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2015 Annual Meeting Results

Minutes of 2015 EASI Annual Meeting – San Diego, CA

 

Day 1 – April 27, 2015

 

Steering Committee Meeting – 10:00 am (followed the meeting of Technical Committee):

 

Present: 9 Members

 

Rob Smith, Nick Freitag, Michael Roberts, Jon Clarke, Rich Weisbrod, Saul Hernandez, Terry Birch, Nick Blanchard, Jean Scruggs

We reviewed the proposed slate of Officers and At-Large Members which will be on the ballot being presented to the membership later today. Jon Clarke agreed to be the Technical Chair for the next two years provided he gets assistance as needed. We also need to get some Distributors active on the Technical Committee so we will make this known during the general session meetings. The group also discussed changing our monthly conference call from its current day of Tuesday to a Wednesday. This would enable at least two members of the committee to participate regularly. This change was agreed upon by all in attendance.

Following this brief meeting, the Secretary/Treasurer (Nick Freitag) opened up the check book and reviewed the year’s monthly checking account statements and financially report with the Chairman (Rob Smith) and on other Executive Team member (Rich Weisbrod). They examined the records presented and found neither irregularities nor issues with their accuracy.   

 

General Session – Day 1

 

Beginning at noon, the Annual Meeting commenced by a welcome from the Executive Chairperson, Rob Smith. He then asked for individual introductions and offered a special welcome to our first-time participants. Below is a listing of those in attendance (27 in total of 29 registered) with an * to note a ‘first time’ attendee, and ** to signify a ‘non-Member’ in attendance:

Rob Smith (L.A. T Sportswear)

Nick Freitag, Terry Birch, Michael Roberts, Diana Priebe (Gildan Activewear)

Jon Clarke, Nick Blanchard, Michael Wills* (Color Image Apparel)

John Cutsey, Joelle Hotte (FDM4 International)

Mike Cutsey (FDM America)

Rich Weisbrod, John Suttmoeller (Bodek and Rhodes)

Jane Tonkin, Debby Krissinger, Loriann Melendez (alphabroder)

Leslie Utt* (Hanesbrands, Inc.)

Jean Scruggs (Fruit of the Loom)

Jim Beale, Brian Beale (S&S/Americana)

Betsy Burton, Clarence Wiggins (Heritage Sportswear/VA T’s)

Saul Hernandez, Thomas Hasty (Staton Corporate & Casual)

Beth Villa (Big Accessories)

Andrew Winger* (Winger Associates)

Elle Rosendahl ** (Next Level Apparel)

 

Rob expressed special appreciation to Rich Weisbrod (for his work in planning the logistics for the entire meeting), Nick Freitag (for his role as Secretary/Treasurer) and to Michael Roberts (for his role as Technical Advisor).

Rob then began showing a PowerPoint presentation addressing the Anti-Trust Guidelines, and then Nick presented the Treasurer’s Report for fiscal year 2015, discussed the audited bank statements process and the subsequent Report of the Audit Committee verifying these statements as being correct, and finally the current slate of officers and At-Large Members of the Steering Committee showing expiration of terms. It is important to understand which positions are expiring and which ones needed candidates for election via the ballots to be distributed during the afternoon session of Day 2. He pointed out that we would entertain volunteers for inclusion on the ballot, and also we would accept nominations from the floor during the voting process to be held on Day 2.

At 12:15 pm, Michael Roberts & Jon Clarke began the Technical Committee’s presentation. Jon began by showing the many enhancements made to our “easistandards.com” website. 

Jon reviewed the many website enhancements that had been accomplished since last year’s Annual Meeting:

  • 1 – 852 POS new v4.0
  • 2 – New link for Product Locator established v1.0

  • 3 – 861 Inventory Receipt Advice (notifies Mill when ASN contents have been received)

Jon Clarke gave a summary of our new web site’s analytics:

  • 3500 visits in the last year (-13%)
  • 2.3 pages per session ; 3 minutes per visit
  • Top Pages: 856, 850, 940, “Members” page
  • Nick Blanchard will be the new Webmaster next year

  • “SEO” (search engine optimization) to support redefined Google algorithms

Next Jon discussed our newsletter means of communication going to our current email database. He said all have been loaded into Mail Chimp for enhanced capability to broadcast communications to our membership and interested parties.  Jon shared with us the following facts:

  • 146 emails after updating old listing (was 160)

  • Plan to publish quarterly to this distribution list

Jon then reviewed the proposed modifications to the 832 PDD file. Changes were made to enable the file to handle multi-color garments and to incorporate three different color measurement values. Michael Roberts made the motion to approve as proposed, with a second from Rob. The vote was unanimous 9-0 to approve the revised standard.

Terry Birch presented the Technical Committee’s work on a consolidated 850 & 940 file, to be called Version 3.0 of the 850 standard. Essentially, the 940 required fields have been incorporated within the current 850 file and the ‘store ID’ field was made ‘conditional’ rather than ‘optional’. After some other discussion, Jane made the motion that we accept the revised 850 to be the new standard file, and Jon seconded. The vote was 8-0 in favor of accepting this revision as new version 3.0.

Next, Terry presented proposed version 6.0 for the 856 ASN file. The purpose here was to consolidate multiple files (856, 945, 1Z, TRK) to enable drop-ship capability for the existing 856 file. The many benefits of having just one multi-functional ASN file were discussed and all agreed to adopt. The motion was made by Rob with John Suttmoeller offering the second. The vote was 9-0 in favor of adoption.

Diana Priebe then presented a brand new standard, the Photo Library v 1.0 file. Its purpose is to create a standardized repository for digital images to be stored and retrieved. The intention is for the Manufacturers/suppliers to populate the images into this file and for the Wholesalers/Users to access them from this file. After some further discussion, Debby made the motion it be adopted and Michael Roberts seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous at 9-0 to adopt the file as a new standard.

Joelle Hotte then presented the proposed changes to the 846. The major change was a switch from using a “DC ID” name in this file to using a “Store ID” code like the 940 files uses. Jane made the motion to accept the proposal, and Thomas Hasty seconded. The motion passed 9-0.

Joelle continued by presenting several modifications to the current 810 file. Changes to both header and lines were reviewed and discussed. The benefits of reduced A/R – A/P transactions for both parties through consolidated invoicing are great. Nick made the motion the proposals be adopted and Rob made the second to the motion. The motion passed unanimously 9-0.

Diana then returned to the podium to discuss the proposal for a new file, the 821 Reconciliation file. Its purpose is to assist both parties’ A/R-A/P departments with reconciling outstanding invoices. There was much discussion and modifications made with an eventual motion coming from Leslie Utt and seconded by Rob Smith. The vote was unanimous 9-0 to adopt this new standard.

Michael then wrapped up the day by reviewing these potential tasks for the Technical Committee to address in the upcoming year of 2015-16:

  • Post Image Standard
  • Post Consolidated 810
  • Post Account Statement Standard
  • Post New Versions
  • Website Enhancements
  • More Distributor representation on Tech Committee
  • Web Seal – Link to Site
  • Online Compliance Matrix
  • Track down new members / Outreach Program
  • Create EASI One-Sheet Flyer
  • Industry News / Sites
  • Pantone Discussion
  • Update all files to current office versions (xlsx, docx)
  • Sample Files for all standards
  • All EASI Documents in the cloud
  • Update Compliance Testing Site
  • Webinar – Education
  • Quarterly Newsletters
  • API – XML Implementation – 846, 850
  • Continue work on EASI Step by Step Implementation Guides – Mill/Distributor
  • EASI Best Practice – 997 Usage

  • 180 Non-Product related claims

 

It was the consensus of the at-large membership in attendance to pursue all these topics.

 

Jon Clarke re-affirmed to the membership that the 846 and 850 files would be converted to XML in the upcoming year!

 

Further discussion amongst the attendees produced these additional desired products to be done:

  • Beginner’s Guide (EASI 101) posted to website
  • “Best Practices” to be posted to site

  • Most current versions of documents usable in Microsoft Office (.docx & .xlsx)

 

It was decided that the Tech Committee would circulate a survey of the membership to help prioritize all of these objectives.

 

This wrapped up Day One’s meetings.

 

 

General Session – Day 2 – April 28,2015

 

At 8:30 am, we looked at our current website (http://www.easistandards.com) on the big screen for all to view and critique the contents. We agreed to rename “Wholesalers” category of Members to read “Distributors/Wholesalers”. Nick Freitag then showed the group where the Minutes for all the Annual Meetings resides so anyone can access them (go to “The Group”, then “Annual Meetings” then click on the year’s Minutes that you want to view).

Nick then asked for a motion from someone to formally accept the Minutes from last year’s 2014 Annual Meeting? Jon Clarke made that motion with a second from Thomas, and the Minutes of last year’s meeting were unanimously accepted 9-0.

 

New Business

 

The floor was open for discussion of any issues or concerns not already addressed in this year’s meeting.  The topics discussed included:

  • Need a method to calculate dimensional weights and cubic ft./inches
  • Postal shipping requires measurements in ounces (<16 oz. shipping is significantly cheaper)

  • Discussion about “E” and “A” classification codes of product weights & dimensions in PDD file

 

The election process was held. Consistent with our By-laws, only Members of companies that are either Wholesalers/Distributors or Manufacturers are eligible to vote. And each Member company is granted one vote, regardless of the number of representatives present for that Member company. The following persons were designated to vote on behalf of the eligible Member companies:

  • Gildan – Michael Roberts
  • LA T Sportswear – Rob Smith
  • Big Accessories -  Beth Villa
  • Staton – Thomas Hasty
  • Color Image – Jon Clarke
  • Bodek & Rhodes – Rich Weisbrod
  • Heritage/VA T’s – Betsy Burton
  • Alphabroder – Debby Krissinger
  • S&S/Americana – Jim Beale
  • Fruit of the Loom – Jean Scruggs

  • Hanesbrands – Leslie Utt

 

Nick announced that one person had come forward and asked to be placed in nomination for At-Large membership on the Steering Committee. That was Diana Priebe of Gildan. Nick asked if there were any other persons wishing to be included on the ballot today? Rob reported that Mike Leibrand, whose term was expiring this year, agreed to serve another term on the Steering Committee, if elected. There being no further nominations or requests to be considered, the election process proceeded with the distribution of ballots to the designated voting members.

 

The results of the election were announced a few minutes later. All nominated candidates were elected in unanimous fashion 11-0.

 

Questions posed to the membership for open discussion:

  • How important are tours to the Annual Meeting format planning? Not critical to a successful meeting it was decided; we like them but if we don’t have them it’s not a ‘deal-breaker’
  • Can the EASI Annual Meeting be consolidated into one day without a tour? likely could be done
  • Could we have a combined FDM4 & EASI formal dinner instead of two separate events?
  • Can we make coordinate with FDM4 such that both meetings can conclude within 3 days?

  • Suggestions for next year’s meeting:

    • Tour nice but not essential

    • We need a ‘different’ location other than Vegas or Orlando – we will solicit the membership via Survey Monkey

    • Complete a Tech Committee survey before the next meeting so that they come to the Annual Meeting with a prioritized list of objectives to be worked on

    • Need to shorten the meeting(s) such that we don’t spend a week somewhere!

    •  

There being no further business to conduct, Michael made the motion to adjourn. Rich Weisbrod provided the second and without further discussion, the meeting was officially adjourned before noon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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