It’s been an incredible year for ASA as 2019 comes to a close. After serving the industry as your national association for the past 50 years, we’re focused on what the future holds for our industry. As ASA continues to expand the value of our national association, we can’t help but to seek out the challenges ahead with a bold vision to lead our industry for the next 50 years. 

As technology continues to transform, attracting quality talent becomes more challenging, and remaining relevant in today’s rapidly changing environment becomes increasingly important. ASA will continue to add the necessary tools and resources needed to face these challenges in the future. ASA, with the help of many dedicated volunteers, has identified the three most important challenges our industry will face in the near future. To address these challenges and support our membership, ASA will launch three strategic initiatives:
 
D.NEXT seeks to provide a comprehensive set of resources to ensure ASA members invest in technologies that deliver solutions their customers will value by launching an Innovation Center at the University of Illinois in early 2020. 
 
PROJECT TALENT addresses the issue of our future workforce and the need to recruit 60,000 to 100,000 employees to replace anticipated workforce retirements over the next decade. The first phase of the project will work with a marketing firm to develop a campaign specifically geared towards attracting qualified workers to our industry.
 
VITALITY involves the development of an assessment tool for members to gauge the state of their businesses and develop strategies for positioning their companies for future success.

In addition, ASA will continue to offer and invest in the core services and programs that have made ASA’s member-value proposition the strongest in the industry:
 
ASA University has become the “standard for training” in the PHCP and PVF industry, which is why it is most often cited as the No. 1 reason for joining the association. ASA-U has five colleges, 29 role-based training tracks and more than 220 online courses addressing the needs of both new and seasoned employees. The education provides leadership teams with the ability to recruit, train and retain employees.
 
ASA’s valuable Business Intelligence (BI) provides critical trends and economic data for help navigating through an unpredictable economic climate. ASA’s online BI Dashboard hosts all of ASA’s BI offerings, allowing for easy access in a secure location for submitting and receiving final reports. 
 
ASA is the voice of the PHCP and PVF industry. As such, a dedicated team in Washington tackles issues that are in the best interest of ASA members,  from federal and state legislative affairs to regulatory issues and codes and standards. ASA educates officials about the issues our industry faces and how the decisions made by elected officials will impact the businesses and employees building careers in our industry.
 
ASA’s engaging conferences and events are the place where members come together to build personal networks and profitable business relationships. ASA’s engaging conference and events are the place where members come together regionally and/or nationally to build personal networks and profitable business relationships at gatherings such as NETWORK, ASA’s annual conference; EMERGE, brought to you by the Emerging Leaders Division; ELEVATE, brought to you by the Women in Industry Division; and the CONNECT communities, consisting of 12 noncompeting participants from sales, marketing warehouse ops, HR purchasing and training. CONNECT is a proven facilitation concept where like-function peers meet online monthly to discuss a challenge introduced by one of the peer-group members. Group members then dissect the challenge and offer solutions based on their own best practices.

ASA believes that success isn’t just about what is achieved, but the steps it took to get the results. It’s how we achieve our mission and strive to be indispensable to the prosperity of the industry. 

> Not a member? Please contact members@asa.net to learn more about how your company will benefit from its sustained membership support and participation.