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richgottwald

Supp/Mfg./Whole/Assoc. II
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Everything posted by richgottwald

  1. Eric, I rarely respond to your posts because it only results in a caustic response. But sometimes..... I will leave it to the members at ISA to judge whether I have been an effective advocate for the industry. ISA does really good work on behalf of the industry. Efforts like educating city planners on proper signage (600 have attended our sessions so far), sponsoring research on the cause of failures of single pole sign structures, and implementing on-line sign industry education all help to move the industry forward and to break down regulatory barriers. i hope I have played a small role in that. ISA has an incredible group of members. Over 2,300 companies belong to ISA, and they roll up their sleeves day in and day out, not only to run their own companies, but to get involved in this association (or other associations) and try to make a difference in the industry. I am so proud of them all. You, Eric, do none of that. You hide behind this blog and bully anyone who so much as utters a word with which you disagree. You may think you are serving a greater cause, but you are not. You could, but not the way you operate today. I wish the sign industry all the best, and I thank them for the opportunity to serve. Rich Gottwald
  2. This has been a four year process by the three trade groups and UL. Over the course of many meetings, we were able to educate UL about the realities of sign manufacturing and the inconsistent enforcement by UL inspectors. UL, in turn, educated us about the types and number of VNs that they were seeing in sign shops, which we then shared with our members. The outcome is that UL knows the industry is committed to manufacturing quality products, and, I assume, they realized that the fees associated with VNs were no longer useful or necessary..
  3. The International Sign Association reported today that UL will eliminate all variation notice (VN) fees related to its electric sign certification program. Elimination of the fees is the result of ongoing discussions between UL and the Sign Industry Business Panel, chaired by ISA Executive Vice President Rich Gottwald. When sign products do not comply with the UL Follow-Up Service Procedures, applicable standards or other requirements, UL field representatives issue VNs to document the nonconformance. A variation notice is a channel of communication between UL and a manufacturer that creates a record when nonconformance issues are discovered. Prior to this agreement, each variation notice had been accompanied, in most circumstances, by a fee of $580. "We celebrate the end of the variation notice fees," Gottwald said. "However, it is important that manufacturers work to address not only the product nonconformance, but any underlying process or system issue that may have led to the nonconformance. We believe that elimination of the VN fee supports a collaborative relationship between the sign industry and UL, ensuring that we deliver products that consumers and end users can rely on." The Sign Industry Business Panel was formed five years ago to represent the sign industry in discussions with UL on critical issues. The panel is made up of sign and sign component manufacturers from the International Sign Association (ISA), the United States Sign Council (USSC) and the World Sign Associates (WSA).
  4. ISA will release information next week on how Obamacare affects small companies, particularly sign companies, and what they need to do to comply. Stay tuned.
  5. Congratulations to the Neon Group for achieving recognition by U.L.'s Green Leaf program. One clarification I would like to make in the above post is that they "got this accomplished without the help of any other sign organization/association". The Sign Industry Business Panel was formed in 2008 to work with UL on business issues of importance to the industry. The panel consists of reps from ISA, USSC and WSA, as well as U.L. The panel is chaired by Rich Gottwald of ISA. One of our earlier projects was working with U.L. to develop the Green Leaf program. The panel participated in developing the relevant U.L. certification criteria for the program. While we did not participate in the Neon Group's work on this issue, the Sign Industry Business Panel did set the stage so that products like neon can be recognized for their performance.
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