Dear California Metal Finishing Association Members,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of the association. I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday season and a happy new year.
Thank You
2020 has been an extremely difficult year for our industry and the entire small business community here in California. The cutbacks in aerospace, commercial, and many other industries have hit close to home for all of us. We have lost members that went out of business due to difficult times and others have had to lay off employees that have been team members for many years in order to adjust to changes in business demand. The changes we have had to make in our business and personal lives have been some of the most difficult experiences many of us have faced. Looking forward to 2021 we are staying positive and optimistic that things will improve and return to a more normal way of life.
Our Goals
I wanted to take this opportunity to briefly note some of the issues the association is working on now and into next year. For California, we are currently in talks with the California Air Resources Board and participating in their technical working group meetings on the statewide Chrome Plating ACTM Rule. The goal here is to ensure that a fair rule is in the works and nothing is approved that would jeopardize the ability to operate here in California including a complete phase-out of hex chrome processing. The association sends out weekly e-mail updates through Mailchimp with the date and time of these meetings that take place online via zoom. We encourage all members to participate in these meetings and to ask questions.
The association is also actively working with the State Water Board and all regional water boards to address member concerns relating to PFAS testing. I encourage members to check our new association website at mfaca.org. The new member-only page has important benefits including the PFAS sampling plan and COVID-19 business plan available to download. We regularly post updated information on regulatory working group meetings and key alerts on important issues. In Southern California, we are in talks with AQMD on Rule 1426 & Rule 1469.1. Again we are working to ensure fair rules that are science-driven are approved.
Regulations
As many of you know the association has spent over six hundred thousand dollars to fight the damaging unscientific aspects of Rule 1469. In the end that money was well spent and allowed us to negotiate a more workable industry rule. If not it is safe to say that some of us would not be in business, and our industry would look different today. We continue to work with NASF on national issues and changes to regulation at the EPA level. Important NASF issues will be posted on our website and can be found at nasf.org. We understand that new COVID-19 requirements at the state level and changes from CAL-OSHA make business conditions even more challenging at the current time. Important updates will be posted as they become available.
Alliances
The association continues to work with other friendly associations including the Small Business Alliance, the Metals Coalition, the Anodizing Council, and the Aerospace & Defense Forum to name a few. These alliances help us all share important information and to rally together when needed. We are working now to improve these working relationships into 2021 including joint member webinars. These are a few of the issues the association will be working on in 2021 and of course, we look forward to the return of our in-person events and association fundraising activities. If you have questions or need help with something please reach out to the association we are just a phone call away.
In closing, I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season with family and friends, cheers to 2021!
Bryan Leiker,
Executive Director
Metal Finishing Association of California
