Polyurethane Foam Association widens reach with international membership category

In a bid to provide access to industry news and advocacy issues and unify the flexible polyurethane foam industry in the Americas, the members of the Polyurethane Foam Association (PFA) have just established a federated membership category for flexible polyurethane foam (FPF) manufacturers with production facilities exclusively outside the U.S. 

“The new, federated membership category reflects a natural evolution for PFA in recognition of FPF manufacturing as an international industry with shared issues,” said Joe Progar, PFA president and EVP, Advanced Urethanes Technology. “In this era of fast, global communications, news of events and regulatory activities are not limited to boundaries of any particular country.”

The PFA is headquartered in Loudon, Tenn.

To qualify for federated membership, FPF manufacturers must provide a written application that includes an agreement to abide by U.S. antitrust laws, and they agree to report monthly FPF production volume on a confidential basis to an independent, certified accounting firm for use in preparing blended regional production trend information.

To support the introduction of new federated members to PFA, the association is offering a special membership rate, effective now through December 2013. Accepted federated members also will be able to register for 2013 PFA meetings at the member rate of $350 per person, which represents an immediate savings of $850 per person for each meeting. Along with meeting discounts, federated members will receive all PFA communications and monthly production trend reports from the U.S. and other participating federations. Regional meetings also may be planned as the number of federated members in a particular region grows.

“The addition of a federated membership will help ensure that foam manufacturers throughout the Americas will remain informed of industry issues and actions, and have the ability to speak with one voice,” said PFA executive director Bob Luedeka.