September has been a quiet month on the travel side, with only visiting a few sign makers in Ashburton and locally. It was great to reconnect with members and meet new ones, but equally pleasing that I could visit some other sign shops that were not members. All were extremely welcoming of my visits and were especially interested in the Signee program, training, Health and Safety and how the Association fits into the industry. For most it was about getting a better understanding of what the NZSDA do and offer for sign maker members and how we can help assist them with support, benefit’s and discounts for their daily running of sign shop. Most sign shops that I have visited over the past few months, have concerns around supplier products being sold to maybe an untrained and less experienced sign maker, whom purchases the cheapest application products for any job, and in the process undercuts the most qualified and experienced sign makers that only use quality products that are fit for purpose for each job.
After listening to the concerns I have since spoken to a few of our leading suppliers and I was pleased to hear that many now have processes in place to educate the buyer / sign maker on their purchase before the products are sold – with the key objective being to ensure that the product being sold is fit for purpose. This is one of many ways that our associate members (suppliers) and the Association work together to ensure our industry standards continue to be raised and those that are members of the NZSDA will always benefit above and beyond.
It has also been timely to take some time to look at any outstanding memberships, which is looking really healthy this year considering the amount of disruption and lack of funds with COVID. Most, if not all members with outstanding balances are making the most of our monthly payment options, which we greatly appreciate, every little bit helps in the end.
For September one member resigned their membership. To date only nine members have resigned, with one going into liquidation, one associate resigned and two sign makers sold their businesses. So overall this year is looking to good so far for retaining membership levels. To date we have had six applications for membership with one unsuccessful.
