EASI Standards

Minutes of 2017 EASI Annual Meeting – Las Vegas, NV
April 20, 2017

 

Technical & Steering Committee Meetings were held from 8:30 am – 9:30 am

 

Following these meetings, the Secretary/Treasurer (Nick Freitag) opened up the check book and reviewed the past year’s monthly checking account statements and financially reports with two members of the Steering Committee (Rob Smith & Michael Roberts) . They examined the records presented and found no irregularities or discrepancies with the accuracy of the books and reporting. They all signed a document stating this fact.

 

General Session

Beginning at 10 am, the Annual Meeting commenced by a welcome from the Executive Chairperson, Michael Roberts.  Michael asked for individual introductions from the attendees in the room, and offered a special welcome to our first-time participants. Below is a listing of those in attendance (28 in total of 31 registered) with an * to note a ‘first time’ attendee:

 

Nick Freitag, Bill Griffin*, Michael Roberts, Janell Sealy*, Jim Sweeney*, Diana Priebe, Michael Stiff*, Sherlexis Soleyn* (Gildan Activewear)
Jon Clarke, Nick Blanchard, (Color Image Apparel)
Joelle Hotte, Susy Boulanger (FDM4 International)
Mike Cutsey (FDM America)
Jim Affleck*, Loriann Melendez, Debby Krissinger (alphabroder)
Leslie Utt (Hanesbrands, Inc.)
Derek Clark, Ricky Carter (Fruit of the Loom)
Clarence Wiggins (Heritage Sportswear)
Betsy Burton (TSF Sportswear)
Tom Pepper (Century Place)
Beth Villa (Big Accessories)
Andrew Winger (Winger Technology Solutions)
Steve Mitchell* (TSC)
Jim Beale (S&S)
Rob Smith (LAT Apparel)
Marvin Yoshizumi (American T-shirt Co.)

 

15 Member Companies present to vote

The meeting began by showing a PowerPoint presentation detailing the Anti-Trust Guidelines, and then Nick presented the Treasurer’s Report for fiscal year 2016-167 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 know that this year, due to changes in the industry, we have to elect a Chairperson, a Vice Chairperson and multiple At-Large Steering Committee members.  The ballots will be distributed during the afternoon session at which time, we will entertain volunteers for inclusion on the ballot, and also we would accept nominations from the floor during the voting process to be held later in the afternoon. 

 

At 10:30 am, Michael thanked the key members of the Tech Committee for their work and then began the Technical Committee’s presentation. 

 

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

 

• 7500 sessions, up 50% to prior year

• 3428 Users, up 25%

• Top Pages: “Standards”, 856, 850, 940, 832,846 pages

• Nick Blanchard serving as Webmaster

• Newsletter distribution remained flat at 150

 

Next Jon presented the new versions of existing Standards that were developed.  During this review, Jon asked for ‘volunteer Trading Partners’ to make a commitment for their companies to utilize these ‘new versions’ of existing Standards in their normal course of business together, and to report at the 2018 Annual Meeting on their experience.

 

Below is a listing of these updated Standards and alongside them the Members who motioned and seconded their adoption:

 

• 850 P.O. V.4 – added DC id field, LTL/parcel carrier capable – Rob S./Steve Mitchell Passed 15-0

• 180 v1.1 - RA Request – non-product claims; question about how to handle Disposition Codes? -  Joelle/Debby  Passed 15-0

• 181 v1.1 - RA Response – same update to GTIN & Unit Price as 180- Rob/Leslie Passed 15-0

• 846 Inventory Status v 3.0  – Michael R/Rob Smith  Passed 15-0

 

After lunch break, Nick called for a motion to approve the official Minutes from last year’s 2016 Annual Meeting as posted on our website. The motion passed unanimously.

 

Next, the Tech Committee members continued by presenting a few more updated versions of the Standards:

 

• 856 ASN v7.0 – intended to accommodate shippers without case content info requiring a Loop A/Loop B structure – Steve Mitchell/Rob Smith   Passed 15-0

• Master Carton Label – needed to correct some invalid references on the existing illustration that appears on our website; Jim Beale suggested we add the name of a Contact Person to the address line, also to show the Buyer’s PO# - Rob Smith/Jim Beale   Passed 15-0

 

Diana Priebe created ‘sample files’ of the most current versions of all the Standards and they are now available on our website. It must be noted that they do NOT include Routing Envelopes. 

 

Jon then led a discussion on the concept of establishing a Trading Partner Portal, to be hosted by EASI trading partners intended to support/service their own trading partners. He presented several suggested items to be considered including on the site as “Critical Information”, and also presented ideas about future functionality and value. Conclusion of this discussion, the membership was in agreement that the Tech Committee should pursue this portal, and the trading partners of Bella & FDM4 committed to developing this in advance of next year’s Annual Meeting.

 

Joelle then led discussion of the Compliance Testing site. It has been updated to reflect the most current versions prior to this meeting. She committed to having the site updated to reflect today’s newly adopted versions of the Standards within three months of this meeting (August). It was suggested we include a link to the Sample Files on this page to assist the User.

 

Finally, regarding these ‘updated Standards’, the Tech Committee leadership asked for Member trading partners to make a specific commitment to adopting these latest versions of the Standards and to report back to the committee before next year’s Annual Meeting the results of their usage. After review & discussion, the following Members committed to doing this:

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• 180 & 181 files - Gildan 

• 810 Consolidated Invoice – Gildan 

• 832 v8.0 multi-color – Bella

• 821 v1.0 A/R statement – Bella & Broder

• IMG v1.0  Image Library – Bella & TSC

• PLUL v1.0 Product Locator link – Bella

• 861 Receipt Advice – Gildan 

 

Following the afternoon break, the election of Officers and Steering Committee Members 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 elected unanimously by secret ballot:

 

1. Secretary/Treasurer – Nick Freitag

2. At-Large Members – Jim Beale, Steve Mitchell, Jim Sweeney, Beth Villa, Derek Clark

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New Business

 

1. Nick Freitag made a motion to modify the group’s By-Laws to ensure we promote the inclusion of printers and other customers if they are interested in becoming Members. Nick made this motion after much discussion in past meetings and during this one was centered upon the need to broaden the reach to ‘our customer’s customers’.  His motion was made as follows: 

 

“to modify Section 2.02 of the Embellished Activewear Standards Initiative By-Laws so that we expand our organization’s Scope of Purpose to include all trading partners, by inserting the words ‘and their trading partners’ into the sentence. The newly worded statement being proposed would read, ‘To act as a forum for addressing business transactions between wholesaler, manufacturer and their trading partners in the Embellished Activewear Industry’.

 

The motion was seconded by Michael Roberts and the vote was unanimously in favor of its passing. EASI_By_Laws_04-20-17

 

2. The following topics were addressed and discussion ensued surrounding them as follows:

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1. Drop-ship Claims – how to avoid issuing duplicate credits?

2. 832 PDD – should size specs be added to this file? Consensus was we should add hyperlinks to the Manufacturer’s spec files, but we could not add garment dimensional data to this file

3. 889/890 Count/Recount files – are they still being used? No one apparently could say they were still vital. 

4. XML – what we thought was ‘the language of our future’ just a few years ago, may now become replaced by “REST” and/or “JSON”. Technology is favoring a movement towards an “API environment” instead of file transfer/FTP process. The Tech Committee will form a sub-Committee consisting of volunteers (Andrew, Joelle, Steve) to study and recommend to the Steering Committee its findings. 

5. Industry tradeshow presence? Undecided

6. EASI logos on Member’s websites? Some very much liked the idea and said they would confirm with Sr. Management’s approval. Others thought it would not be approved or be meaningful/relevant to their business purposes online. 

 

Open Floor New Business

 

Michael asked if there were any other new business issues to come before the membership. Two issues surfaced: 

 

• Debby pointed out the current 856 ASN file shows the SSCC18 being an “Alpha-Numeric” value instead of “Numeric Only” as the GS1 standard is written. This is an oversight and the file needs to be corrected! The Tech Committee will correct this. 

• Jim asked if the 846 v3.0- XML version should be archived. 

 

Final Wrap-up - 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 determined, reaffirming last year’s discussions. We like them but if we don’t have them, it’s not a ‘deal-breaker’

• Did we like EASI Annual Meeting be consolidated into one day without a tour? YES

• Consensus was that the combined FDM4 & EASI formal dinner was a great success! Comments were heard that ‘this was the best dinner event yet’.

• Suggestions for next year’s meeting:

  • East Coast location as alternating location or mid-country location should be considered 

  • Orlando/Miami, Nashville, Cincinnati were the locations most discussed  – we will solicit the membership choice via Survey Monkey

  • Timing was discussed quite a bit as this year, with Easter/Passover occurring so early in the year (March 30-April 7) in 2018, we think we need to meet during the second week of April. After group discussions and consulting the 2018 calendar of holidays, it was determined that we would target the April 9th week for our meeting next year.

 

There being no further business to conduct, Jon made the motion to adjourn. Joelle provided the ‘second’ and without further discussion, the meeting was officially adjourned at 4:25 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Nick Freitag

Secretary/ Treasurer EASI