us down a lot in our education area and the launch of the CRWT also took a hit due to COVID.
Thanks to AWS staff and the work of the education and certification departments, we are moving forward with a new “virtual” CRWT pre-exam class. One of our own RWMA members, Ray Michelena is doing the class for AWS and I hope it goes well.
The RWMA Education committee does have some schools back on the 2021 calendar and we hope we can hold those schools in person this year.
I am also excited about the changes we are working on to our rules of operation. Matt Post as chairman of the Governance committee and his team have done a great job to update them and we hope to have all of you send your vote in to approve them as quickly as you can.
Each member company will soon get an email showing the revised new rules of operation and I encourage you to read through them and send in your vote (hopefully to approve them) as soon as you can. We must submit them soon to the AWS Manufacturers & Marketing Council. If you do have questions or concerns about the proposed changes, please contact Matt Post. I am sure he would be happy to explain the thought process behind the changes and the necessity to get our rules of operation updated to match what we are doing and not doing.
Our overall industrial economy still seems to be doing pretty good. There are some areas where things are slow but most manufacturers I have polled are busy and getting busier. There is some pent-up demand following the Covid-19 shutdowns that have driven up orders. Some manufacturers are also experiencing supply issues with raw materials along with the continued issue of finding good skilled labor. We have also seen an up-tick in material pricing. Hopefully, you are keeping an eye on this and adjusting accordingly.
Thanks again to our awesome RWMA team and the AWS for its continued support of our work as an AWS Committee.