Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/919877
10 FEDA News & Views We also have created three new committees—fi nance, audit and compensation—to ensure that board members have a more active role in overseeing FEDA's legal, fi nancial, and mission responsibilities. Each board member will be asked to serve on at least one of the three and will meet regularly throughout the year. In response to feedback on the need to strengthen FEDA's voice and engage more young professionals, board members also will be asked to serve on one of two new member leadership councils, FEDA's Dealer Advocacy Council and the Young Industry Leaders Council. Lastly, another change in governance involves the titles of the board's offi cers. To better refl ect governance, not operational roles, their titles will be chairman, vice chairman, secretary-treasurer, and past chairman. Keeping in line with the change, my role as CEO has changed as well. Formerly named executive vice president, the CEO will act as the non-voting offi cer for the corporation and be responsible for managing FEDA's operations. Association Sta Moving in New Directions After operating for more than 30 years as an association focused primarily on year- round convention planning, FEDA's operations are now moving in a new direction. Staff and resources have been restructured to provide continued convention support, but also to provide new support for the broad range of work outlined in FEDA's new strategic plan. Former News & Views editor Stacy Ward has been promoted to help oversee industry research projects on behalf of the Association, as well as to coordinate education and training programs for the membership. Stacy's new title is director of Programs and Research and she also will serve as the editor in chief of News & Views. As you read in her fi rst column at the beginning of this issue, News & Views is now supported by an editorial calendar that focuses on FEDA's strategic goals. Please see Publications at feda. com for the full 2018 News & Views editorial calendar. In addition, the Association has a new meeting and event planner, Erin Bedell, who is charged with enhancing and growing FEDA's annual conference and new year-round meetings and events. Erin's fi rst large project has been to work with her counterparts at NAFEM and CFESA to plan and present the groups' fi rst joint conference, e Future Starts Here: E&S Industry Summit, in March 2018. For conference information, please contact Erin at erin@feda.com. Long-time employees Rosie Montanez and Adela Ramos also have moved to new staff roles. Rosie now oversees FEDA's administrative functions, including our fi nancial operations and communications support systems. Adela has shifted to working more closely with members to ensure they have ongoing information and assistance related to member services, education, and other member support needs. Next Steps: FEDA's Advocacy Challenge After speaking with dealers and, in some instances, working with them as they processed the most recent channel disruption, Middleby's acquisition of QualServ, I have an appreciation for how challenging and complex the term "advocacy" has become for FEDA members. A key part of FEDA's new strategic plan is for the staff , board of directors and members to work together to develop a unifi ed FEDA advocacy program. is process will involve identifying common advocacy goals, language and strategies that will produce tangible results for members going forward. Look for more on this topic in future communications and in the January/February issue of News & Views. ■ FEDA is Evolving, Too Mission Forward S ince stepping in the role of chief executive offi cer, I've had many conversations with various FEDA members about the distributor's role in the channel and expectations moving forward. Distributors of all sizes, and business models, have expressed concerns over the channel confl ict that's surfaced within the last few months and everyone is talking about the wave of disruption we're experiencing as an industry. e fi rst thing I'd like you to know is that I'm listening, and your executive committee is listening and understands that FEDA must change in order to eff ectively respond. To that end, we've begun the hard work that comes with progress. Over the past six months, the executive committee and board of directors have restructured the Association's leadership and management roles to help the board and staff operate more effi ciently on your behalf. Instead of once a year, now the board will start meeting four times a year to assess FEDA's progress toward its strategic and fi nancial goals and ensure that it is operating at the highest level possible for its members. Tracy Mulqueen CEO, FEDA tracy@feda.com