Year: 2018

GAWDA is looking for 25 new distributor members and 15 new supplier members. Those are the goals set for the Member-Get-a-Member campaign this year. The program, being led by the Member Services Committee, assisted by headquarters staff and involving the entire membership, is an important program for 2018 for GAWDA. The program is designed to strengthen, grow and diversify the distributor and supplier business organization. Membership growth is a goal that will help to sustain the Gases and Welding Distributors Association even in an environment of continuing acquisitions and consolidations across the industry, according to 2017–2018 Committee Co-Chair Linda Smith…

The hallmark of many independent gases and welding distributors is family ownership. For Butler Gas Products (BGP) of Pittsburgh, 2018 marks its 70th year in operation and the continuation of a family business with a dynamic father-daughter team at the helm. Chief Executive Officer and President Jack Butler is the son of Butler Gas Products founders John A. and Millie S. Butler. Jack’s daughter, Abydee Butler Moore, serves as the company’s chief operating officer and executive vice president. Together, they work side-by-side carrying on the family tradition of excellence in industrial, specialty and medical gas distribution and production. Jack has…

Get Yourself – and Your Associates and Employees – To These Great Events! Have you ever attended a GAWDA Regional Meeting? They’re like mini versions of GAWDA’s national conferences. They’re packed with the same kind of great information. They’re attended by GAWDA consultants, association leaders and a great assortment of suppliers and distributors. They’re the chance to meet others from different regions and network with people in the industry who can give you new ideas or help you boost your business. Regionals are also a great way to introduce prospective members to the association and all it has to offer…

Many business leaders talk about the difficulties of improving the productivity of workers in today’s “distracted” workplace. They cite how a constant online and technology connectivity for most workers intrudes on their ability to complete tasks and finish projects. That’s an issue I fully understand from two distinct angles: the viewpoint of someone who has been greatly affected by my own tendency to get distracted, and as well as that of a business leader who has worked hard to overcome it. My initial “focus” on distraction started as an entirely personal battle. While I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder…

A Fair, Principled, Mutually Beneficial Employment Plan is Valuable to Individuals and the Organization Time after time, our company finds itself engaged by new clients looking for our help to resolve family conflict. Many times, that includes conflict that, left unreconciled for too long, may have erupted into litigation. While the nature of every disagreement is different, we have found that one of the most interesting —  and paradoxical — similarities is that they all have longstanding relationships with professional advisors whose traditional focus is on money — and the details about how to grow it, how to minimize taxes…

Risk! I don’t have to explain the concept of risk to any of our GAWDA member company owners. They deal with it every day because they are in business. What I do need to talk about is how to reduce that risk in the areas that I deal with: DOT, OSHA, EPA and Homeland Security, along with cylinder filling and cylinder requalifications. Fellow GAWDA consultant Tom Badstubner and I just completed another compliance seminar. Held at member company Weldcoa, it was a duplicate of the seminar held at Chart earlier this spring. This year, our information was all about surviving…

In the early 1990s, when many were pondering what the term “biotech” meant, the team at Middlesex Gases and Technologies saw an emerging market. As fabricators moved out of its New England territory, creating challenges for the welding and hardgoods business, Middlesex liked what it saw moving in. As Bo Martin, chief executive officer of Middlesex Gases and Technologies, explains, “In 1992, we changed our name from Middlesex Welding Supply to Middlesex Gases and Technologies Inc. Since then, we have invested heavily in the growing biotech and life sciences market.” Being able to spot the next best business opportunity seems…