Page 4 - SEP OCT 2019 CFESA Mag website

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
JOHN SCHWINDT
“Recruitment” has been the big buzz
word of the industry these past few
months. We have been spending most
of our time and resources on recruiting
people, new techs, both experienced
and beginners, service managers,
dispatchers and I.T. people. People
are the most important “commodity”
we have as companies. We invest
thousands of dollars and hours to find
these people and hang onto them as
long term employees.
But what about recruiting companies?
Service companies, factories, dealers
and rep, can all be members of
CFESA. Are we actively recruiting new
companies to become members of
CFESA? I can answer this for most of
us, NO, or at least not as much as we
should be doing.
How many good service companies in
our local or extended areas have we
encouraged to join CFESA, to either
become a better company or make
CFESA a better organization? Some
of us use a “sub-agent” network to
help support our service territories
for warranty responsibilities or just
for good customer service. But how
many of these companies even know or
are encouraged to become members
of CFESA? I for one am making this
my local mission to encourage and
to educate them on the benefits
and opportunities that membership
4 CFESA Magazine | SEP / OCT 2019 | www.cfesa.com
provides them, but also the benefits
that they can bring to the membership.
As our membership changes, either by
retirements, mergers, buyouts, supply
chain changes, etc., our membership
must change. I’m not saying that every
company with a tech and a screwdriver
should be a member company, but
there are many good companies out
there (both big and small) that would
benefit and enhance our stature as
an inclusive and vibrantly growing
organization in the food service sector.
Many years ago there was a perception
that CFESA was nothing but a “good ol’
boys club” that was almost impossible
to join, but through the hard work and
dedication and foresight of a lot of our
member companies, this perception
was changed. Now it needs to grow
with the changing times and changing
nature of our business. CFESA is an
organization of “Independent” service
companies, big and small, rural and
large metropolitan areas. All of us,
together, can continue to uphold
our standard of service excellence
and continue to be the leader of our
industry for our customers, as well
as manufacture, dealer, rep, and
consulting channel partners”.