Global Fastener News

November 5, 1981 FIN – A new regional fastener association is on the way: the Western Fastener Association.

Bob Lehman, president of Modern Metric Fasteners, Glendale, Calif., tells FIN that if all goes well it should be functioning soon after the beginning of the new year.
“We are planning an association similar to the New England Fastener Distributors Association, the Southwestern Fastener Association, or the fastener association on the West Coast except the Los Angeles Fastener Association, which includes maybe 98% of the distributors in the Los Angeles area. It has not been as active as it had been in the past. A lot of us feel that it just hasnʼt been doing the job.”
“So, with their blessing, the board of directorʼs blessing, weʼve looked into it,” Lehman explains. “Iʼve been chairman of a committee to start a Western Fastener Association, which would include all of the distributors from Denver west. I talked to all of the distributors from Oregon and Washington at the NFDA meeting in Palm Springs. Theyʼre all for it and the majority of the LA fastener distributors are for it. The larger ones are. Some of the mom and pop shops arenʼt too anxious. But, I think the Los Angeles association will be absorbed into it eventually.”
Los Angeles will continue for the immediate future with planned programs, seminars, etc. Most members such as Lehman will stay members of Los Angeles even though they join the new group. The Los Angeles association will lend the new group several thousand dollars so that it will be able to pay for the legal work and so forth involved in start-up.
“I am meeting with the new officers of the Los Angeles association next Tuesday (Nov. 10) to get the go-ahead,” Lehman says.
Like other regional groups , the Western Fastener Association will be less restrictive than the National Fastener Distributors Association, accepting manufacturers reps and manufacturers along with distributors, as members. ©1981/2014 Fastener Industry News.
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