Right about this time of year, those of us with high school seniors in the house are agonizing with them about the specter of leaving for college next year. As many of you well know, it’s a LOT. But, that’s the deal – you grow up, you move on to the next challenge.
‘How is that relevant?’ you may well ask. Because the same thing happens to trade associations. Well, not all of them; only the ones that grow up to matter. Founded in 1989, NMEDA has grown to hundreds of members across North America, with a healthy, seven figure budget and nine full time staff. In short, NMEDA matters. So much so that 31 states and the province of Quebec require NMEDA’s Quality Assurance Program accreditation for any dealer that does work for their clients.
From this position of influence in the wheelchair accessible vehicle and auto adaptive equipment world, NMEDA struggled with the reality that there was no reliable data on the auto mobility industry. To its credit, the association realized the problem was in the mirror. The reason auto mobility had no meaningful data on itself was because the sole national trade association representing the industry had not taken the initiative to collect, aggregate and make available such data. As JFK famously asked, “If not us, who? And if not now, when?” Indeed – it was time to be part of the solution instead of the problem.
And when a mature association gets serious about an initiative, it recognizes the need to devote specific, dedicated resources to that initiative. Hence the establishment of an independent, 501(c)(3) subsidiary, the Auto Mobility Research & Education Foundation (AMREF), and the issuance of the first ever Auto Mobility State of the Industry Report.
A fully grown, mature NMEDA could have ignored the data challenge before it and settled for pounding Mountain Dews and playing Cuphead all night in its parents’ basement – but that would have been wrong.
If you don’t matter, it doesn’t matter what you do. But NMEDA matters.