Author: GAWDA MEDIA

The purpose of Ask Your Board is to ask common business questions that all GAWDA members might be dealing with and to see how GAWDA’s Board of Directors are dealing with these issues within their own companies. To submit a question for GAWDA’s Board Members to consider, please email [email protected]

Don’t let your customers gamble on quality and productivity with cheap filler metal. There’s a reason that GAWDA distributors are universally considered best-in-class in the gases and welding industry. It’s because they partner with suppliers who can provide not only the highest-quality products, but who have the expertise to make recommendations based on years of experience with other like-minded customers. In the manufacturing world, the weld is the backbone of quality. And the filler metal is the backbone of the weld. But to the layman, all filler metals are the same. Aluminum is aluminum, right? Wrong. The experts at Hobart®…

California Cylinder Corporation was established in 2001 in Montclair, California. We are a direct supplier of high-quality gas cylinders and are owned and operated by the Brown Family, which has been part of the welding and gas industry for over 50 years. California Cylinder carries new and reconditioned cylinders in steel and aluminum, featuring new aluminum cylinders by Catalina and Luxfer. We offer full lines of Industrial, acetylene, CO2, medical, propane, and liquid cylinders along with helium regulators, valves, caps, labels, balloon fillers, and accessories.

California Tool & Welding Supply opened its doors in 1976 offering quality products and unparalleled service at reasonable rates. Robert C. Craig (Bob Jr.) and Rick Davis started the business out of a wooden shed on a dusty sand lot with a few bottles of compressed gases, an oxygen cascade system, and a small selection of hard goods.

The Southwest Regional Meeting took place near Houston from May 20-21. Nearly 100 attendees were on-hand at the South Shore Harbor Resort & Conference Center to see presentations from from Jesse Thompson from the Federal Reserve of Dallas, Chuck McConnell from the Center for Carbon Management in Energy and an incredibly motivational presentation from Nick Scott a two-time world powerlifting champion and wheelchair bodybuilder. Thank you to Regional Co-Chairs Ashley Madray and Gary Degenhardt for organizing this year’s event and to everyone who attended. Click the button below to see pictures from the event. If you attended this year’s event…

BY TOM BADSTUBNER, MARILYN DEMPSEY, MICHAEL DODD, RICK SCHWEITZER, AND STEVE GUGLIELMO GAWDA’s Consultants discuss their work on regulatory committees and documentation of lessons learned and best practices in their effort to benefit all GAWDA members.  The GAWDA Consultant Program is a GAWDA member benefit that is included as part of your member dues to the association. It is consistently rated as one of the most valuable member benefits that GAWDA provides. Between the four of them, GAWDA’s consultants bring more than 100 years of industry-specific experience to the association.  Following the forward-looking regulatory column in the Q1 Issue of…

Lead with Purpose, Serve with Heart Held Friday, April 19 – Sunday, April 21, 2024Grand Hyatt San AntonioGAWDA continues to raise the bar each and every year, as the 2024 Spring Management Conference in San Antonio, Texas, set yet another new attendance record. This year’s SMC saw a record 808 attendees who gathered for a whirlwind weekend from April 19-21st. With a theme of “Leading with Purpose, Serving with Heart,” gratitude, culture and service were the names of the game. Those “soft skills” which Main Stage Presenter Adrian Gostick rebranded as “Power Skills” combined with the weekend’s musical theme had…

The last day of SMC began with GAWDA Announcements including the introduction of the new Technology Committee, the recognition of the inaugural Best in Show Winner and the introduction of the GAWDA Gives Back Recipient for the 2024 Annual Convention in Phoenix, HopeKids. Visit https://www.gawda.org/about/gawda-gives-back/ to learn more. Then Gary turned the stage over to GAWDA First Past President Robert Anders to introduce the 2024 GAWDA Scholarship Recipients and Donors. Thank you to all of those companies who made this year’s scholarships possible. Congratulations to the following students for for winning this year’s 2024 GAWDA Scholarship: Avery Abke Kaden Abke…

As has become tradition since the Nashville SMC, this year saw the return of the Educational Sessions. Following the morning’s two mainstage presentations, attendees had the option to attend two of six Educational Sessions. First, attendees had the option to attend presentations on Mega Gas Trends with Scott Rummans and Jeff Holyoak; Leadership with Dave Lambert; or Employee Retention with Ryan Craven. In the second session, attendees got to choose between sessions on AI & Cybersecurity with Allison Earlbeck, Tony Hopkins, and Aaron Turner; Building an Effective Compensation Strategy with Alex Chausovsky; and “Kickin Gas,” an interactive presentation from Bryan…

GAWDA Main Stage veteran Dirk Beveridge kicked off the educational portion of the SMC with a presentation about company culture. Dirk has traversed the United States over the past three summers, meeting with distributor companies who make up the “back bone of America.” And he was able to share lessons learned from the high-performing cultures of these companies practicing the noble art of distribution. Following Dirk’s presentation, GAWDA First Vice President Allison Earlbeck introduced ECI Software Solutions’ Dave Bent and Dr. Jonathan Bein, an author and AI Solutions Speaker who spoke about the important and hot-button issue of Artificial Intelligence.…