News

The APPA Board held its most recent meeting on Friday 13^th May 2022 at the APPA office in Melbourne. Below is a summary of the meeting from President Robert Williams:

I began the meeting by noting that our industry is busy once again, with our suppliers, distributors and decorators ‘flat chat’. The industry has a certain vibrancy around it again, which is great to see.

As we transition out of the COVID era, APPA remains in a strong position with a modest surplus expected this financial year. Membership has grown by 4.8% during COVID and our membership retention is over 93% which is the highest it has been in years. The new APPA Search being heavily used by distributors and return of our shows are doing its bit for the industry. The Board approved 16 new members since the February meeting, some of which are new members and those who have decided to re-join the Association. An outstanding action item from the Board is a review of our membership model and we also discussed the importance of decorators within our industry and reviewing our membership offering to this important segment of our industry.

APPA CEO Wesley Fawaz presented the 2022/23 financial year budget with another modest surplus forecasted and includes the recruitment of new staff following the return of trade show income. APPA has managed its finances extremely well over the years and is fortunate to have reserves for the Board to consider investing for the future stability of the Association. The Board have agreed to investigate options of purchasing an office in Melbourne, which will ideally also be available to members to utilise.

After a trial at CONVEX in 2019, the Board discussed the future of end-user access to APPA trade shows and decided against continuing this concept. The Board concurred that our trade shows work best as trade-only events.

Other points raised during the Board meeting include:

• A discussion around director and chair succession planning which is an important governance role for all Boards
• A discussion around life membership
• Strategies to ensure we can attract as many distributors as possible to the upcoming Promo Show
• Wesley Fawaz met with the new PPAI CEO recently and the two associations will continue to support each other and maintain an open dialogue

I take this opportunity to also congratulate Events Manager Ida Laino who is expecting her first child and will be taking six months maternity leave later this year.

Our next meeting will be held on Friday 26^th August following Promo Show in Melbourne.

If you wish to discuss any of these Board matters, please do not hesitate to email me at robert@yourbrandunleashed.com.au.