Effort Launched to Establish Supply Management Association in West Virginia

Online, March 12, 2011 (Newswire.com) - For more information contact:
Donald G Barber Jr, CPSM, C.P.M., A.P.P.
304-761-4416
[email protected]
www.ismwv.org

West Virginia - Effort Launched to Establish Supply Management Association in West Virginia

March is 'Supply Management Month' and an effort is underway to establish a supply management association in West Virginia.

Each March, the 35,000 members of the non-profit Institute for Supply Management (ISM) along with 150-plus affiliated associations, conduct special activities and events to highlight the importance of the supply management profession.

"But not in West Virginia, which currently has no active affiliates," indicated Don Barber, "and I would like to change that." Barber, a Parkersburg native, now living and working in Jackson County, is a long-time member of ISM and the organizer behind the effort to establish a West Virginia-based affiliate.

Eighty five percent of all ISM members also belong to an affiliate according to the Tempe, Arizona, based organization, and affiliate membership offers benefits that include volunteer and leadership opportunities, professional development opportunities, local networking with peers, and educational events. Barber also noted that many affiliates go well beyond just the basics of monthly dinner meetings with a speaker and professional development topic, and will often conduct seminars, arrange plant tours, provide college scholarships, host trade shows, publish informative newsletters, and the like. "An active vibrant affiliate offers the supply chain professional - and their employers - an excellent return on the time invested", Barber concluded.

Membership in ISM is - and the not yet formed West Virginia affiliate will be - open to anyone interested in supply management. Most often, this means someone having a purchasing or procurement, supply chain or materials management, planning or scheduling, production or inventory control, distribution or logistics, investment recovery, or related role with their employer. ISM membership crosses all manufacturing and service industries.

Additional information on the organizing effort to establish a West Virginia supply management association is available at www.ismwv.org. Information on ISM and its role in promoting the supply management profession is available at www.ism.ws.