BREAKING NEWS

Asheville SMC Delivers for GAWDA Members

Distributors, suppliers and their spouses converged on the historic and beautiful Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC, for GAWDA's 2nd and final Spring Management Conference of 2009. Opportunities for industry education and networking abounded throughout the 4-day event, particularly at Tuesday night's President's Reception and Wednesday's golf outing and Contact Booth Program.

The Lovin Family welcomes attendees of GAWDA's Spring Management conference to Asheville, North Carolina.

The President's Reception provides GAWDA members with an opportunity to network.

Thursday's schedule was filled with industry speakers, beginning with presentations from Executive Director Kent Van Amburg and 2009 President Britt Lovin. Lovin made clear that though some members have asked wondered if "GAWDA is in trouble," the association has taken measures to counteract "troubling issues" like industry consolidation, lower membership and a tight economy and will be able to weather the economic storm. "We are working hard to create value and services."

Dean Dunaway

On Thursday morning, Ray Shook of AWS spoke about the nationwide shortage of certified welders and what AWS and GAWDA members are doing about it, including scholarships and foundations to inspire teenagers to pursue careers in welding. Next was a discussion on the importance of cylinder tracking, featuring a panel of distributors and suppliers moderated by TrackAbout's Jim Glessner and including Ned Lane of Cee Kay Supply, DataWeld's Jim Broughton, Red Ball Oxygen's Bob Ewing, Computers Unlimited's Doug Iverson and TrackAbout's Tim Fusco. In response to one panelist's idea about performing customer audits to more accurately track assets, Dean Dunaway, president of CAPWELD, said, "We're in the process of building a database to track our cylinders. It's an important step to take and I will implement the panel's idea about analyzing the cylinder usage of our top customers to be more accurate in our data collection."

Mark Blakely

Jim Kissler

A presentation from Jeff Dietrich, an economist with the Institute for Trend Research, gave a sobering economic forecast, indicating that the remainder of 2009 will continue to be a challenging year. Recovery is expected to begin in the second half of 2010. He advised, "Right now, cash is king. If you have cash on hand, you should be gaining marketshare." Responses to the presentation were mixed. "The information was extremely relevant. Facing several more quarters of recession is not good, but at least now we can consider the possibility and be prepared to handle it," said Mark Blakely, Midwest region manager for Valley National Gases. Norco's Jim Kissler added, "We refuse to participate in this economy. There are opportunities for distributors that are strong, areas like healthcare, university work and R&D." Dietrich concluded, "You are creative business people. Things are more difficult than ever before, but you can meet them. You are the difference."

Robert Jackson

An afternoon session featured a presentation by Jeff Vogelsang of Promontory Point Partners about how to improve bottom-line results. Robert Jackson, president of Jackson Welding Supply, said, "It was a good reinforcement that business owners are constantly faced with tough decisions. We must have the courage to step up and make those decisions." The afternoon concluded with an analysis of emerging gas markets by Linde North America's Brian Luftglass, who pointed to energy and alternative fuels as ripe with opportunity.

The Young Executives Social Event at the Biltmore House and a Friday morning Worker's Compensation workshop closed out the activities. All in all, attendees were treated to a great event, Southern hospitality and a large helping of valuable industry information.

Don't miss your next chance to get together with your GAWDA peers, September 19-22 at the Annual Convention in San Antonio, TX. This is one rodeo you won't want to miss!

GAWDAwiki Help Tip: Creating an Account GAWDAwiki is a great way to share your knowledge about the gases and welding industry. However, you can't share what you know unless you create an account, which is easy to do if you follow these steps: 1. Go to www.GAWDAwiki.org and hit the grey Wiki button in the top yellow banner. 2. Hit the "create an account" button in the yellow "Why should I create an account?" box to bring up the create account page. 3. Create and type in a username and a password. Your username can be whatever you want, such as JohnD111 or weldingguy8. 4. Type in your e-mail address. 5. If you want, you can type in your real name in the last box. By doing this, anything you submit will be attributed to your real name instead of your username. 6. Hit the "create account" button at the bottom. Set up a GAWDAwiki account here. 7. You will receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your e-mail address by hitting a link included in the e-mail. Once you've done that, your account has been created. Once you've created an account, you can fully take advantage of all GAWDAwiki has to offer, such as editing existing entries, creating new entries and discussing controversial entries with other users. Share your knowledge with the rest of the industry—create a GAWDAwiki account today.

IRS Guidance on COBRA Continuation Coverage

On March 31, the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance regarding the Federal subsidy for COBRA health continuation coverage, enacted in the Stimulus Bill. IRS Notice 2009-27, available here, is 27 pages in length and in a question-and-answer format. It addresses several issues, most notably clarifying what constitutes the involuntary termination of an employee, a key eligibility requirement.

SAFETY & COMPLIANCE NEWS

DOT Changes Tube Trailer Rules • The Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has published a final rule amending the Hazardous Materials Regulations to revise certain requirements applicable to the manufacture, maintenance and use of DOT and MC specification cargo tank motor vehicles, DOT specification cylinders and UN pressure receptacles, HM-218E, 74 Federal Register 16135 (April 9, 2009).

The revisions are based on petitions for rulemaking submitted by regulated entities. The most significant amendment adopted in this final rule addresses an issue raised by the National Transportation Safety Board concerning the transportation of compressed gases in cylinders mounted on motor vehicles or in frames, commonly referred to as tube trailers. The final rule incorporates by reference the 2008 revised version of Compressed Gas Association Technical Bulletin 25, which sets out standards for protective structures for valves and pressure relief devices and design considerations for the static, dynamic and thermal loads affecting tube trailers. These design considerations are intended to reduce the likelihood of the tube separating from the trailer during an accident, including a rollover.

PHMSA declined to adopt 2 amendments contained in the proposed rule. PHMSA did not adopt CGA V–9, as requested by CGA, which would have amended 49 CFR §§ 173.40(c) and 173.301(a)(11) to require each valve on a cylinder to conform to CGA V–9 unless otherwise excepted. PHMSA also did not adopt a request by CGA to adopt CGA C–1 on methods of hydrostatic testing for compressed gas cylinders. This would have required the requalification of cylinders using a pressure test conducted in accordance with CGA C–1.

GAWDA Supporting HMTA Proposals • GAWDA has joined with some 40 other trade associations representing shippers and carriers of hazardous materials to support changes to the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA). GAWDA supports proposed changes adopted by the Interested Parties (IP) Group for Hazardous Materials Transportation, which developed a comprehensive list of legislative amendments for consideration by Congress. The HMTA is the statutory law that authorizes the U.S. Department of Transportation to regulate hazmat transportation; Congress periodically reviews and reauthorizes the Act. This year, Congress is expected to reauthorize the HMTA as part of the highway program reauthorization bill. At the request of House Republicans, the IP Group has generated 43 pages of proposed changes, available here, along with an analysis of each proposal, available here.

The IP Group proposals would strengthen DOT's primary role as the regulator of hazardous materials transportation (as opposed to Homeland Security, OSHA, EPA or other federal agencies), reinforce the preemptive effect of the HMTA over state or local hazmat regulations, clarify the definition of hazmat employer, clarify in regulations the requirements for loading and unloading of bulk hazmat shipments, and streamline the background check process for CDL drivers with hazmat endorsements.

NEW MEMBERS

GAWDA welcomes new Supplier Member America Fortune Company of Houston, TX.

INDUSTRY BEAT
(what people are talking about)

Jackson Safety Acquired (Fenton, MO) • Jackson Products, more commonly known in the industry as Jackson Safety, was acquired by Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Tom Burns, president and CEO of Jackson Safety, says, "I'm excited about this combination because it improves our prospects for growth in the U.S., Europe and emerging markets around the world." Burns will continue to lead the business as a division of Kimberly-Clark Professional.

Kevin Berke (r) is presented with TRALA's Certificate of Excellence by DeCarolis Safety Director Brad Grover.

Rochester Welding's Berke Wins Safety Award (Rochester, NY) • Kevin Berke of Rochester Welding Supply earned the Truck Renting and Leasing Association's (TRALA) 2009 Driver of the Year award in recognition of exceptional safe driving and community service benefiting the trucking and leasing industry. Rochester Welding Supply leases its trucks from local leasing company DeCarolis Truck Rental, who nominated Berke for the award through its membership in TRALA. Berke was one of 4 drivers out of thousands of candidates across the United States to earn the honor, based on safe driving record, the number of miles driven, longevity and other community service activities.

Flopower/Trafimet Signs On Sterling (Hialeah, FL) •  Flopower/Trafimet USA signed on Sterling Products for outside sales representation. Based in Buford, GA, Sterling will market Trafimet's line of MIG, plasma and TIG torches and consumables in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and western Virginia.

FIBA Issued Hazmat Permit (Millbury, MA) • Transport Canada issued Permit for Equivalent Level of Safety SU 9987 to FIBA Technologies, allowing FIBA DOT UN tubes (manufactured per ISO Standard 11120) to transport hazardous materials within Canada by road, railway or marine. The permit is valid until April 30, 2014.

Praxair Acquires 3 Companies (Danbury, CT) • Praxair Distribution acquired 3 packaged gas companies: Alabama Welding Supply of Dolomite, AL; Fowler Brothers of Birmingham, AL; and Service Gas Supply of Midlothian, TX. The acquisitions involve 4 locations in Alabama and one in Texas and will be integrated into Praxair Distribution's Southern Region.

Chart Partners with DataOnline in China (Garfield Heights, OH) • Chart Industries' subsidiary Chart Cryogenic Engineering Systems, located in Changzhou City, China, entered into an agreement with DataOnline to sell DataOnline telemetry products and solutions. "Our partnership with DataOnline will provide local support for our customers in China as they adopt and expand their telemetry platform," says Eric Rottier, president of Chart Asia.

Pain Opens 5th Plant (Bloomington, IN) • Pain Enterprises opened its 5th and largest CO2 and dry ice plant. Located in Riga, MI, the 18,000 sq. ft. plant is capable of producing over 300 tons of liquid CO2 or over 200 tons of dry ice per day. "Opening this plant will provide better service for our customers in the Midwest," says Executive Vice President Gil D'Arcy. The company is hiring 20-30 workers to run the plant 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

GAWDA NEWS

Profit Survey for Distributor Members • The deadline for participating in the 2009 GAWDA PROFIT Survey is April 30. Get full details here.

Take Advantage of GAWDA University Online • GAWDA U is an easy-to-use and inexpensive online training tool for your employees. The educational content of GAWDA U was developed to support GAWDA's primary mission of providing information to assist you in improving your company's safety and compliance.

GAWDA U Online is an ever-changing and growing program. We are conducting weekly webinars to introduce members to the functions and content of GAWDA U and to answer any questions. Please contact GAWDA Membership Director Kate Cole (kcole@fernley.com) to sign up for the introductory webinars or to find out more about this exciting opportunity!

View course listings here.

WORKSHOPS, WEB CONFERENCES & SEMINARS

Dave Kahle's Sales Academy
June 18-19, 2009
William Tell Holiday Inn
Countryside, IL

The opportunity costs of an uneducated and unproductive sales force may be the biggest unseen expense in your company. Stop the bleeding by sending them to Dave Kahle's Sales Academy. Attendees will learn the Kahle Way Distributor Selling System. Call 800-331-1287 or visit this page for more information. GAWDA members are eligible for discounts.

The GAWDA Connection is distributed on the 8th and 23rd of each month to all GAWDA members as a membership service of GAWDA, the Gases and Welding Distributors Association, 100 N. 20th Street, 4th Floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19103-1443. Neither GAWDA nor Data Key Communications, LLC, their officers, directors, members and staff are responsible for contents or opinions other than those concerning Association activities.

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