Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

By SPESA

The SPESA team is in Atlanta this week making plans for Texprocess Americas 2023 and meeting with our Board of Directors. The SPESA Board usually meets 3-4 times a year to discuss the association's activities, financials, and future. At this meeting, we will discuss all the new ideas that will be implemented during Texprocess Americas 2023 — with the next show only 7 months, it will take up much of our time and energy — as well as SPESA’s other events, industry partnerships, membership, our 2023-2024 operating budget, and a new strategic plan to guide our growth efforts.

The three of us have each worked with a variety of businesses and industry associations in the past, and can tell you that the SPESA Board of Directors is unusual. The 17 members who currently make up the Board, as well as their predecessors, are incredibly active and involved with the leadership of SPESA. And we are incredibly grateful for them.

If you haven’t had a chance to meet Ed, Mark, Daniella, Dan, Rolando, Jill, Bert, Mike, Martin, Frank, Rick, Lenny, Nina, Charlie, Michael, Eric, and John yet, we hope to introduce you at an upcoming SPESA event. Trust us, they are good people to know and to have on your side. In the meantime, learn more about the SPESA Board here.

SPESA members will have the opportunity to vote on the next class of SPESA Board members during our annual SPESA Business Meeting at the end of the year. Members should keep an eye out for an invitation to this virtual meeting followed by a Holiday happy hour and trivia night.

But SPESA is more than just 17 people. Among our membership, peers, and Behind the Seams readers, we know there are thousands of ideas and suggestions that could improve our day-to-day operations, and a wealth of knowledge and experience that could better our industry.

So, with this in mind, we have two requests today:

1. We encourage our readers, whether SPESA members or not, to consider joining one of SPESA’s membership committees and help lend your expertise on topics like marketing, event planning, or membership development.

2. Please let us know if you have a colleague within your company or elsewhere whom you consider to be a "rising star" within the sewn products industry. We hope to learn more about these up-and-comers and feature them in a future issue of Behind the Seams.

Last year, we identified four industry rising stars in Behind the Seams (Sarah Krasley, Xochil Herrera Scheer, Ali Rosenberger, and Enrico Cartabbia), and enjoyed learning even more about them as they became more involved in SPESA. In fact, Xochil is a guest writer in this week’s issue of Behind the Seams, sharing her experience attending the recent SPESA Advancements in Manufacturing Technologies Conference.

Whether you have been on the SPESA Board for decades — looking at you John Stern — or are new to the industry, you are a valuable part of the sewn products industry and deserve to have your voice heard. So why not let SPESA help with that?

Email marie@spesa.org to nominate a rising star or learn more about SPESA’s committees.