Skip to main content

Attracting members: It's a zoo out there

Bill Sandler, longtime Valve Manufacturers Association CEO, displays his industry's products such as those used in the ‘petting zoo' at its Valves 101 seminars for students and other industry newcomers. Bill Sandler has been with the $1.7 million-revenue Valve Manufacturers Association of America nearly 37 years—about half the organization's life. (VMA turns 75 on Sept. 1.) With Sandler, 70, president of VMA, many members and the association itself getting on in years, the manufacturing group is keen to attract younger people to the industry. Enter the valve "petting zoo." Washington, D.C.-based VMA started an education program four years ago called Valves 101 for… Read More