By: Sharon Spielman
Held in the Vail Valley in Colorado, The Powder Coating Institute’s Annual Meeting
was a great success. In June, PCI’s 2016 Annual Meeting delivered on all fronts.
It provided the opportunity to meet other members, get a bird’s eye view of what the
association is working on, and hear some motivating and compelling speakers. There
were also fun activities and a multitude of networking opportunities.
For the first time, PCI’s 2016 Annual Meeting was
co-located with The Chemical Coaters Association
International (CCAI) Annual Meeting. That turned
out great and everyone who turned in an evaluation
recommended that PCI co-locates its meeting with CCAI
in the future. Along with the high scores overall for the
meeting, attendees made comments like “we can do this
again very soon” and “very excellent.” The social activities
and Westin resort also received very high scores.
The general sessions, social activities, and welcome
reception were all held jointly, while the committee and
business meetings of each association were held separately.
Co-locating the event reduced rates, overall costs and
reduced additional travel time for those who are members
of both organizations, while allowing for added networking
opportunities.
The attendance for PCI’s committee meetings was also
better than expected. PCI welcomes those who are willing
to help and encourage others to find a committee where
they can offer their expertise to help PCI continue to
reach its goals. Executive Director Trena Benson extends
her thanks to PCI’s team of very dedicated committee
chairs: Certification - Chris Merritt (Gema) sitting in for
Terry Watson (A Plus Powder Coaters); Education – Greg
Dawson (Nordson); Promotion - Craig Dietz (Axalta); and
Membership Chris Merritt (Gema) for their service and
dedication to make our committees function well.
Here are the summaries from this year’s committee
meetings.
Board of Directors
During the first part of 2016 and prior to the Annual
Meeting the Board of Directors has had several meetings
and the main point of emphasis was how do we move
forward as an Association? The Board of Directors along
with the Executive Director, and GMI staff put together
the Strategic Plan for the Powder Coating Institute (your
association). To quote fellow Board of Director Steve Keifer
“we are no longer in fix mode, we are now in growth
mode”.
The goals are to improve the entire infrastructure by
consolidating and updating the Institutes databases, update
and create a more interactive website, improve internal
resources, and to streamline the various committees
to align goals with the Institutes Mission and promote
involvement from membership.
The committee structure is set up with four main
committees with subcommittees within each main
committee. The four main committees as rolled out
at the Annual Meeting are Membership, Education &
Development, Promotions, and Certification.
Membership
Membership is the key and the changes introduced
to consolidate the subcommittees that drive value to our
members has truly energized this committee. This energy and
excitement was evident at this year’s PCI annual meeting.
This committee, now responsible for Membership value,
Market Intelligence, Scholarship funding and working with
our Custom Coater members, has had excellent participation
this year. We have managed to attract several new powder
suppliers and through June of this year 13 other new member
companies from Custom Coaters to System Integrators. The
Market Intelligence subcommittee, led by Karen Walters, has
done a great job collecting market data and introducing a
new quarterly executive summary for qualified non-reporting
companies. Currently they are working on next generation
reporting for Raw Material suppliers and deeper worldwide
production intelligence. The Scholarship team led by Kevin
Biller is fully immersed in development of new ways to work
with our members to have the opportunity to help fund and
shape the future minds and resources for powder coating and
Shivie Dhillon has been working diligently with the Custom
Coaters to ensure that their voice and needs for training
and development are being well communicated through our
committee in conjunction with Certification, Promotion and
Education. PCI brings tremendous value to our members
and to the industry. As we move ahead toward 2017 Ron
Cudzilo is heading up our Membership Dues subcommittee
tasked with streamlining our dues structure and introducing
some new targeted categories that will allow current and
potential new members a simpler and clear way to join our
association and maximize their benefits. We look forward to
all your participation and input for the coming year. It is your
association and membership is the Key!
Certification
On behalf of Terry Watson, I have to say what an
exciting and diverse turnout we achieved for this year’s PCI
annual meeting. The PCI Board of Directors has placed
their full support behind the concept of having qualified
coaters certified in the market place with the capabilities
to deliver the quality and performance that is expected
from a superior powder coated surface. The Certification
program introduced in 2009 has moved slowly however it is
this committee that is charged to move the needle forward.
Our meeting with input from custom coaters, material
suppliers, equipment, marketing and consultant members
has outlined a strong set of program steps to ensure success
of our existing Certified 3000 & 4000 members as well as
attract new coaters to certification. We are currently in the
development of revised audit guidelines, auditor standards
and marketing tools. Our recently introduced logo for PCI
3000 companies along with PCT’s marketing strategy is
driving solid pull through marketing for custom coaters. We
are excited about the program rejuvenation and expect great
participation. After all, Powder Coated Tough is not just a
stamp and PCI Certification is more than just a document,
they represent our brand and our commitment to the
highest quality, green finishing process in the industry.
Education
The Education committee’s primary function is the
coordination, content, scheduling, and speaker selection of
PCI’s Educational series as presented in PCI 101/202 classes
as well as Webinars, White Papers, and Technical Briefs.
The 2016 activities for the committee includes
8-Webinars, 4-101 (Basic) Hands-on Workshops and 4-
202 (Advanced) Hands-on Workshops. Additionally, the
Education Committee provided speakers for the Atlanta
Technical Conference in April which also held a 101
Hands-on Workshop along with a local factory tour. The
2017 Calendar of events is underway with a focus on
nationwide coverage for our Hands-on workshop series.
Additional to the Education Committee responsibilities
was the formation of three sub-committees that align well
with the committee mission:
- Technology chaired by Kevin Biller (Powder Coating
Research Group)
- Events chaired by Sue Ivancic (Nordson Corporation)
- Regulatory & Advocacy chaired by Nick Liberto
(Powder Coating Consultants)
Closing out 2016, the committee will continue to focus on
world class training opportunities, Powder Coating Summit
(PC Summit) with announcement of PCI Scholarship award
winners in October and participation in the November
FABTECH/Las Vegas Finishing Pavilion. Please visit www.powdercoating.org for the full calendar of events.
Promotions
The PCI Promotions Committee fosters awareness and
appreciation of powder coating on behalf of PCI member
companies, PCIs committees and the industry as a whole,
driving sustainable powder coating industry growth.
The committee receives the priorities for the various
initiatives from the PCI executive committee and
implements through sub-committees as needed. The
promotions committee meets as a whole once every
month and sub-committees meet on a schedule to
complete projects based on set timelines.
The current subcommittees are: PCI Video Series
chaired by Kelly Gregart with Nordson, PCI Branding
chaired by Julia Murray with Chemetall, Powder Coated
Tough magazine chaired by Tony Varda and Industry
Communications.
The committee has completed and updated the PCI
Coatings Comparison Calculator app which can be
downloaded to most smart phones, PCI 3000 Certification
ads and flyers, PCI infographic for membership and the
first PCI video targeted to the consumer.
The initiatives that we are working on or plan
to work on are to launch a series of videos for the
consumer and OEM markets, update PCI’s branding,
including logos and use guidelines, help promote new
subscribers for Powder Coated Tough magazine and
assist with PCT media kit, promote Sponsorships of
PCI scholarships, promote PCI certification benefits,
promote the use of Powder Coated Tough Stamp
on powder coated products and promote powder to
architects and specifiers.
Sharon Spielman is editor of Powder Coated Tough magazine. She can be reached via email at sspielman@powdercoating.org.