Last week we asked "Do you think the non-profit organizations aligned with our industry have done a good job of supporting it during the last twenty years?"
78% of you said "no"
Comments:
Each has it's own mission, and tries to serve that "customer base". many of the TAPPI seminars and conferences provide value for those who dig into the people and proceedings. Do you know that AF+PA didn't try to educate congressman jackson? since when do congressmen know all the facts about a subject? Is he represetning a wood products region?
With the exception of TAPPI, don't have any specific evidence. If a non-profit oraganization is still around, and for profit organizations are still sending them money, they must be doing what is expected of them. Fight any new environmental regulations, advocate for better trade deals, push for higher truck weight limits (that local gov. might see as more frequent road repair for them)and so on. It seems that support for TAPPI is less than years ago, which is unfortunate. I think the local meetings for professionals and operations personnel were a great way to connect and promote development of process improvement. I also liked the hospitality suites.
The most classic example is the encroachment of plastics into packaging. The paper industry has chosen not to take on plastics manufacturers in being the being the most sound for for the environment.
Support real innovation.
If the aim of AF+PA is regulatory issues, and that needs to change to marketing, it's membership should push it in that direction. Perhaps a management group should be responsible for communicating the payroll status to their congressmen.
Get out of their offices and go to work !!!!!
Advertise, promote, and educate
Get input from the few people left in the mills and from suppliers to the industry--not just the paying members but all involved. The purchasing people and the sales people all have opinions, ideas, insight. Looking at the next question--TAPPI used to let retired members have free or very low dues but took the liberal approach and demanded more dues--they lost a lot of valuable insight and help. Not a damn thing. What support would that be? More lobbyist's? Now wouldn't that be great. The only thing that may help is if an organization would do a better job educating shareholders on how the companies they own are managing the business and maybe then shareholders might hold management more accountable for the decisions made that affect not only the short term, but also longer term prospects. If we are looking for an organization that will educate people about how great paper is, if a company does something great with paper, they will probably not need any help promoting it.
Mount an aggressive ad campaign re the green nature of paper and paperboard products.
Advertise, in fact, campaign about the fact that paper is sustainable, renewable, recyclable and makes a lot of sense
This week we are asking you your opinion of support organizations in the indusrty You can take the quiz here or click on "More" below.
Want to get a jump on the surveys? Follow me on twitter, where they are posted early. You can do this here. (note: all respondents are confidential; the software is programmed in such a way that neither we nor anyone else can determine who responded)
###
Want to be heard on other subjects? Be sure to watch for "Paperitalo Second Tuesday Surveys."
