The 2006 NFPA Spring Conference & Annual Meeting took place February 9-12, 2006 in Marco Island Florida. It was yet another excellent event put together by the NFPA staff.

Several outstanding speakers addressed the group including Connie Podesta with some very interesting and entertaining tips on dealing with other people and understanding yourself, Marilyn Moats Kennedy with some great insight into understanding demographics in the workplace, Professor Marc Bertoneche who gave a very informative case study of the turnaround of the Nissan Motor Company, and an NFPA favorite Alan Beaulieu with his economic update.

Congratulations to the Board of the NFPA and the staff at NFPA headquarters for a job very well done. We have come to expect nothing but the best from NFPA! What are your thoughts?

Mike Ference
Publisher
Hydraulics & Pneumatics

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mike Ference,

Post your thoughts or questions about the ERC grant for fluid power.

The NFPA Spring 2007 Conference took place in Palm Springs California, February 22-25, 2007 with record attendance. With a beautiful setting, excellent speakers, and a very hard-working NFPA staff, the event was a big success. Congratulations to the NFPA Board of Directors and staff for a job well done.

The FPDA 2007 Annual Meeting is scheduled to take place in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico on April 29- May 2, 2007. Go to their website at www.fpda.org for more details.

The 23rd Annual Meeting & Convention for NAHAD is scheduled to be held in Victoria, BC Canada on May 18-22, 2007.

For more details, go to their website at www.nahad.com.

Are there any other associations that include fluid power?

The FPDA 2007 Annual Meeting held at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort in Santa Ana Pueblo, NM was another big success. Congratulations to Kathy DeMarco and her team at FPDA in putting together this excellent event.

The featured speakers were Bob Prosen who enlightened the membership on achieving extraordinary results. Robert Wendover spoke of leadership and emerging generations. John Cassis closed the event with his insights on the art of leadership.

The roundtable discussions each morning offered distributor and manufacturer members an opportunity to discuss some very important supply chain topics. The food was excellent and the resort was beautiful.

Great work by Steven Ellis as president this past year. Good luck to Boyd Barnwell, incoming president.

Congratulations to all.

The 2007 NAHAD Annual Meeting was very successfully held in beautiful Victoria, BC on May 18-22, 2007. Congratulations to the NAHAD management team led by Joe Thompson and to NAHAD President Mark Forget. Mark and his wife Sharon were excellent hosts in the first-ever meeting held in Canada.

With over 900 registered delegates including distributors, manufactures, and affiliates, this was the largest NAHAD Annual Meeting ever. The presentations were excellent, the Service Mart and Contact Table sessions were well attended, and all participants were very pleased with this year's event.

For more information about NAHAD, go to their website at http://www.nahad.org/

More from NAHAD ...


Hose Master CEO Honored with Inaugural NAHAD Carver Award

In conjunction with its recent record-breaking Annual Convention held in Victoria, BC, NAHAD – The Association for Hose & Accessories Distribution - inaugurated a new industry achievement award, named in honor of past president, George Wilson Carver.

As noted in the presentation to nearly 940 NAHAD members attending the convention, Carver, a founding father and third president of NAHAD, served the association, and the industry, with dedication, grace and distinction. His lifelong commitment to team work and excellence was exemplified during his years as a student at Duke University, where he pitched their baseball team to Southern Conference Championships in 1952 and 1953.

While serving in the U.S. Air Force, George pitched and coached the Air Force team to a World Championship. In 1963, he founded Catawba Industrial Rubber, which he owned until his retirement in 1995. He also established Dixie Rubber Corporation in Greenville, SC, Coastal Hose & Rubber in Wilmington, NC and Danflex of the UK.

As NAHAD president, George and his wife Molly hosted NAHAD’s 5th Annual Meeting & Convention in San Diego in 1989. With the theme of "Human Capital" the convention topics addressed various aspects of managing and directing employees. Guiding and mentoring employees was a theme that George believed in very strongly. When he retired in 1995, he was able to ensure a successful transition in his companies with ownership passing to key employees, including Marvin "Skip" Bruce, Scott Corley and Fred Morrow. George passed away on December 3, 2005.

NAHAD proudly honored George’s memory, his spirit and his quiet, firm commitment to team work and excellence by this year introducing the George W. Carver Outstanding Commitment to Industry Excellence Award. The 2007 honoree was Sam J. Foti, CEO of Hose Master, Inc., Cleveland, OH, in honor of his dedicated commitment to, and support of, NAHAD since its inception and for providing extensive corporate resources in support of the NAHAD Hose Assembly Guidelines program.

For more information on NAHAD or the George W. Carver Award, contact NAHAD at 1-800-624-2227 or at www.nahad.org.

The NFPA Educator Summit and Economic Outlook Conference will be held in Chicago on August 21-24, 2007. Go to http://www.nfpa.com/for more information.

Congratulations to the NFPA for an excellent Economic Outlook Conference. See www.nfpa.com for more details.

The Spring 2008 NFPA meeting provided many interesting insights into the future of fluid power. It was very encouraging!

IFPE 2008 - A huge event. Can you post some pictures?

The 24th Annual Meeting & Convention of NAHAD, The Association for Hose and Accessories Distribution is being held in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, April 5-9, 2008. NAHAD consists of both manufacturers and distributors of hose and accessory products as well as associate and affiliate members. H&P magazine has been an affiliate member and close partner of NAHAD for the past six years.
We participate in the Annual Meeting & Convention by exhibiting in the Service Mart portion of the event which is a trade fair set up at the meetings for delegates. Along with other affiliate members, H&P distributes our products that would be of interest to the distributor and manufacturer members.
Included in our product offerings of interest are H&P magazine subscriptions for the distributor members, advertising for the manufacturer members, books, web products, Fluid Power Handbook & Directory, and our new Fluid Power Supply Channel digital magazine to be launched in July 2008.
The 2008 NAHAD meeting will be kicked off on Saturday, April 5 when Danny Forster, host of the Discovery Channel’s Build It Bigger gives the keynote address to the delegates and sets the tone for the meeting with the theme, Building Bigger Value for Your New Markets.
Also on the speaker list for this year’s program are Bill McCleave of W.R. McCleave & Associates, a recognized expert in Distribution Management and integrated supply. His topic will be Strategic Sweet Spots for Market Success. Then Gary Jobson of Jobson Sailing and ESPN commentator will present a session on Ultimate Performance.
Kathy Newton of Purdue University will discuss Sustaining Growth Through Distribution Excellence, Tom Reilly presents on Value-Added Sales Culture, and Bob Destefano shares insights on building an online marketing machine. Christine Corelli will give attendees some help with a presentation on building customer loyalty.
Colonial Williamsburg offers an awesome historic setting for this year’s meeting. NAHAD does a tremendous job of providing networking opportunities, unique dining settings, sight-seeing excursions, golf, and an all-around enjoyable, educational, and productive four days to all in attendance.

FPDA 2008 Annual Meeting

The 2008 Annual Meeting of the Fluid Power Distributors Association is taking place at Saddlebrook Resort in Florida. It all started with "New Opportunity Markets" Networking Breakfasts covering the following topics: Mobile & Transportation, Energy & Power Generation, Food/Dairy Processing, and Life Sciences & Healthcare.

Each topic had a presenter to get the discussions going followed by a vibrant roundtable session to share ideas. I had the distinct privilege of presenting an outline of Fluid Power in Energy & Power Generation. We discussed new sales opportunities in this market and how fluid power distributors can capitalize on them.



The opening general session was lead by current President, Boyd Barnwell, who introduced the Association's new initiative called FPDA Forward Motion Plan which outlined some new opportunities and directions for the association's members. Again, I had the honor of addressing the general session to give my support for their new and exciting ideas.