Message from the President
Asking the Tough Questions: Are We Relevant?
By Lee Mercer, PMI President and Director of Product Compliance for Moen Incorporated
Clearly that is a question we need to continually ask ourselves. The next question is, to whom and why is it important to be relevant. Our world is in a state of constant change. Maintaining relevance is key to our continued success as a trade association.
There have been several recent examples of the impact of the Plumbing Manufacturers Institute’s relevance. PMI assisted the City of Los Angeles in developing their implementation procedures for AB 1953 enforcement. The National Resources Defense Council solicited our participation and input relating to their proposals for changes to maximum flow rates with the Department of Energy. PMI members met with the California Department of Toxic Substances to discuss how we can collaborate on sharing information to help DTSC report accurate information and maintain the necessary confidentiality of our member’s information when they execute their audit program mandated by AB 1953.
Earlier this year I wrote about changes coming to PMI. Those wheels are in motion. On May 5th, members of your Board of Directors and a few invited guests got together to work on the continuing strategy of charting the course of the future for PMI. The primary objective of the Think Tank is to make sure that PMI is positioned for a sustainable future; that our relevance is always apparent for the members and is continually expanded to a broader universe.
To help stimulate thought, all of the strategy participants read the book The Competition Within: How Members Will Reinvent Associations. Some would argue that we do not need to reinvent ourselves; that PMI is healthy financially and is actively engaged in areas of importance to the industry. I don’t think anyone would argue the latter facts, but points made in the book helped to reinforce that there are opportunities out there that can enable us to get even better and expand on our current relevance in areas like the use of social media, globalization and avenues to turn weaknesses into opportunities.
When we reviewed our mission during the session, it was readily apparent that there are five key elements that continue to resonate as our core objectives: Promote, Inform, Educate, Enhance and Advocate. All of these elements are important, but it was interesting that the advocacy aspect consumed much of our discussion for the day. The group recognized and reinforced that while the Number One strength of the organization has been technical expertise, legislative and regulatory pressures have been increasing. We believe that advocacy is now of equal importance.
In order to expand our potential influence and position, the ability to advocate even more effectively is an area that we need to strengthen going forward. We will add resources there to duplicate the great foundation and networking framework we have within the PMI technical community. Also, as a part of this, we need to be able to develop methods that enable us to sometimes react faster in some situations than what we have been accustomed to in the past.
Our plan is to have additional sessions as the year goes on, to refine the strategy. We recognize it is difficult to drive change with only two Board meetings a year, but are committed to changing our approach.
Our Think Tank session included quite a bit of lively discussion, which to me, clearly demonstrates the passion that the Board has for the ongoing success of this organization. Passion with purpose always leads to success. PMI’s relevance as the industry voice is present and expanding.