Waukesha, Wis.—The National Industrial Belting Assn. membership voted to change the organization's name to NIBA-The Belting Assn. The change is effective January 1, 2002 and the acronym, NIBA, as well as the familiar belt logo, will remain unchanged.

NIBA's 2001 Strategic Planning Committee recommended the change in response to input from recent member surveys. By removing the word "national," the name change reflects the increasingly global nature of the belting industry.

"The name change was recommended to reflect our increasingly international scope," said NIBA executive vice president and CEO Randall E. Rakow. "There are 59 international members in a membership of just over 300."

This is not the first such name change for this belting organization. Founded in 1927 as the American Leather Belting Assn., it has a long history of evolving along with the industry. To reflect industry changes and offer its service to a wider membership, ALBA changed its name to the National Industrial Leather Assn. in 1954. To accommodate the wide use of rubber and reinforced belting manufacture and distribution, the association became NIBA in 1976.

The most recent name change and efforts to recruit international members are some of the ways NIBA is responding to the global economy, said Rakow.