As the great Albert Einstein once proclaimed, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” But change is not easy, even though it’s a constant in our daily lives. As an association, we have witnessed numerous changes in our industry over the past few years and have also had the opportunity to observe what some of our members have done to implement changes in their organizations. As the leaders of the Contract Packaging Association, the Board of Directors and I have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring we are prepared to take the association to the next rung of the ladder.
Recently, as we contemplated the necessary foundation on which to deliver exceptional value to our members, we took a deep look at our existing management organization. Over the past five months, after hundreds of man-hours and countless e-mails and phone calls, we have completed an extensive evaluation of organizations that provide management support to associations such as ours.
As a result, the CPA Board has decided to partner with PMMI – The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies for management support going forward. We look forward to creating a strategic partnership with the global leader in packaging and processing that will provide the CPA with additional pathways for growth and will deliver more value-added opportunities for you—our members. We are excited to share that this partnership will allow CPA members to access PMMI’s global resources and to interface with new customers. Note that our arrangement with PMMI allows the CPA to maintain complete independence and autonomy.
We’d like to say thank you to Kellen Associates for their support of the CPA as our association management company over the years. We have been fortunate to work with many great folks within their organization and would like to call out our sincere thanks to Jill Gabbert, LeAnne Munoz, Christine Meehan, Marita Grunert, and several others at the organization. They have helped us get to this point, and we thank them for their support and dedication.
Over the past several months, CPA has had a presence at various industry shows. At NPE: The Plastics Show in May, CPA Managing Director Ron Puvak gave a presentation on trends in plastic packaging and the future. Also in May, at Nulogy xChange in Toronto, the CPA was featured during Carl Melville’s presentation on our State of the Industry Report. And to round out a very busy season, in June, Carl also gave a presentation on our report—specifically the state of the contract packaging/contract manufacturing (CP/CM) industry—at the Global Pouch Summit in June. As you read this letter, there are many things in the planning stages—or happening! Here are just a few:
- State of the Industry Report: We launched formally in late March and have received great press coverage and a lot of interest in the report. As a member, have you requested your complimentary Executive Summary?
- Annual Meeting 2019: The CPA Annual Meeting will be held Feb. 20-24 at the Westin Tampa Waterside in Tampa, FL. Please mark it on your calendar! We hope that in your budget planning, you will consider sending as many of your folks as possible, all of whom will undoubtedly return to your organization with renewed energy and ideas for your company, along with a strengthened support network of peers and organizations to help implement change. It will be a great event.
I want to personally thank you all for your continued support of the CPA and for challenging the Board of Directors and I to change our thinking to better the CPA, day after day!
