Page 51 - MetalForming July 2017

In June, Roy Hardy became PMA’s new presi- dent, and states a commitment to member- ship gains, advocacy, training and technology transfer.
members.
“If we can grow PMA membership to 30 per-
cent of the metalforming industry, we can increase PMA’s clout in Washington, D.C., giving us a bigger voice for the industry. In addition, we need to continue bringing our people together through networking opportunities. Part of that
involves empowering and energizing our local districts, the backbone of PMA. Future leaders are found in the districts, and they serve as our first line of communication as to what’s going on, what’s new and what are the concerns.”
Key to competitiveness is linking members to the latest, most effective technology, making PMA “a matchmaker for members and technology,” as Hardy says. “We want to expose members to what’s going on related to technology. International conferences and tradeshows are ideal for technology transfer, so PMA will continue to be active in these areas.”
To address the industry’s challenge of finding and retaining qualified associates, Hardy stresses the need for workforce-development programs “to develop the talent we already have, and train managers as future company leaders.”
And, he sees PMA’s Educational Foundation as instrumental in helping address the skills shortage by raising awareness among the general public, and assisting and fund- ing PMA’s efforts to deliver training via an online learning-management system as well as workshops and seminars.
association has undertaken a major effort to update training offerings via web-based programs.
“Today we are ready to reinvent our video-training programs in a digital age,” explains Gaskin. “The PMA Edu- cational Foundation (PMAEF) will be leading the way over the next couple of years in doing this. We expect to spend $2.5 million to develop new training programs, all digital and deliv- ered over the Internet through a learn- ing-management system. Our industry will be able to take advantage of mod- ern training to build workforce skills, addressing a skill shortage that is as severe as we’ve seen in many years.”
The association has pursued other training initiatives as well. For example, in 1993, PMA began work on creating a skill-standard credentialing system for all of the metalworking industry, which transformed itself into the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) in 1995. In 1996, PMAEF
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