The CWB Association Welding Podcast

Episode 199 with Marissa McMurray and Max Ceron

• Max Ceron • Season 1 • Episode 199

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The CWB Association had the privilege to attend the Association of Women in the Metal Industries Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as we bring you special episodes recorded in person to advocate for a more equitable future in metal industries, where everyone can thrive.

Marissa McMurray, Regional Communications Manager at Hatch, joins us to shine a light on the vital role of women in the metal industries. Promising a firsthand look at advocacy efforts, Marissa shares her personal journey and the impactful work of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries (AWMI). Buckle up as we pave the way to create  empowering environments that help women to thrive, transforming fear into a stepping stone for success.

Follow Marissa:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marissa-mcmurray

Check out AWMI:
Website: https://www.awmi.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awmisocialmedia/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/association-of-women-in-the-metal-industries/

Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
Miller: https://www.millerwelds.com/products/augmentedarc
Canaweld: https://canaweld.com/
Josef Gases: https://josefgases.com/

The Association of Women in the Metal Industries Annual Conference is about forging futures and empowering women! Save the date: November 5-7, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. https://www.awmi.org/events/2024-annual-conference/

What did you think about this episode? Send a text message to the show!

Speaker 1

All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast, pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin.

Speaker 1

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Speaker 1

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Speaker 1

Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Theron and I am here in humid and wet Nashville, tennessee, for the wonderful AWMI conference that is the Association of Women in the Metal Industries. Now we are here for three days to enjoy and learn and, mainly, to become a better ally to women in the metal industries, and as part of this adventure, we're doing podcasts here on the show floor Well, not the show floor, I guess the conference grounds. I'm here with Marissa McMurray, who is here from Pittsburgh. How are you doing?

Speaker 2

I'm good Max, how are you doing? I'm good Max, how are you doing?

Speaker 1

I'm good, I'm good. How are you liking the weather?

Speaker 2

I mean it's warmer than home, so I'm enjoying it a little bit. It's a little humid today, though, for my hair.

Speaker 1

It is. I woke up this morning before I even got to bed and my hair was already wet and I was like, oh, one of those days. But what do you do? It's, uh, it's, uh, it's. I have a blizzard in my hometown in canada, literally. I just was reading the news. They shut down the mail service for today because the blizzard is so strong and where I'm in in regina.

Speaker 2

So this is better yeah, I mean, who wants to know?

Speaker 1

it's only november we get snow in september. What are you talking?

Speaker 2

about no too early?

Speaker 1

no, not gonna happen. No, so you know, talk to me, marissa, about your career, because you know this is the whole platform of women in non-traditional roles in the metal industry, and how to advocate and support them. What's your work role?

Speaker 2

so currently I am a regional communications manager for Hatch. I am based out of our Pittsburgh office. Our headquarters is in the lovely Mississauga Canada area, and so my main job is just doing our internal and external communications in the US region. So you know, I'm working with our other offices. We have 26 offices in the US. So I'm working with them making sure that they're communicating project wins, stuff that they're doing within their community, stuff within their offices, just so that our other Hatch offices in the US and around the world can see what we're doing here, projects we're winning.

Speaker 2

You know how are we out. You know our big thing is, you know, creating positive change in the communities that we live and work in. So you know, spreading that message. How are we creating positive change around the world? But just communicating that with them? I do all of our events in the united states, so any of our major trade shows, um client events that are happening. That's where I was at this morning. I was looking at a venue to come back for ais tech next may is here in nashville we just heard about ais tech today yes oh, that might be on our radar too now ais tech.

Speaker 2

It's massive. It's like, uh, when it's in nashville, it gets like seven to eight thousand people converge well, it's on the calendar now.

Speaker 1

We're gonna look into it.

Speaker 2

I'll see you there, yeah for sure.

Speaker 1

What does hatch do? What's? What is it that Hatch does as a company?

Speaker 2

So we're an engineering and consultant agency. So we work with clients in different sectors. So we're in metals and mining, energy and infrastructure. So we work with clients in all of those different sectors, all the different BU's. So we're in hydropower, we're in rail, different sectors, all the different bu's. So we're in hydropower, we're in rail, we are in solar.

Speaker 2

So we kind of like we're just everywhere. We're, you know, out there consulting. You know, like I said, our big thing is bringing positive change. So like how can we better the earth for the future generations?

Speaker 1

well, is that something that uh has been a mandate since forever with hatch, or is it something that's new because of, like, the markets now and the push for green energy?

Speaker 2

um well, I'm newer to hatch. I've only been there for about 14 months now, but it seems to be very ingrained in our culture so I'm gonna go with. That's probably how gerald g hatch kind of wanted his company to be run.

Speaker 1

Mr hatch, there is the mr hatch oh cool, he's still there, he's still hatching it up he's not hatching it up anymore now, what did you do before this industry or this job at hatch?

Speaker 2

so before hatch I worked for an oem in the steel industry. That was my first job into the metals industry, um, and I worked there for about seven to eight years and I was their marketing manager here for the united states and um pretty much did everything everything from advertising to websites, social media, all of our um, all of our trade shows and conferences in the us. So it's just kind of my little little niche of the world.

Speaker 2

You like this stuff, though I do, I do like this stuff, and you know, when I was looking to change careers, I just I still wanted to be in the metals industry. Um, I wanted to be able to stay a part of awmi because, I do love this organization so much that I I kind of was like metals or metals adjacent is where I was going. And then, before I was at the OEM, I worked in property management and real estate.

Speaker 1

So yeah, I was going to go there. Now, like you know, as a young woman, you know like a child, marissa, were you like I can't wait till I get into the metal industries. You know, when I get to a certain opportunity, I'm going to jump on that industries. You know, when I get to a certain opportunity, I'm gonna jump on that. Or what was it that you, as a young person or adult, wanted to be? What was the kind of your goal, your dream as a kid?

Speaker 2

I want to be a pediatrician you want to be a pediatrician?

Speaker 1

yes, it sounds wonderful, but after you meet a few it sounds like a really hard job it does, and it's a lot of school and a lot of a lot of debt.

Speaker 2

That I just uh, no, um, I mean metals industry. I mean even coming from pittsburgh, I, and it's a lot of school and a lot of debt. That I just no. I mean metals industry. I mean even coming from Pittsburgh. I mean it once was a steel town.

Speaker 1

It's not that anymore.

Speaker 2

So that's what I grew up with, and I mean, my dad had worked at. There's a plant that's still in existence. It's called Hussey Copper and you know he had worked there, I think before I was even born, and I was like I mean, yeah, I want to be a pediatrician, I wanted to work in sports, we're a big sports city too, so I was like I'll work for the steelers, I'll work for the, you know, the pittsburgh penguins.

Speaker 1

But I ended up in real estate, yeah, so how did you end up in real estate? That's interesting, because I feel like real estate is one of those careers that it's almost like a transitory career, it's almost like in between one career and another, so people fall into it and stay there forever. A lot of people don't.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, I was lucky, I was in like property management, so it was only apartments.

Speaker 3

And.

Speaker 2

I mean I got that was like my first job out of college. I was making not a lot of money at all.

Speaker 1

What did you study in college?

Speaker 2

I studied, so my major is a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. Because I was a comms major I also got to take a lot of business classes. My senior year so that's how I got into marketing public relations.

Speaker 1

Okay, and so that that lines right up with real estate, right, so you went into that kind of to cut your teeth. How was it?

Speaker 2

So it wasn't like real real estate, although I do have a real estate license that is an escrow in Pennsylvania I do. It was apartments, so it was kind of cool because a lot of our apartments were student housing. So I got to see a lot of different. That's how I started traveling. I got to see a lot of different. That's how I started traveling Right, I got to see a lot of different parts of the country, Like I got to go to Lubbock Texas.

Speaker 1

That sounds like the metropolis of Lubbock, right yeah.

Speaker 2

Yeah, but I mean places that, like you, you would think that you would never go. And I mean it's still like that even now, when I worked for was sms group I was in osceola arkansas was it nice it's did they have a good diner?

Speaker 2

I didn't even, I didn't even stay there. I stayed in memphis because, um my bosses were worried about me staying like so far out and then having to drive. So I stayed in memphis and drove back and forth, but even with hatch a couple um in august I was in fargo, north dakota well, that's close to my, my parts of the world yeah cargo's like three hours south of where I live in canada yeah, so like I mean, was fargo north dakota?

Speaker 2

was north dakota even on my list of places that I thought I would visit?

Speaker 1

no, but hey I got to go bucket list. But hey, you know what it is beautiful part of the country it is. It is in the summer it is.

Speaker 2

I mean it was. It was very nice when we were there, um, the project that we were covering when I was there was really great to see like in action, like see like stuff that our engineers and our consultants were doing with our clients. So like seeing that was great. And I mean even internally. We are scheduling a trip next spring to go to our office in johannesburg, south africa. So I mean I get to go to our office in Johannesburg, south Africa Ooh fun. So I mean I get to go to South Africa.

Speaker 1

Right, that's so cool it is cool.

Speaker 2

We get to do like a game excursion. I'm very excited.

Speaker 1

So let's talk about that first transition into the metal industries. You know like Pittsburgh's a steel town, but you're not there with it. That wasn't your stick, although your dad was a trades person. Right now you get that first job in the, in the industrial market. What was that learning curve like for you? You know, coming in as a comms person, a marketing person. That's a. That's a learning curve.

Women in Steel Industry Marketing

Speaker 2

There's a lot there oh it, I mean it's a major learning curve, because I mean you're like, you're thinking about like something like a can of coke, like you don't. You don't think about like what goes into making like the can, the can, you just buy it and go?

Speaker 1

and why the top of the can is different than the rest of the can? Yeah, why it must be and like car parts.

Speaker 2

I mean everything that like you think about, like you know, like rail, like the actual like rail, like trail tracks, I mean like how those are made and how like the equipment that goes into them. I remember the first time that I like walked through a steel mill, from like top to bottom and I was like holy that's wild.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, and loud and hot and crazy. So much going on.

Speaker 2

Yeah, we went to a place um in jacksonville. It was a wire rod, so seeing like a billet, go from being like huge to like wire, and it was just like.

Speaker 1

This is cool yeah, yeah, so cool. Now, how much of that did you have to take on, you know, in terms of marketing, because marketing I think it's it's a bad rap.

Speaker 1

You know a lot of people are like marketing is not that important, but really it's kind of like one of the most important parts of a company for longevity building brand which is so critical to establishing. You know, uh, your footprint your footprint in the industry. You're coming in, you don't know much about the industry, you're learning, but now you got to sell this right, you got to push it out there. You know how hard was that and did you feel like there was any obstacles? I were just like what the heck am I doing here?

Speaker 2

It was definitely hard. I'm not, I'm not a I'm not a big technical writer.

Speaker 3

Like it's just.

Speaker 2

Like you know, I read some of these like academic papers and I'm like I can't even get past the abstract. So I was very lucky that I had a great boss that was able to take the technical portion, and then I went in and cleaned it up and made it for like everyday readers so that like they could grasp the concept of it um. And another thing that was also very hard was um when I worked for sms group. They're a german-based company, so there was a lot of translation back and forth, back and forth.

Speaker 2

So yeah, but I mean the learning curve with like learning anything in the metals industry I mean is it's massive because, like I said, it's something you don't think about on the daily, is like how stuff around you gets made right, right and welding steel.

Speaker 1

The steels are literally all around us at all times oh yeah 24. 24 seven Like you can't escape it Nowhere, I mean yeah, it really is, it's everything. I tell, I always tell students everything you have and everything you ever will have was either made of steel or made by something made of steel.

Speaker 2

Yes, period yeah.

Speaker 1

Like it's just, that's it Now for you as a woman coming into the industry. Did you feel that there was even more of a catch-up base or a longer lead-up ramp for you to be a you know marketing or comms person for a steel industry company, or did you feel like that role is fairly ambiguous for gender?

Speaker 2

I think the role is fairly ambiguous for gender. Um, I feel like a lot of the roles like hr, accounting, marketing, communications I feel like those usually do tend to be a lot more female filled roles, um. I mean, you'll even see a lot of that here at awmi. A lot of the people you see like sales um are any of the internals.

Speaker 2

So your hr, your accounting administration yeah administrations, um, and I mean, I was really lucky that I worked for a company that there was. No, there was no issue with me being the female there yeah, it wasn't like oh, here comes marissa, yeah I mean, I tried, but I also my. My father and my uncles were auto mechanics, so um I You're not scared. I'm not scared, I've. I have seen it, I have heard it.

Speaker 1

Yeah, well, that's something that came up in a in a previous podcast. You know we're talking about empowering women and a lot of it is fear, you know, and and some women are less afraid and some women are less afraid. We want to teach people to not be afraid at all, because fear has no place in anything, because it just holds you back. Really, and for a male, a privileged male in the male-dominated industry, I have very little fear. There's very little that I would look at and be like I can't do that or that's something I shouldn't do. I kind of don't have those barriers, whereas women, they do think those thoughts that maybe that's not a job for me or maybe I shouldn't do that because I don't know what I'm doing, and that is very much a gender issue.

Speaker 1

And for yourself, you're low on the fear scale. You had good parents, good family support. You, you're low on the fear scale. You know you had good parents, good family support. You. Do you feel like you bring that to awmi here now in this role as marketing um chair for awmi, I mean I wouldn't say that I'm completely fearless.

Speaker 2

I mean, sometimes, when I do walk into a room and I'm the only female, it's like nope that I, you know, just like, okay, I can't be um, I can't be as brash, because then you know I come off being um too aggressive. So you know, kind of sweet, okay, I can't be um, I can't be as brash, because then you know I come off being um too aggressive. So you know, kind of sweeten it up. Make sure I'm always smiling and laughing at everyone.

Speaker 1

Um, isn't that frustrating that you have to even think those things, though, it really is. Right, like I mean cause, like I don't have to be like. Oh, I mean, I'm kind of brash all the time. It's like like the conversation. It comes up all time in society. We see the memes you know an aggressive man way to go jimmy an aggressive woman.

Speaker 2

Why are you being such a whatever right and that's terrible right I mean it really is and it's like that balance of power because, like you want to be taken seriously but then at the same time, like if you're not, it's like do I not come off as having any self-confidence? So it's just, it's just tough. But I mean I would say a lot of my self-confidence that I do have has actually come from being a part of, like AWMI as an organization. I mean I've worked my way up. I was on the Pittsburgh chapter, I worked my way on to the International Board of directors. Now and I mean, if you would have asked me like six years ago, seven years ago, if I would thought I would have been in this position, I would have been like no so let's talk about that.

Speaker 2

You know how far along in your career were you when you found out about awmi I had was probably six or seven months into being in the metals industry and one of my contacts that works at AIST was like hey, I'm a part of this organization. It's women in the metals industry. They're looking for people to help plan events. You plan events all the time for your job.

Speaker 1

Do you want to be a board member with?

Speaker 2

me and I'm like sure.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I mean all the pieces are there. Yeah, check marks help women, support the industry, further your career, like all the check marks are there. That's you know. At the end of the day, a non-profit association exists only to support its members, right, which is, you know, the beautiful thing when you make who what, like I mean I'm interested, like how did that first call happen? Like just someone's like hey yeah, it's a thing.

Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Um, I mean, that's all she kind of did. She was just like I was. She had been part of it for a little bit of time. She was like we're looking for people to help plan our events, be like a programs co-chair. Are you interested? And I was like how much does it cost and how much time is it going to be?

Speaker 2

And it aligned with my life at that point in time and I was like sure I'll do it and then you walk into that first meeting in Pittsburgh, and what was it like? Um, we walked into a tour it wasn't, I didn't even get to go to my first board meeting.

Speaker 2

I went to a tour and I mean, obviously I had been in a few of our um SMS facilities but I'd never been in another facility at that point in time. So you know, getting to see something different was very exciting. Um, and you know, I met like the board at the time. They were just such a great group of ladies.

Speaker 2

A lot of them are still part of the board today and I mean, it's just like they just become like your little family that you're always hanging out with the term safe space came up today.

Speaker 1

You know how critical that can be for for women in these, in these industries, is finding those safe, safe spaces, whether it's on the job floor or in the workplace or in association spaces like AWMI offers. Did you feel that? Did you feel like you know? You mentioned family. That in my mind equals sort of safety and comfortable right. Did you feel that, right away when you walked into that? You know that tour and then the subsequent meetings that you were a part of.

Building Confidence in Professional Development

Speaker 2

Most definitely. I mean, I have some great friends that are part of AWMI that don't live in Pittsburgh and I see them a couple times a year at AWMI events.

Speaker 1

And you're just pumped and I'm just pumped to see them.

Speaker 2

That's why I'm so excited to be at conference this year.

Speaker 1

I mean Sarah.

Speaker 2

Lieber, who is the Pittsburgh chapter president currently. I mean Sarah Lieber, who is the Pittsburgh chapter president currently. I mean she was my vice president when I was president, so she's one of my really good friends. Outside of AWMI we still talk and everything, and I mean it's not just about AWMI stuff, it's like life stuff that's going on. Right, right she's one of my really good friends.

Speaker 1

She's a homie yeah.

Speaker 3

She's my little homie.

Speaker 1

So in your career now, what are some of the skills that you've had to kind of pick up, that maybe AWI helped you with, or even just in your own professional development personally, that you've had to really like build up throughout your career to make sure you're being a strong, confident woman in these industries?

Speaker 2

Getting asked to be on a podcast.

Speaker 1

Is this tough?

Speaker 2

It's not tough because it's just you and I. If there was a lot more people, I think I'd be a little bit more scared.

Speaker 1

Well, don't worry about the 50,000 people that are going to watch it later.

Speaker 2

That's fine. Oh, I forgot about the video. Yeah, but I mean like having to to, you know, have the confidence to come out and do these types of conversations. Um, I introduced one of our speakers on friday, so, you know, speaking in front of 400 people. You know, like I, I just found in, like this organization, like it just keeps going up, like okay, you're you're talking to like 25 people at a tour.

Speaker 1

You're talking to, you know, 75 people, and then you're talking to like 150, and now it's like, oh, you're gonna just speak in front of 400 yeah, it's no problem uh, you, you get, you get used to it, you get comfortable in it, you do which is, I guess, worrisome that like I'm just like, oh, I'm gonna go be on a podcast, it'll be fine there's two aspects to it, and I think that, from a volunteer association point of view, I think what starts to happen is a yeah, you do get used to it. There's a piece of that, but then there's b. You want to be a a good example uh-huh right, you want to.

Speaker 1

You know that this is an opportunity for you to show people that it can be done. Right, because you're not a superstar yet, right, yeah, we're not no one famous, but we're getting on a stage and we're talking to foreigner people, which is not what normal people do when they wake up, right? So I think it's important to be those leaders. You want to. You want to show what the opportunities are and, like we said, especially when we come to diversity and, uh, on an equality in the workplace, it's hard to be what you can't see yeah right yeah, it's just.

Speaker 2

I mean you need, I think, any, any profession needs to be part of some type of organization that like a boost, that gives you some type of boost, whether it's your personal, personal or professional development I think, it's integral to like growing, because if you're in your job and you're like if you're a lifer, that's the only job you've ever known, but that's that's just as far as you're growing too, and I feel like being parts of organizations like aw, my like you're being constantly pushed out of that box associations.

Speaker 1

I love that you just said there like I mean it's kind of like the, I guess the added value, but you gotta go get it. Yeah right, that's the thing. You gotta go get it. It's not like you're at work all day. You got eight hours of work. You go, you go home, you do your thing, you get paid, you're done. To get to that next level, you gotta find, I guess, the time, the space in your life, energy, the energy um, but you get so much back. You know, like what do you get back?

Speaker 2

oh, I mean the friendships that I've gotten, the networking, the sense of accomplishment when stuff comes together. Um, you know, our conference is like it's very all hands on deck, everyone's kind of involved with it. From the marketing standpoint, I'm doing outreach to our sponsors, you know, making sure that, like we're having like that stream of income so we can have a better conference coming in. Make sure that our attendee bags are great. Make sure that we have really cool hotel keys.

Speaker 1

There's attendee bags.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 3

We get them tomorrow at registration.

Speaker 2

They're supposed to be really nice. The whole bunch of goodies inside of it, yes, but you know, like working with, like getting all of that put in it. So you know, like you have like for me, like with the sponsorships, I'm like, okay, this is what we made last year, this is, this is my goal. And then you know, like really pushing forward, and when you get there, you, you're just like great yeah, now what?

Speaker 2

now I gotta do all these social media posts. Yeah, I'm gonna make sure I have all their logos so they go on our app.

Speaker 1

Make sure our app looks good now the app's working good this weekend this week it works good.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we're taking notes. I mean, we do conferences, we learn from each other, right, like, uh, it's one of these amazing things, uh, association, association, how we can support each other. But, on that note, let's take a break now for advertisers, because we're going to come right back and we're going to talk about specifically this conference, how it's rolling out, what you do to support it and kind of the cool activities we're going to have this week. Right, awesome, I'm excited.

Speaker 1

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Speaker 1

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Speaker 2

So we have all of our regional meetings. We have five regions in the US, so each of those groups and their chapters that are reporting to them. They are all getting together in about an hour and about 20 minutes. 20 minutes.

Speaker 1

Yeah, An minutes 20 minutes yeah, an hour or 20 minutes, whatever.

Speaker 2

They're getting together and they're talking about you know how their years have been, since their spring meetings that they had and talking about their plans for next year. Some of them bring in speakers to do personal professional development. Some people have games. Just kind of depends on, each region does their own thing.

Speaker 2

So, just kind of up to them. And then after that I head off to our international board of directors, our ibod. I have a meeting, I have a three-hour meeting with that group where we talk about this year and what we're going to be doing next year and then I get to go to dinner, and then I'm done yeah, and I think dinner tonight is fun for yourself, right? Yes, yeah, fun for yourself tonight. Tomorrow we have a keynote dinner.

Speaker 1

Good.

Speaker 2

And then Friday we're all schlepping home.

Speaker 1

Well, we're not leaving until Saturday because we want to enjoy Friday. I don't like leaving in a rush and you never know when you might catch another interview or an opportunity.

Speaker 2

That is true, you know, you can go just podcast on Broadway.

Speaker 1

Well, I do have portable gear so we can technically do that. I even have a couple GoPros floating around. But anyways, for you as marketing chair, this event, is this the marquee event of the year that you work towards?

Speaker 2

I think this event is the marquee event for our association not just my role, but we do have an annual conference chair, Carol Chismar. So this was like this is her baby, this is all that she's responsible for. So she, you know. I mean, come january, february we're back on planning mode yeah we're back on our annual conference committee calls and that's how we're formulating, like who are our keynote speakers going to be? What kind of panels do we want to see? What kind of tours are we looking for? Where can we get contacts?

Speaker 2

in these places for us to go and tour. So yeah, I mean it's it's a full year, like planning, and then you know, we get down to like this time of the year and it's like we're in the weeds and it's like, okay, well, we need speaker bios and their headshots and we have to update the website and they have to go on social media. You have to create all the social media posts. You have to do sponsorship social media posts.

Speaker 1

And you're a part of all that.

Advancing Women in Metal Industries

Speaker 2

Yes, I have a great marketing committee. I had two ladies that were fantastic and they helped create the graphics. One posted all of our sponsorship ads as they were going through and I did our speaker profiles yesterday before I was on my flight here, just to get those all lined up. So then I can also enjoy conference to get my learning in as well.

Speaker 1

Well, this is what we're trying to do.

Speaker 1

We're trying to get all these podcasts done today because we really want to just be a part of the conference for the next few days, because, professionally, as an association, you know, we're in Canada, we're moving into the rest of the world with what we do with our association and and right now we're looking at less than 5% women in the steel industry, right, like I mean, it's embarrassing to say stats like that, but we've been saying them for years, decades, and we're trying to bump those numbers up and we're not having a lot of success, right?

Speaker 1

So for me and our team to come here there's five of us that are here it's to learn. We want to learn like what are we doing right, what are we doing wrong? What can we do? I want to hear from, I want to hear from the leaders of the industry that are women and people that have worked their way to the top positions to say you know what are the obstacles that they encountered and how do I make sure those obstacles are out of the way. To say, you know what are the obstacles that they encountered and how do I make sure those obstacles are out of the way. And also as an ally, because I am a privileged, biased male and I have that because, just the way it is, I was born into it. What can I do?

Speaker 1

to be a better ally To maybe remove myself out of the situation, sometimes completely, and just say you know what? This isn't me, it's not my job. Right, like am I gonna get? That is this. Oh yeah, you will definitely get that.

Speaker 2

I mean, we have three amazing keynote speakers. They're all women. They're all um high ups in their organizations. So we have um christy keats, who's coming from um blue scope um north america. She's their chief executive for blue scope americas. Uh, we have lauren welk from arconic and then we have tabitha stein from new core. So I mean we have you know three large, three large people in the uh metals industry that are our speakers for this and I mean.

Speaker 2

I think I mean in the past we've also had some heavy hitters. We had people from Big River Steel, US Steel, Steel Dynamics. We get a lot of good representation. We get a lot of good support from a lot of the companies in the metals industries, not just steel either.

Speaker 1

Well, it's interesting because we are a corporate sponsor of AWMI.

Speaker 2

Thank you for that, by the way.

Speaker 1

Yeah, you're welcome, and it's our pleasure and our privilege because we found you by accident at the Denver Steel Conference. We were in the booth next to you and you know, all the associations get thrown in the corner and you make friends with the other associations around you and it was like, ok, well, we're trying to, you know, be advocates for bringing more women into the metal industries, trying to, you know, be advocates for bringing more women into the metal industries. And lo and behold, awm is right beside us, who's literally full of women in the metal industries, who are, you know, either starting out or way at the top, like you said. And immediately it became to me, like I took it back to my company, I said, you know, I want to be a corporate sponsor, so explain to the people. I think it'd be interesting for any of the companies or entrepreneurs or businesses out there to learn, if they become a corporate sponsor, what do they get? What is it that AWMI offers business?

Speaker 2

So with our corporate memberships it's a tiered platform. So depending on, like you know, which level you're going in through is kind of gets you like different perks on like you know which level you're going in through is kind of gets you like different perks.

Speaker 2

I mean, one of the biggest perks is, like you get a discounted membership for a certain number of girl employees and that can be men or women. So men are also allowed to be part of awmi max. As you know, I remember because, well, I mean a lot of people look at awmi association of women and they're just like, well, it's all women, but we, I mean we have men members, we have men board members, even.

Speaker 1

And I wear the tag men loosely.

Speaker 2

So I mean depending on, like I said, like what tier? So we do a quarterly metal mail, so our corporate members have the opportunity to advertise in that, or they can advertise on our social media platforms. We look to our corporate members first. When we're planning out speakers at our conference every year, it's like not so much looking at the big OEMs, but who else can we pull from that can sit on a panel. So we're looking at maybe not someone that's a platinum member, but someone that's like a silver or bronze. Who can we pull from these smaller organizations?

Speaker 2

and boost them up into. You know working on podcasts, being a speaker at a conference, you know giving those accolades to people. What else do our corporate members get?

Speaker 1

that's a becky dolan question I should have asked her, but you know it is true, because, from from our aspect, you guys have done a great job of reaching out to us and keeping us in the loop and making sure that the messaging, even from our end to support your membership and vice versa, is important, because this is an association to an association relationship, which is a little different than a business to association relationship, because I have a group of members within my membership that I'm trying to find resources to support them and I bring to your members, hopefully, resources to support your members and it's you know there's a trade-off there, right yeah, because I mean I know you've been working with um Shauna, who's our mentoring chair, about doing some cross like training swaps and everything, and I think that's like when it's organization like an association to an association.

Speaker 2

I think doing like collabs, like that, is very important because I mean you're. You're reaching each other's demographics that way yeah, and it's only going to help you both grow that's right.

Speaker 2

Um and I mean so for just general membership. Our mentoringship program is, I mean, it's outstanding. What shauna and sean who is the predecessor to that what they've created in pairing mentors and mentees together and watching those relationships build. That is a huge benefit for members, especially if you're in an organization where there's not a lot of women. Do you want a mentor? That's a man at that point.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that's not the right type of mentorship.

Speaker 2

So I mean it can and it like it might not be someone that's even in your same like, in your same chapter or in your same state. It could be someone across the us yeah you're getting like as someone else's. You know they're like their culture, like we're very cultural in the us.

Speaker 2

You know that just depending on where you live. So you're seeing like different experiences and you're getting to pull on that and you're getting like that little bit of like the bump, a little bit of confidence from them yeah, and confidence is, confidence is everything right and and society, the patriarchy, does a real good job of keeping confidence down on women.

Speaker 1

You know, kind of right from infancy up there's every opportunity, kind of a you know, don't be loud, don't be aggressive, don't be too much of this or too much of that. And and I mean I'm opportunity kind of a, you know, don't be loud, don't be aggressive, don't be too much of this or too much of that. And and I mean I'm a dad of a daughter and I remember very keenly when she was born, being like I will not let the patriarchy bring you down.

Speaker 1

You know, because I, because I've seen it, yeah you know, I've been on work sites as a welder and watched a woman get hired and people treat her like until she leaves, and I just remember being like what? What's wrong with this world? Why is this like? Why is it acceptable? But that's even a bigger question. It's like how does that even cross someone's mind in the first place to even act like that? There's a whole lot of steps socially that we're missing out on. And do do you think that awmi or yourself and your experience with this organization is that part of the plan is like are you looking to tackle some of those big, big questions, like I mean, because there's like the big issues and then there's like the littler. Maybe we can work on these tomorrow, type of.

Speaker 2

I think I would say probably we're worried about what we can do in our industries.

Speaker 1

Right.

Speaker 2

I mean going out and tackling the social issues going on in the world today.

Speaker 1

The world.

Speaker 2

That's a lot, but I think if we can fix the metals industry so that you know women. Women, they are not afraid to speak up, they're not afraid to be the only female in a in a male boardroom I think um.

Speaker 2

I think that's kind of like how, what we're like, what our core is is like we're just trying to give women a safe space where they can have those conversations, where they can get that support, where they can get that self-confidence boost to to prevail in their jobs yeah, what are you most excited for this week?

Speaker 1

what's, what's, what's got you pumped?

Speaker 2

oh, what am I most excited? I love dr amber right, she has been a speaker for us. This is her third year and her I I take so many notes when she's out there talking and she's just a fantastic person to begin with. If you get the chance to meet her off stage, she's great, she's amazing. Um, I'm excited for her. I'm excited for all of our keynote speakers. I'm excited to see the samuel panel on friday um, the economic economics.

Speaker 2

I always love to see when that's going on, especially here in the us. We had a presidential election, so seeing how our economics are going to change.

Speaker 1

Yeah, what the moves are going to be.

Speaker 2

Yeah how everything's going to be on, because a lot of it, a lot of our companies. You'll talk to them and they'll just they're not spending CapEx right now because they don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, we heard that lots at Fabtech Coming from Canada. We're like why, what does that mean?

Speaker 2

Welcome to an election year in the United States. Everything grinds to a halt pretty much in August, so stuff like that. We have a women in manufacturing, so getting to see, we have a speaker from Tran Technologies, we have John Deere up there. But I just think seeing people from just different areas and different parts of our organization that we represent, I think I mean I'm kind of excited for everything yeah, that's awesome and I'm excited to be here in nashville too. It's so great live music everywhere.

Speaker 1

I love it yeah, we caught some live bands last night, really fun. Um, I'm I'm interested to see if we find not country bands, but but I got told that that's weird because I'm in Nashville but I'm a rock music lover. I love rock and some of I I have. I have many bands that I follow that are from Tennessee that are rock and heavy metal. I assume they would be somewhere in this town.

Speaker 2

I'm sure not everyone here is like country country. I'm sure you do get some rock country. I mean, there's so many venues right, like everywhere.

Speaker 1

Oh, our hotel lobby had music playing last night.

Speaker 2

They play at the airport, so on Saturday when you leave, there will be live bands in the airport bars, oh wow.

Speaker 1

Wow, yeah, I know we are pumped for tonight. We're going to go do a little bit of sightseeing because it's Fed for Yourself tonight.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 1

So we're going to go out and do a little bit of checking out some stuff. There's lots of shows going on.

Speaker 2

Lots of shows, so much amazing food.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and that's another thing.

Speaker 2

I think even for lunch we were talking about let's try some of this famous chicken that I've been hearing about.

Speaker 1

I hope you like spicy food? I do like spicy food, I do. I love spicy food. I even said yesterday like I'm down with sweating during a meal. I don't mind.

Speaker 2

No-transcript well then, you will. You will thoroughly enjoy it uh the one time I had like I didn't even have the crust, I just had like a piece of like the inner chicken yeah the smallest piece and I was like I need milk.

Speaker 1

I'm in the middle of a bar and I need milk, not spicy food ah it's, it's just hot.

Speaker 2

I don't like to sweat when I eat.

Speaker 1

I like to enjoy food I sweat getting out of bed. So like I mean, it is what it is. I'm past that, I guess.

Speaker 2

I told you, from the humidity.

Speaker 1

I had to come in and redo my hair and makeup for this. Now we talked about what you're most pumped to see this week. You know what are you pumped about for the future of AWMI? You know you've been around for a few years now. You've seen the growth, the membership and I've seen some of the numbers and the growth and the engagement really threw me off. There's like 2,000 and some members but 400 people attending your conference. That's like a 20% engagement of in-person. Those are statistics any association would die for, mine included. What do you see for the future of AWMI?

Speaker 2

I just think we're going to continue to grow. So we brought on our New York chapter this year. We still have our provisional chapter in Florida. We're looking at two to three new markets elsewhere in the United States.

Speaker 1

Canada, Canada.

Speaker 2

We have a Canadian. Our Toronto chapter is amazing.

Speaker 1

Toronto is like, so far away from the rest of the normal Canadians. Those Torontolians are weird. Away from the rest of the normal Canadians, those Torontolians are weird. I get a dirty look from a GTA member over there, but you know what I mean. I love seeing the growth and honestly, I would love to see you across Canada. There's so many industries.

Speaker 2

I mean I think we would love to grow as much as we possibly can. It does take a lot of work, though, to do that growth. I mean you have to have, you know, a core group of women who are, like, willing to go out and do this without a lot of without a lot of support. I mean, once you get a chapter, once you get your membership, you have support, you have an income which is important when you're starting from scratch, like yeah, you're finding venues to have meetings and you're finding the people.

Speaker 1

You're, yeah, you're starting to build those connections, yeah and I mean you, it's exactly it.

Speaker 2

You really need champions and organizations to do that. With florida, you know we are very lucky. A lot of the chapter there is kind of based out of tampa, where we have a lot of metals industry. We have gridale there, we have clockner metals like there was a good basis there for that chapter to start with same with new york.

Speaker 2

So, like you need to have a good foundation for a successful chapter to be built in and to thrive on it, because you don't I mean you don't want to start something and then in a couple years we're having to close the chapter because it wasn't sustainable yeah, yeah, and that doesn't.

Speaker 1

That's not a good feeling and it also leaves a bad taste in people's mouths, like I mean, the association, our association, has been around 104 years now. People still talk about chapter that folded. Oh yeah, 20 years ago, like, oh, that chapter, folded because it never restarted in that area, now feels unrepresented, right, and it's like, oh, I can think about those things all the time, like how do we establish chapters? But I brought in a very kind of stringent set of rules to start a chapter that kind of weeds out that that process, right, cause you like, like you exactly said, you don't want to put something, get something started and then it falls apart.

Speaker 2

Because I mean it's not fair to the people that started, it's not fair to the people that are supporting it. So I mean I, I that this started, it's not fair to the people that are supporting it, though. I mean I, I, I think the sky's the limit with our growth. Um, I mean becky dolan, who's our international membership chair, I mean our membership has just grown exponentially. Our corporate members have grown so much as well, and I think I mean, like you said, our engagement is so is so good. I mean we were worried. We were getting close to conference and I was like look, we only ordered certain numbers of stuff going into these bags. We get to hit to 400, and we're going to be running out of attendee bags.

Speaker 2

Do I have to give mine back as a board member?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I mean, those are good problems to have.

Speaker 2

I mean it's a great problem to have, and I mean when we've come from last year conference where, like, we had no more hotel rooms to give people, but people still wanted to come, that's amazing.

Speaker 1

Yeah, like so we've had to like learn, but now like when we're planning future conferences, it's like, okay, well, we need bigger venues, bigger cities that we're going to have to go to. Well, if anybody from AWMI ever has trouble getting a hotel room, they can become a CWBA member and get a discount at any choice hotel. Shameless plug Right there.

Speaker 2

I mean, I walked you right into that one.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you for that one.

Speaker 2

Is it Canadian to be a member of the CWB?

Speaker 1

No, it's international. Anybody in the world can be a member and when you pick your chapter you can pick. We have 17 chapters across Canada, one in South America. We're going to be setting up chapters in the US within the next year Hopefully we're going to set up our first one and basically, based on how you sign up for your membership, you pick your chapter. That's how I decide the funding, based off membership growth. So you know, make sure you pick a chapter and if you don't, there's not one in your area, pick one, support them. Right? Maybe you got an uncle in that area that'll make a little bit more money go to into that area.

Speaker 3

so nice how do you?

Speaker 1

guys do your chapter setup, like if there's an area, how do they do funding? How do are we getting two in the weeds? Because that's really interesting, just like an association to association conversation.

Speaker 2

So when we do like events, we take sponsorships and we obviously charge for some of our events. Some of them are free to our members. We would charge non-members. So a lot of that is how chapters build their bank accounts to like put on, it was us. How they put on, like all of their awesome events that they have throughout the year. So a lot of it is like you have to be a successful chapter, have these great events so people want to come to your event to make you a successful chapter um and a lot of our chapters.

Speaker 2

They have really successful, like fundraising events we have people who do auctions um golf outings are huge, obviously in the United States you do raffle prizes, that everything that we will have raffle prizes here that you can participate in yeah. So I mean, it's just a lot of like a lot of internal fundraising within our memberships, making sure that you know we have bank accounts so we can have nice events for our members to give that back to them perfect.

Speaker 1

Well, we're going to wrap up the interview here. I'd like you to kind of let the people know how do you become a part of AWMI? Or, if you're a business, how do you support, where do you go, how do you become?

Speaker 2

AWMIorg is our website. All the information is there on how to be a corporate member, how to become an individual member. Definitely reach out AWMI at tallycom. We can get you set up with either our membership chair, becky Dolan, or get you set up with the chapter presidents chapter memberships that are in your area. Or reach out to us on any of our social media platforms. I answer all the questions on there and I will get you pointed to the right people what are the social medias?

Speaker 2

oh lord. Instagram, linkedin and um, look us up. Some version of awmi is in our title, I think. I think for facebook it's like association women in the metal industry, dash awmi. And then face, and then instagram is awmi. Social media on linkedin is awmi dash. Association women of women in the Metal Industry.

Speaker 1

All right, so long, or Google AWMI.

Speaker 2

It'll come up. Awmiorg is the best place. All of our links are there.

Speaker 1

Perfect, perfect, and I can't wait to go through this week. I think it's going to be a lot of learning and, hopefully, a lot of fun. Thank you for having us out here in Nashville.

Speaker 2

Thank you for making us do this. I was very I was very hesitant, but I'm. I've enjoyed this this time with you. It's great.

Speaker 1

Awesome. Well, thank you very much and for all the followers and listeners of our podcast, make sure you download and share, comment on them. Also, we do have a new fan mail feature on Buzzsprout. Do you want to send us messages? And, of course, you can always reach out to us through our social medias on Instagram, linkedin, tiktok, everywhere. So we'll find you, catch you, and then I'll go see you at the next episode. Take care, we hope you enjoy the show.

Speaker 3

You've been listening to the Cwb association welding podcast with max. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the cwb group and presented by max, this podcast serves to educate and connect the welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.