NFPA Board Meets; Begins Planning for Next 3-Year Strategy Agenda
By Eric Lanke, NFPA President/CEO
Back in June, our then-new Board chair, Markus Rauchhaus of Nott Company, wrote about the discussions held at the Board’s annual strategic retreat, and many of the networking, education, and promotional programs NFPA organizes to strengthen the fluid power industry. As part of that message, he told you about the three high-level objectives that were set as part of our Strategy Agenda for the next three years:
-
Member Forum: NFPA provides an effective forum for its members where they provide and receive relevant business intelligence and statistics and where they develop, network and advance their collective interests.
-
Technology Promotion: NFPA provides opportunities for its members to promote fluid power technology to end users, OEM customers, and allied technology partners.
-
Workforce Connections: NFPA connects its members with technical college and university students educated in fluid power and promotes careers in the fluid power industry.
Now it’s October, and the NFPA Board has reconvened for its first meeting of the fiscal year, where it reviewed those high-level objectives and helped us set the clear and actionable goals needed to achieve them. Here are some highlights of that discussion.
In Member Forum, clear objectives were set for member recruitment and growth, for the engagement of our members in our networking and engagement programs, and for the growth and delivery of our business intelligence and statistics programs. We recognized a diversified membership of stakeholders across the entire fluid power value chain, actively engaged and sharing information within NFPA, as absolutely essential to our future success.
In Technology Promotion, clear objectives were set for the growth of and member engagement in our technology forum programs – the ones that best put our members in the position to promote themselves and their technologies to a growing base of end users, OEM customers, and allied technology partners. The engagement of more of these stakeholders in our roadmapping and promotional activities will be a key aspect of our plans in this space.
In Workforce Connections, clear objectives were set for increasing the engagement of our members in our Fast Track Hubs, Power Partner Universities, and Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge. These programs have dramatically increased the pool of young talent ready to go to work in the fluid power industry. Our focus in the years ahead will be on better connecting your company to these candidates.
Our Board is a high-functioning group, and focused on the issues of direct importance to the membership and to the broader fluid power industry. I encourage you and all NFPA members to get engaged in these key initiatives, as each will help you better connect across the changing supply chain and source the talent you need for continued growth and expansion. Please contact me at elanke@nfpa.com if you’d like to learn more about any of these opportunities.
The Board’s next meeting will be in February 2027 in conjunction with the NFPA Annual Conference.