Plastics News readers should be very familiar with MAPP and AMBA. But in the alphabet soup of trade associations, have you heard of ARPM?
Andrew Schunk has a good story about ARPM — the Association for Rubber Products Manufacturers — in our sister publication Rubber News. He notes that the Indianapolis-based group is now 13 years old and has 105 member companies.
I think of ARPM as like MAPP — the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors — except it's for rubber processors and their suppliers. Letha Keslar, the group's managing director — and a familiar face to everyone in the plastics sector — told Schunk that ARPM is "healthy and thriving."
That's in part because the group helped its members weather the challenges of the past 13 years, including the pandemic.
"We still hear from many company owners and presidents who tell us those conference calls and what we offered as far as educational forums and best practices during the pandemic helped them make it through," Keslar said. "Even through COVID we were running between 90 and 92 percent of participation with our membership, which was amazing."
MAPP is a little older than ARPM, dating back to 1997. I wrote a column a few years ago with my take on how MAPP managed to thrive. The prescription sounds exactly like what Keslar is doing with ARPM.
AMBA, the American Mold Builders Association, is 51 years old, but it joined MAPP under Troy Nix's First Resources LLC umbrella in January 2010.
If plastics readers know ARPM, it may be because MAPP and the rubber group have co-hosted an annual safety conference. In fact, PN benefited from the relationship this year, because we got to run Schunk's safety conference coverage.