Posted By Don Clouser, Chairman of the Board, Thursday, July 11, 2019
DRMA has always wanted to be and has become the Voice of Manufacturing here in the Dayton Region. But what exactly does that mean? What responsibilities come with that? How do you measure success with that goal?
There are several organizations and efforts that want to have an impact on manufacturing. The list of such organizations has grown over the past couple of years as workforce development has gained more attention and with more access to dollars through foundations, government entities and companies wanting to invest. While these organizations’ intentions are good, they do not always have the knowledge or experience of manufacturers to provide what manufacturers need. So, they often have focus groups and/or board of advisors to help guide them.
While DRMA has wanted to provide as many services as it can, our association realizes that more can be done and is being done beyond our own resources. Therefore, we have set out to be that resource for the outside organizations to use as the manufacturing advisor for their programs. While many of you would love to serve on those advisory boards, maybe you cannot or maybe you don’t know about them. In some cases, DRMA makes a match. In other cases, DRMA fills the seat of advisor. Either way, we can all be more confident that efforts toward manufacturing are being guided by manufacturers.
DRMA realizes it has succeeded as the Voice of Manufacturing in our area because these organizations now are reaching out to us for guidance rather than figuring it out themselves. The media is reaching out to DRMA for commentary on manufacturing issues. Collaborations are being formed with DRMA to strengthen everyone’s position and to combine resources so that a better effort is made for manufacturing. This is how DRMA advocates for you. While it may not be able to create and run all the programs from which manufacturing could benefit, it does get involved to guide those programs so that they will be effective for manufacturers.
Keep in mind that DRMA is a volunteer organization. We are always needing resources to be able to best advocate for our industry. If you or people in your organization have passion, please let us know so that we can connect you with these efforts. Maybe this is a DRMA committee effort. Maybe it is to fill a seat on a career technology center’s advisory board. Maybe this is to help fill a middle school’s career day. Or maybe it is an ad hoc to help stand up a collaborative effort between employers, a government entity and DRMA. No matter what, all these take time. The more volunteers, the more influence manufacturing yields. The more volunteers, the less time per person for that influence.
DRMA is advocating for you. It is finding opportunity to influence in the interest of manufacturing. Will you lend effort to help? Will you add your voice to the Voice of Manufacturing in the Dayton Region?