Global Fastener News

December 9, 1996 FIN – The National Fastener Distributors Association will move into a new office adjacent to the Industrial Fasteners Institute in Cleveland, NFDA president Mark Alexander announced.

The move will take place as soon as the distributors association installs a new executive to succeed the late Ken Dickson. The selection committee will meet in mid-December in hopes of naming the new executive vice president. The new office will open when the new director starts on the job.
Alexander, of Adams Nut & Bolt, emphasized that though “we will be in a suite next door, we will remain autonomous. We will be able to share some efficiencies, but we will not be merging.”
The NFDA has been headquartered in an office in Dickson’s Somerdale, New Jersey, home.
The IFI, an association of North American fastener manufacturers founded in 1931, is housed on the 11th floor of the East Ohio Building in downtown Cleveland.
After Dickson died in September the IFI board invited the NFA board to consider moving to excess space the IFI has in the building.
Alexander said the distributors board recognized the “efficiencies we could gain and how the two associations can provide leadership to the industry by officing next to each other.”
At the request of members, the NFDA was already planning more educational programs, which Alexander said can be best conducted with coordination with the IFI.
The IFI has a staff of nine, including three engineers, and will be adding a fourth engineer soon, managing director Rob Harris said.
IFI chairman Max Dorflinger of Nylok Corporation described the move as “a very good thing. We discussed this in October when we met together for one session. It is a very good thing for both parties.”
Both the IFI and NFDA conducted their regular autumn meetings during the first week of October in Cleveland. They held a joint banquet on the overlapping day. Though leaders of both groups had been attending each other’s meetings for past two years, this was the first joint event.
“That was our first overlapping meeting and we would like to have more, but nothing is on the calendar yet,” Alexander said.
Dorflinger said he has heard “nothing but good response” from IFI members and other industry leaders.
Alexander said that kong the “efficiencies are mailing systems and copy machines that everyone with a small business understands.”
Alexander also noted that the NFDA receive3s “an incredible amount of phone calls that need to go to the IFI. And the IFI receives distribution calls. We will be able to simply transfer those calls.”
The NFDA will gain access to the IFI library, and that may increase literature sales for the IFI, Alexander noted.
Harris said the adjacent offices are “a great opportunity to further develop a unified industry voice.”
He added that many IFI members are associate members of the NFDA.
The new address for the NFDA will be: 1717 E. Ninth St. #1185, Cleveland, OH 44114-2879. Tel: (216) 579-1571. Fax (216) 579-1531.
The IFI is in suite 1108. Tel: (216) 241-1482. Fax (216) 241-5901. ©1996/2014 Fastener Industry News.
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