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14 FEDA News & Views D uring my recent review of more than 60 distribution associations, several interesting patterns emerged. Below is a chart showing how these associations compare in terms of annual operating revenues, scope of legislative advocacy efforts, the variety of education and training offered, and the extent to which some are leading effective channel strategies. One trailblazing association, the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA), has a dedicated Channel Strategies program and hosts several channel strategies activities throughout the year for mid- to upper-level executives from distribution and manufacturing companies. Channel strategies refer to the activities that bring together distributors, manufacturers, end users and other channel partners to encourage collaborative efforts and improve an industry. It's not surprising that associations with the greatest legislative advocacy involvement, combined with well-developed education and training programs and e ective channel strategies, earned the highest annual operating revenues. Among these, several demonstrated an especially high level of channel strategies activities involving year- round planned, purposeful and structured interactions with senior level distributors, manufacturers and end users. HIDA has extensively integrated channel strategies through its year-round legislative work, meetings, educational programs, industry research, and published reports. Its members, medical products distributors, work closely with manufacturers on shared legislative activities, like meetings with congressional leaders, and they also include manufacturers and end users as program partners, speakers, panelists and sponsors for high-level meetings and training activities. During one recent event, more than 400 prescheduled meetings involving channel partners took place over a three-hour period. In addition, HIDA has conducted research that has helped enhance the quality of distributors' work and positioned them as supplies and Mission Forward Strong Distribution Associations Build Strong Supply Channels Tracy Mulqueen CEO, FEDA tracy@feda.com *FEDA $1-2.99 MILLION CATEGORY ANNUAL OPERATING REVENUES Total High Legislative Advocacy Strong Variety/Quantity Education & Training Effective Channel Strategies NUMBER OF ASSOCIATIONS Under $1 $1-2.99 $3-$4.99 $5-$9.99 Over $10 Million Million Million Million Million Distribution Associations