Associations in North America (especially within Canada) have become more challenging in which to operate in due to shrinking industrial footprints and consolidation, membership recruitment challenges and revenue issues, and the lack of (frankly) individual or company membership interested in participating. People are spread too thin to have the time and the inclination to take part in these industry groups anymore it seems.

I’ll devote some additional posts to why I think there are a specific lack of engagement regarding competitive issues, why members don’t feel they are getting an ROI, why they think they can do thing internally (but don’t), later…

I am not blaming anyone, that is simply a reflection of the state of running leaner operations, where you don’t have dedicated staff assigned to liaise with organizations anymore. Too few people wearing too many hats so to speak….

However, I have noted two things that potentially will be of issues if not now, down the road, probably sooner than later:

1. I have been contacted by industry participants looking for advice or assistance with issues (codes, standards, regulatory, etc.) regarding their specific products and applications. Now that the trade associations are no longer supporting any activity in Canada, these services are no longer available in Canada. This is a real loss, as also as companies have scaled back their own staffing and services, their in-house ability to address these issues is also limited. So their products have barriers to usage.
2. I still get many enquiries from potential customers of copper and copper alloy products. But again, not being involved (or frankly compensated) in this space, I don’t have the time or ability to pass these on to the appropriate company or wholesaler to address, nor to begin answering any of the technical questions those callers may have. A bit sad, but everyone does move on. But who does, and each missed contact represents a missed sales or specification opportunity.

Two sides of the same coin, the result of which is lack of connection between customers and suppliers and more importantly the continued ability to use and specify the products concerned. If one day a code or standard changes, or some regulation gets passed, and industry was too thin to notice, yikes….