Nearly 20 years ago, George Berkwitt, the long-time editor of Industrial Distribution, told a young editor that "nothing ever changes in the industrial distribution business. It's been that way for years and it's not going to change in the next decade," he declared.

George, my friend and mentor, was right about a lot of things. But he was wrong on that score.

Of course, distribution in his era really hadn't changed very much. Business was good and some people believed that distribution sales, despite its ups and downs, would remain virtually unchanged.

Today, many of those distributorships are gone due to mergers and acquisitions, the growth of national chains and a substantially changed marketplace. Others refused to acknowledge the changes, and those companies eventually went out of business.

Industrial distribution associations felt all these changes. Those of us who have been around this business for a while remember the industry's central event: "The Triple," the annual meeting of the National Industrial Distribution Assn., the Southern Industrial Distributors Assn. and the American Supply & Machinery Manufacturers Assn. Thousands of members attended.

Other associations also reported record attendance during those years, and membership was strong.

Times have changed. Some association meetings are drawing fewer and fewer members, and frankly that's a shame, because these meetings (at least in my opinion) have much better speakers and workshops than they did years ago.

The question that must be asked is this: Can individual associations, particularly smaller ones, continue to exist if they act independently, in light of declining membership? Some people say yes, and they want to keep the status quo. Others aren't so sure.

Some association executives are looking to package their association meetings together. Each association would have its own meeting but would also pool their resources to provide all members with general sessions and workshops that would feature top-notch speakers. Others are suggesting an industry-wide event of all associations dealing in the MRO area.

At one recent "town hall" forum this issue was brought up. Most people thought the concept should be investigated, but others said it wouldn't work.

It's time to explore the possibility of combining some of these industry meetings. It might make good business sense.

jkeough@reedbusiness.com