Things We’re Going to Do in 2016

With the start of a new year, we came up with just a few of the improvements and new things we’re going to do over the next 12 months.  They are in no particular order.  Some are promises or resolutions, while are more like predictions or educated guesses.  Here we go…

1. Build upon the success of NFPA’s Pascal Society, to ensure ongoing support of fluid power research, technology development and teaching.  And many thanks to all the trail-Blaise-ing members who have supported these efforts so far.

2. Continue to improve upon the overall experience at NFPA events, starting with the 2016 Annual Conference, coming up March 9-11 in San Antonio.  See our full schedule, speaker lineup, list of registrants, and join us!

3. Grow our social media presence. In the past year, we have begun better leveraging our Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube accounts to share our news and other information that is of interest to those in the fluid power industry. Like or follow us to keep up with what’s happening in 2016.

4.  Expand our line-up of Regional Meetings to a new city.  We’ve had well-attended meetings in Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis for years now.  And we added Milwaukee in 2015.  We’re going to pick another city with a cluster of members for a new regional event in 2016.  Let us know if you have ideas for location or format…

5. Continue to grow membership and more fully engage members in NFPA services and events.  We’ve been on an upswing, but we know 2016 may be a challenging year.

6. Send more staff out on member visits to help you take better advantage of our various programs and help us better understand the industry.

7. Roll out the new Stats Toolkit Pro!  We’re working with software developers now, beta testing in February, and planning to get the new Toolkit in your hands in March.  Here’s more about beta testing and how you can take part.

8. Increase member engagement in market information programs. We launched the State of the Fluid Power Survey for Distributors and a new Market Information website last year and will continue to deliver data and reports to our members.

9.  Build on our roadmapping progress…the Fluid Power Technology and Manufacturing Roadmaps.

10. Grow the Fluid Power Challenge and Careers Connections programs.

11. Increase our web presence. We already have new sites for market information, events, and news. This year we plan to launch new web communities to support our workforce development programs and get more young people interested in fluid power careers.

12. Rebuild NFPA.com, and many of its features, such as the Product Locator, to make it more usable.  Now that we have started our web clean-up, our homepage is starting to look like that last room in the house to get painted.

13. Get ready for IFPE.  By the time 2016 is over, it will be just a couple quick months away.

14. Secure new federal grant funding for the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power.

15. Streamline the standards development process.

16.  Continue to be substantive and useful.  Results to the 2015 Communications Survey will be published later this months and adjustments will be made where needed.