John Grasmeyer focuses on education for NIBA

WASHINGTON—NIBA's new president, John Grasmeyer, is pushing forward on plans to launch the association's digital certification and training program.

The executive vice president of Behabelt USA talked about the program during the expo portion of the annual meeting, held recently in Washington.

Bringing the developed program to the wider membership is one of the two most important goals for his term as president, he said.

"That's definitely something we've been working on for numbers of years," Grasmeyer said. "I'm passionate about it. It's taken a lot of work to get it to the state where it's at. That'll be a great success if we launch that and get some traction with that next year."

The certification and education program began as a vision within NIBA about six years ago, and ramped up when the group was in the process of looking for a new management company, he said. NIBA saw other associations reaching success with similar programs and realized it was something that could be important to members.

NIBA currently has five online certification training modules that are in the final stages of testing. The plan is to go back to manufacturers over the next few months to encourage commitment to endorsing and supporting the product, Grasmeyer said. The modules allow employers to bring their employees up to a certain level of training all at once, from a brand new hire to the employee who's been on the line for a year.

"We think it brings some benefits to them because they can make it a prerequisite to go to one of these certification modules. They don't have to cover it in their training," he said.

The digital modules involve a PowerPoint presentation with a voiceover followed by a multiple choice test covering the material. Passing employees receive a certification of completion for those programs, NIBA Executive Director Michael Battaglia said. They cover topics including belt selection, fabrics and compounds. NIBA also teamed up with key manufacturers to bring in approved images to create consistency for employees.

Grasmeyer has been part of the committees and boards watching the program develop years ago, and said it's exciting to see it come together. NIBA doesn't do any benchmarking, and members have been protective of information.

"This will be a great way to say, 'We're in this together,' " Grasmeyer said.

The modules will start off with the basics of belting to ensure that new employees and those with some experience get the same start in the industry, he said. If employers can get some of the simple basics out of the way as a prerequisite for more advanced training, it will benefit the member company and the industry as a whole.

NIBA's Education Committee is in the process of working on the next versions of the modules and working on expanding the total number of completed ones, he said. The goal is to have 10 offered by the end of next year.

NIBA will keep the modules open and available, not behind a member wall, Battaglia said. Pricing still is being determined, but will provide discounts for those with multiple employees involved.

The second major goal for Grasmeyer's term is to ease the transition into NIBA's next three-year strategic plan, he said. The association is finishing the final year of its current plan, and beginning development and discussion of the next.

"It's making sure we get the foundation for the three-year strategies implemented at the committee level as a foundation, so we don't get diluted after year two or year three," Grasmeyer said. "That's always very important to have that first year to make sure those are priorities."

Among his other goals is analyzing NIBA's membership structure to support growth in the association into the future. The constant challenge is to continue to bring value to members, where NIBA has a 94 percent retention rate, he said. While he always expects some change in affiliates, the focus has to remain on the core members in preventing turnover.

"From distributors to manufacturers, it's very important that we keep that low, and then we continue to bring value," Grasmeyer said. "Once they come, we need to make sure we take care of them when they're here, because then they'll come back."

Several members reported having been a part of the association for more than 25 years during an informal survey at the event.

"If you talk to them, they can't even imagine not being here," Grasmeyer said. But he still meets non-member distributors that don't see the value in being a part of NIBA, "and that would be our challenge, to keep working on that."

NIBA's membership structure currently relies on the size of the member company, but that could change with a new membership structure, he said. The board is looking at new ways to be more attractive to companies through an alternative membership structure. The goal is to create something that provides all-inclusive value for both small and large companies in a view to memberships rates, especially going into the new year.

NIBA currently works with add-ons for locations and branches for larger companies for membership rates, but is looking at a structure with a one-time rate for more value, Battaglia said.

The association also is encouraging member companies to promote diversity within NIBA by bringing forward their best people, after a question on diversity was raised at last year's town hall meeting, Grasmeyer said.

"It was a great question for us, it caused us to stop and talk about it and create some awareness, and it's no more than that," he said. "I think as we went into the committee and the next board selection, we weren't trying to be proactive with it. We were just like, let's just make sure we're aware of it, and where there are opportunities, let's make sure we're being diverse and not excluding."

The association always is looking for new ways to bring people in and providing more opportunities for volunteering, Battaglia said.

"We're always looking for new people to serve," he said. "We want to keep the community vibrant."

The annual meeting's schedule shifted this year in response to member feedback, Grasmeyer said. Some changes included moving the golf event earlier in the week and removing the closing event Saturday in favor of a tour event.

"If you look at the history of NIBA's conventions, we seem to run into a pattern for five or six years, then we tweak things a little bit and that works, and then we tweak things again," he said.

Even with the changes and continued emphasis on membership growth, NIBA wants to keep the feeling of the association and the annual meeting, Battaglia said.

"We really value the members' opinions, we really take that feedback seriously," he said. "We really want to keep the culture of NIBA the same. It's a really distinguishing factor with this group, the community and the culture, and the fact that competitors can come here and be cordial. You don't see that with all associations. We don't want to lose that with our growth."