The officers and board members of the Pacific Southwest Distributors Association and the Western Suppliers Association recently agreed to "pursue and implement" a combined annual meeting by the spring of 2001.

The officers and board members of the Pacific Southwest Distributors Association, based in Los Angeles, and the Western Suppliers Association, based in San Mateo, Calif., recently agreed to "pursue and implement" a combined annual meeting by the spring of 2001.

The two regionals will continue as independent trade associations but will form a new Pacific Western Distributors Association for the sole purpose of planning and implementing the annual meetings. If approved by the American Supply Association, the new organization will appoint representatives to the ASA board of directors and promote ASA programs and services at the Western regional level.

Bob Bluth, PSDA's executive vice president, said that the underlying premise for the joint annual meeting is the cost economies and program efficiencies gained by both associations, as well as by the vendors who attend the meeting.

"Our 1999 postconvention survey reveals this action to be very popular among all sectors of the industry that attended," he told Supply House Times.