The Power Transmission Distributors Assn. recently rewrote some membership rules to better reflect the needs of global PT/MC markets.

According to immediate past president Patrick Frater, some of the changes address concerns about new businesses, entrepreneurs and specialists. Also, PTDA expanded its list of product offerings that will qualify distributors and manufacturers for membership.

Some of the changes for distributors:

• Dropped a requirement that firms had to be in the PT/MC business for two years
• Dropped a requirement that firms stock and distribute a minimum of six products from three product categories; firms must distribute some products from an expanded list
• Dropped a requirement that firms be authorized stocking distributors for a North American manufacturer; firms must be authorized by two suppliers that are PTDA members.

New rules are also in place for manufacturers that, in general, ease qualifications for membership.

For information, contact PTDA at (312) 876-9461.

The National Electronic Distributors Assn. recently gave its Lifetime Achievement Award to Jerry Sanders, CEO and chairman of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

NEDA also gave its first Channel Marketing Awards:

Platinum Excellence award: TTI, Inc. and Avnet, Inc.

Gold Achievement award: AESCO Electronics; Avnet, Inc.; Mouser Electronics; Sager Electronics; and TTI Inc.

The Manufacturers' Agents National Assn. took over the day-to-day management of the Assn. of Industry Manufacturers' Representatives, which serves the HVAC, plumbing and related industries, effective Jan. 1, 2003. While MANA is not an association management company, AIM/R president Larry Hobbs said MANA is well equipped to handle the job.

According to MANA president Joe Miller, this is the first additional association management task taken on by MANA.

For more information, contact MANA at (949) 859-4040.

Nine large-distributor members of the National Assn. of Electrical Distributors endorsed the use of the Industry Data Warehouse, an electronic repository of factory pricing information for the electrical industry, and asked manufacturers to send pricing data to IDW and keep it up to date. NAED and NEMA, the National Electrical Manufacturers Assn., began a collaborative e-commerce service in 1998 called the Industry Data Exchange Assn. IDEA, in turn, began a manufacturers pricing database, the IDW.

Major endorsers of IDW include Crescent Electric Supply Co., GE Supply, Graybar Electric Co., Inc., Hagemeyer N.A., McNaughton-McKay Electric Co., Rexel, Inc., Sonepar USA and WESCO Distribution, Inc. They request that all electrical manufacturers send pricing data to the warehouse through IDEA.

For more information, contact NAED at (314) 991-9000.

The International Sanitary Supply Assn. had 16,500 attendees in October at the ISSA/INTERCLEAN-USA 2002 tradeshow in Las Vegas, Nev., nearing the all-time record set in 1999. Attendance this year was significantly higher than 2000 or 2001.

The 687 exhibitors in attendance displayed their wares for an estimated 4,000 end users, making this the largest gathering of end users in the history of the industry, according to ISSA. There were 4,939 distributor attendees at the trade show.

The Young Executives Forum of the Industrial Distribution Assn. welcomes the following new members: Frank Thomas, American Mill Supply, Inc.; Diane Ruggiero, Champion Cutting Tool Corp.; Sergio Pappa, J&L Industrial Supply Co, Inc.; Jeff Werner, J&L Industrial Supply Co., Inc.; Susie Johnston, Johnston Industrial Supply, Inc.; Matthew Cohen, Minnesota Industrial Tools; and David Salathe, Quality Mill Supply.

Send Association News to associate editor Al Tuttle, 275 Washington St., Newton, Mass., 02458; call (617) 558-4770; fax to (617) 558-4327; or e-mail to atuttle@reedbusiness.com.