We were shocked and saddened to learn last week that Joe Greenslade passed away suddenly on Wednesday, October 23.

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Joe served as Technical Director for the Industrial Fasteners Institute from 2007 until 2015. He was a fastener industry icon, having started his career in 1970 working for various fastener manufacturers before founding Greenslade and Company in 1978.  He sold the company in 2007 and came to work for the IFI.  In a recent conversation with IFI managing director, Joe said that working for IFI had been his dream job.  You could tell he thoroughly enjoyed working in the industry, and he put 100% of his effort into anything he set out to accomplish.

Joe retired from IFI in 2015 when Salim Brahimi took over as Technical Director.  Joe stayed on as a special consultant to IFI, maintaining the upkeep of the IFI Technology Connection software that he had developed and is relied upon by many companies today.

Gordon's family has shared the following information with NFDA:

Gordon, age 76, entered the presence of his Lord on October 19, 2019. He was born on July 7, 1943 to Gustave and Joan (Alkema) Vandermeulen in Grand Rapids, MI. Gordon married Elaine Brunz on June 20, 1965. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Elaine; children Jodi and Rob Hanlon, Quinn and Sydney; Grant and Jennifer Vandermeulen, Gideon and Nathan; brother Jim and Jill Vandermeulen; sister Judy Vandermeulen; brothers-in-law Wayne (Joyce) Brunz, David (Cindy) Brunz, Roy (Sue) Brunz; nieces and nephews. 

Washington, DC (October 21, 2019) — Wholesaler-distributors are invited to join the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence and our sponsor PROS on Thursday, November 14, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET, for a live webinar: “Welcome to the Age of B2B Innovation.”

Anyone who has a calendar conflict and won’t be able to attend this live webinar, should register anyway. PROS will send registrants a link to view the webinar on demand. Register here.

NAW has just sent letters to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) requesting that their agencies open an investigation into the General Services Administration’s (GSA) proposed e-Marketplace platform (Section 846) and Amazon’s unfair and anti-competitive practices and processes.

NAW believes that GSA should be fostering maximum competition at this stage of Section 846’s implementation.  Even though GSA identified three credible e-commerce purchasing channels, GSA’s latest Request for Proposal (RFP), Commercial e-Marketplace Acquisition (October 1, 2019), confines its pilot test to only one model, that of the e-marketplace portal, the Amazon platform.  All other e-commerce models have been excluded.

(October 10, 2019, Washington, DC) — The NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence is pleased to announce its newest, groundbreaking research study, Optimizing Channel Profitability: A Playbook to Align Manufacturer–Distributor–Customer Relationships, based on a consortium conducted by Texas A&M University’s Global Supply Chain Laboratory. Please go to www.naw.org/ocp or call 202.872.0885 to learn more and to order copies.  Quantity discounts of 15–50% apply when ordering two or more copies.

As manufacturers face new competitive challenges, distributors alter their capabilities, and customers change their requirements, the path forward keeps shifting.

Many manufacturers have not updated their channel policies in a decade, while wholesaler distributors have undergone significant changes in terms of online disruptions by non-traditional competitors, multi-generational workforce dynamics, digital transformation challenges, evolving salesforce structure, and so forth.

SANTA CLARITA, CA (Oct. 3, 2019) – Fastener Training Week, an advanced technical training program, is scheduled Dec. 2-6 in La Miranda, CA. This LA area training is for fastener distributors and manufacturers, end users and original equipment manufacturers. The course is offered by The Fastener Training Institute, a leading non-profit organization that provides training on fastener products and standards, in partnership with the Industrial Fasteners Institute.

Instead of seven separate one-day classes, Fastener Training Week offers five intensive days of education and plant tours as part of the acclaimed FTI Certified Fastener Specialist™ (CFS) advanced technical training program. After completing this invaluable industry training in a small group environment and passing a final exam, attendees are eligible for the Certified Fastener Specialist™ (CFS) designation.

A NAW Legal Advisory

As we first reported in a Legal Advisory in April, the EEOC was ordered by a DC District court to begin collecting compensation data from all covered employers (this data is in addition to the demographic data already required to be filed).  Click here to see NAW’s Legal Advisory.

A NAW Legal Advisory:

After several years of rulemaking, and successful legal challenges by NAW and others which resulted in a second round of rulemaking, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor (DoL) on Friday published a final rule “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees” – the EAP or so-called “White Collar exemptions” from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements – under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA.).

LIVONIA, MI, September 3, 2019 – General Fasteners Company (GFC), a full-service distributor of fasteners and assembly components for manufacturers, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ian Clarke as President of General Fasteners Company and General Fasteners de México.

Ian comes to GFC with over 35 years of success in the fastener distribution and manufacturing industries. His impressive credentials align with GFC’s Board of Directors’ objective of creating a culture of growth based on superior customer service and operational excellence.

On September 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule to make 1.3 million American workers newly eligible for overtime pay.

The final rule updates the earnings thresholds necessary to exempt executive, administrative and professional employees from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) minimum wage and overtime pay requirements, and allows employers to count a portion of certain bonuses/commissions towards meeting the salary level. The new thresholds account for growth in employee earnings since the thresholds were last updated in 2004.

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. September 12, 2019 - Engineered fastener and components distributor, EFC International, continues to “Redefine the World of Distribution”, exhibited in part by the company’s recent implementation of Power BI (from Microsoft). Power BI is linked to their internal SAP operating system and CRM software.

EFC has been at the leading edge of the industrial distribution industry, embracing and implementing advanced innovative technology and digital transformation. Matt Dudenhoeffer, CEO, stated “EFC’s implementation of Power BI provides our team with a powerful business analytics tool that delivers real-time interactive dashboards customized to our business strategy and performance metrics. Our SAP and CRM systems are incredibly versatile in enabling customized reports for our suppliers and customers, and now we can take that a step further with interactive visualizations through a simple interface.”

The National Fastener Distributors Association is pleased to announce the 2019 recipient of its Fastener Professional of the Year award is Kevin Queenin of Specialty Bolt & Screw (Agawam, Massachusetts).

The Fastener Professional of the Year award was created by NFDA to honor individuals and companies that make a substantial positive impact on people’s lives. The inaugural award in 2017 was presented to Robbie Gilchrist of Capital Marketing (High Point, North Carolina). In 2018 Jim Ruetz of AIS (Franksville, Wisconsin) was honored.

EFC International provides safe and high quality swing couplings for hydraulic, pneumatic, vacuum, gas, chemical fluid and water applications. The swing couplings are manufactured with the latest technologies to provide production methods that achieve efficiency, increase plant safety, improve productivity and save costs for industrial connections.

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The Gilchrist Foundation has awarded three scholarships from the 2019 applicants. Congratulations to the recipients. We wish them well and are pleased to assist them with their education.

They are as follows and their sponsoring companies:

The National Fastener Distributors Association (NFDA) recently awarded a scholarship for Fastener Training Week, an advanced fastener technical training program produced by the Fastener Training Institute, to Jeffrey Boushell, an outside sales representative for Wurth Revcar (Roanoke, Virginia).

Jeff’s supervisor, Jamie Farrell, says, “Jeff hit the ground running just over 12 months ago, capitalizing upon his sales training and experience from previous jobs. His intuitive mechanical abilities have allowed him to become an immediate asset to his existing customers. However, in the highly competitive fastener market, we want Jeff to stand out from the crowd.

Doug Ruggles of Martin Fastening Solutions (Florence, Alabama) has been elected as the 2019-2020 president of the National Fastener Distributors Association. Adam Derry of Field (Machesney Park, Illinois) will serve as vice president, Kelly Charles of Sems & Specials (Rockford, Illinois) as associate chair, and Kelly Cole of Hayes Bolt & Supply (San Diego, California) will remain on the Board as immediate past president.

Three new Board members have been elected to serve on the NFDA Board: Don Haggerty of Lindstrom/Stelfast (Edison, New Jersey), Craig Penland of Eurolink FSS (Greer, South Carolina), and Jodie Thinnes of Copper State Bolt & Nut (Phoenix, Arizona).