Hello everyone,

I’d like to start out with a little history that most people may not know on my journey to becoming more involved with AMFA. I started my first company Zakobe Metal Stampings from scratch in 2005 and have been a member of AMFA since 2007. Until 2019 I had never been involved with being on the board of directors’ but decided to join AMFA’s board that year. The first meeting I attended I was 100 percent in over my head. I left that meeting so confused as to what went on at the meeting and what I was supposed to be doing. I struggled through most of that year and was ready to throw in the towel and resign. It was about that time that then President Jim Petruga reached out to me with a long phone call. During that call Jim not only convinced me to stay but to throw my name in the hat to become the next president. All I can say is Jim is one heck of a salesman. He helped me see the value I brought to the Board with my passion for connecting schools and manufacturers. My first year as president was not a smooth one and I struggled to find my voice. Then throw in all the other craziness going on in 2020 and it was ugly to say the least.

When I took over as the AMFA president I had visions of bringing more value to your memberships and zero thought about how crazy life was going to become. Some of those visions included building a better connection between manufacturers and future employees. I am happy to say we are making so many great connections with local schools, connecting with students and faculty. Also getting back to more networking between AMFA’s manufacturers and providing better, more pertinent information that manufacturers can use. Well, it has been a struggle, to say the least, with many hurdles along the way.

I am excited for the plans we have in place and for being able to meet in person again. We recently held our general meeting in Grand Rapids with presenter Amy Johnson from Cardinal Consulting talking about key points to help find and retain employees followed by a tour of ASV and learning about their future expansion plans. We also had some time to allow each attendee to introduce themselves and their companies with some dedicated time just to talk with one another and network.

We had other big changes with our parent organization MMA changing leadership. MMA also added a new position to help with the workload and add additional ideas. Now we have a more focused plan of attack for every part of the process. We hope we can continue to add new benefits and more networking events not just for AMFA but with our sister organizations CMMA and TSMA with the hopes of building a stronger relationship within the members of all three organizations. It’s always good to know your neighbors.

We have our upcoming AMFA Golf Social on June 6^th in Cloquet which is a great place to network and always a fun time. Plus, it helps support our AMFA Educational Trust which provides grants to the area schools. Since its beginning AMFA ET has raised around $200,000 which has been distributed to schools near you for shop equipment, field trips, robotics teams, and much more. We hope you will continue to support this great event, come play golf, or sponsor a hole.

AMFA is always looking for tour ideas for our general meetings and networking ideas. If you have a suggestion for next fall, please let us know. We want to add value for you and your business. We are here to help build the connection between our areas manufacturers and fabricators. Maybe you have a problem you need help solving. If you are up for sharing that at a meeting - those in attendance could brainstorm some ideas that may solve your issue. We are here to help and I look forward to connecting with you at our next meeting.

AMFA, as always, we’re in it together.

-Wade Karnes
AMFA President