IN THIS ISSUE
2 Technology/Government Affairs
3 Association News
6 2016 ALA Annual Conference
7 Business Success
9 Lightovation
12 Member News
14 Education/Training
The American Lighting Association
is a trade association representing
the lighting and ceiling fan
industries, serving members and
their customers, and working to
protect and advance the industries,
while promoting the sale and
application of quality lighting and
ceiling fan products.
January/February 2016 • Volume 46, No. 1 americanlightingassoc.com
ALA Announces
Plans to Develop
Sales Training
Program
During the ALA Executive Committee Meeting, held in late
November, the association announced
plans to develop a comprehensive
sales training program. The announcement comes following multiple
member requests for additional sales
training and high attendance for ALA
webinars and seminars related to
sales.
“The association is constantly
striving to provide training materi-
als that help improve our members’
bottom lines,” said Nici Juneau, ALA
director of education. “With this new
program, we hope to provide ALA
members with valuable sales training
materials that can easily be applied in
a variety of settings, all at an afford-
able price.”
Currently, ALA is working with
Mark Okun, LS, owner of Mark Okun
Consulting, regarding the develop-
ment of the course platform. The
program will likely take the form of a
video training set. Each training mod-
2016 Action Agenda Outlines ALA’s Goals
to Further Unite the Industry
ALA’s Executive Committee met Nov. 19-20 in Dallas to review and
approve the 2016 Action Agenda and
Committee Chairs. During the meeting, the committee reviewed a variety
of upcoming programs and plans for
the next year with the goal of uniting
the industry and using the power of
community to enhance the association
and the indsutry as a whole.
The primary focus for 2016 will
be on bringing the industry together.
It is the hope of the association that
ALA’s programs will encourage collaboration and help the industry harness the power of community.
The association’s primary goal is to
continue to enhance program offer-
ings; therefore, much of the discussion
focused on topics of improvement and
expansion. These topics are marked as
“New” and “Betterment” in the Action
Agenda and are carefully developed
based upon feedback and experiences
throughout the previous year. The
association organizes its agenda into
three key areas: public affairs, educa-
tion and organizational affairs.
Public Affairs
The BiNational Advertising and
PR Program is an integral part of
ALA’s public affairs efforts. In 2016,
the association will continue to work
towards strengthening this program,
along with consumer and interior de-
signer awareness of lighting, controls
and ceiling fans.
This year will mark the tenth anniversary of Lighting magazine. ALA will
use this milestone as an opportunity
to improve the program and its efforts.
Through planning meetings with the
magazine’s editors and ALA members,
ideas have already been implemented
to set the stage for the association to
reach its public affairs goals.
Also under the umbrella of public
affairs are the topics of engineering
and government affairs. It is crucial the
association proactively communicate
its technical and legislative activities to
both members and the appropriate federal, state and provincial agencies. In
2016, the association will actively participate in the development of industry
Officials from Natural Resources Canada Meet with ALA
ALA members and staff met with
senior officials from
Natural Resources
Canada (NRCan)
Dec. 10, 2015, in
Ottawa. The meeting, conducted at the
request of the lighting industry, focused
on a number of pressing issues.
Staff from NRCan opened the meeting by providing a detailed briefing
on Canadian regulatory procedure.
The briefing, while predominantly
process oriented, gave useful insight
into forthcoming regulations known as
Amendment 13. NRCan explained CSA’s
role in establishing new regulations to
which ALA acknowledged its strong
partnership with the testing body. The
ALA was invited to participate in the
proceedings by providing accurate in-
formation on relevant technical matters.
Overall, having a better understanding
of the process and the timing allows
ALA to be more engaged when promoting the views of the membership.
“The meeting was positive and infor-
mative. We strengthened our relation-
ship, which gives ALA a great footing
moving forward. As NRCan works on
Amendment 13 they now know we are
engaged and passionate about lighting
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Canadian Affairs Chair Fred Fennel and other ALA members meet with officials from NRCan.
