People in Production Podcast with Ryan Nelson

Episode 13 - Leveraging Your NTMA Membership: A Kansas City and St. Louis Collaboration

• Circle of 5

Share episode

Manufacturing leaders from the Kansas City and St. Louis chapters of the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) discuss how their organization creates value for members and fosters collaboration across regional boundaries. The conversation explores both national and local benefits of NTMA membership while highlighting upcoming initiatives to strengthen manufacturing throughout Missouri.

• NTMA operates on national and local levels with three key pillars: networking, learning, and advocacy
• National membership provides critical lobbying in Washington DC, industry benchmarking reports, and conferences that connect manufacturers across the country
• Local chapters focus on workforce development through apprenticeship programs and educational opportunities
• Both Kansas City and St. Louis chapters emphasize relationship-building and breaking down competitive barriers
• Joint Business Summit planned between chapters to keep manufacturing business local through strategic partnerships
• Presidents of both chapters have 40+ year company involvement with NTMA, demonstrating long-term value
• "She Leads: Women Driving Manufacturing" initiative supports female leadership in the industry in Kansas City
• NTMA membership benefits owners transitioning businesses by establishing valuable industry relationships
• Associate members (vendors/suppliers) are encouraged to build genuine relationships rather than directly selling
• Upcoming Manufacturing Expo will showcase regional capabilities to OEMs and potential customers

Register for the Joint Chapter Business Summit happening this April in Kansas City to connect with manufacturers across Missouri and explore partnership opportunities.


Speaker 1:

Good afternoon everyone. This is Ryan Nelson and I am the host of the People in Production podcast, and that is a podcast that we've created just to really invest in some great conversations with people in the production industry. We've largely been focused in the Kansas City area and the members of the MTMA Kansas City chapter, but today we are excited to welcome our friends from over at the St Louis chapter and we're going to share some of why that relationship is important to us and it's going to be a good conversation for us to be having. But just want to welcome you, let you know that we are here to serve you. In theory, if anyone's watching this live, you can leave a comment in the chat on YouTube and hopefully we will see that and I'll be able to share that at times, or we could discuss it if there's something you wanna know more about. But we are just so grateful that you're here, that you're a part of this, and looking forward to our conversation today.

Speaker 1:

I'm gonna bring in our team, our panel of participants, here. Let me hit a few buttons here and we'll get this started, all right? Hey guys, welcome everyone to the chat. I'm glad that you are here. As I had mentioned before, we have the St Louis chapter and the Kansas City chapter represented, so I'd love to just start. Our top row is our St Louis contingency, so I'd like to start just by introducing Shelly. Shelly, could you introduce yourself and tell us about your role in St Louis chapter of the MTMA and what you've been doing and how long you've been a part of that team?

Speaker 2:

Sure Thank you, ryan, for inviting us. This is a great opportunity we're excited about. Thank you, ryan, for inviting us. This is a great opportunity we're excited about. As he said, my name is Shelly McIntosh and I am the chapter executive for the St Louis chapter and I've just been in this role for about a year, but I really enjoy it and I'm learning a lot, and this year we have a very busy year. We have an event just about every month and we're just really looking forward to getting into that.

Speaker 1:

That's great, shelly. Thank you so much for that. Next, I would like to introduce everyone to Jeff. Jeff, I'm going to bring you on up. Tell us about yourself, jeff. How long have you been a part of MTMA, and tell us a little bit about your company.

Speaker 3:

Sure, I'm Jeff Hellebush with Hellebush Tool and Die and we build injection molds and die cast dyes. We're about 50 miles west of St Louis. We've been a member of NTMA for over 40 years.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's amazing. I love that, and your current role is president. Is that correct? That's correct, yes, and so in a little while we're going to talk a little bit about why you chose to invest at that level, but love your investment in it and love hearing the long history that you've had with the NTMA, so thanks for being here today, jeff.

Speaker 3:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Next, we're going to go to the bottom row here and we're going to talk with Catherine, who's the director of the Kansas City chapter. Catherine, introduce yourself. Tell us how long you've been with KCNTMA.

Speaker 4:

Hi, good to see everybody, or I guess you get to see me and we get to hope people watch. But I have been with the NTMA for just over a year and a half now and I'm glad to really be picking up some momentum and having a lot of wonderful things happening and going on to support our chapter.

Speaker 1:

That's great. You've been doing a great job and I've been able to be a part of this journey for some of that time that you've been here, and I love it and appreciate you being here today. And, last but not least, we're going to go on over to Fred down in the bottom road. Fred is the president of the Kansas City chapter and Fred, tell us about your business and tell us about how long you've been a part of KCNTMA.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, ryan, thanks for pulling this together. Fred Stepkovitz, president of Ultratech Aerospace. Ultratech has been involved in the NTMA for 40 years. I have been involved in the last two years and recently got elected as the board president for the Kansas City chapter, so we have been fairly active. My previous CFO was the treasurer on the board for a number of years, so we've always played a very active role with the Kansas City chapter for quite some time.

Speaker 1:

All right, fred, appreciate that. So glad to have you here today. Um, for our guest today, and I see that we have some folks online. I want you to know that in theory, if all the technology works right, you can leave a comment or a question in the chat on youtube and um or whatever avenue. You're listening to this and hopefully we'll be able to see that and we might be able to answer those questions. So, uh, if some of you that are watching right now wouldn't mind just saying hi or saying you're glad to be here or something, we can confirm that that's working. And we know there's a little bit of a lag between when we are presenting and when it's gonna get back to us. But if someone wants to leave a comment, we will just confirm that we have that connection. But everyone, thank you so much for this conversation.

Speaker 1:

When some new conversations started happening over the past six to eight months about some collaboration opportunities, it got really exciting for me to see what's happening in the NTMA. But what I'd like to do in our conversation is start at the national level, then go to the chapter levels what each chapter is doing and then we can kind of dive into the collaboration dynamics that we're looking at. So first of all let's start at our discussion about the national organization. I see from my experience with NTMA that the national organization is focused on network, learn and advocacy, and there I see Kathy and Shelly say Catherine and Shelly say hello. So there it is right, there Appreciate you all being there, good stuff. So let's talk at that national level and this might be a little bit more in the wheelhouse of Shelley and Catherine, but certainly I know that the presidents of the organizations are a part of some conference calls and stuff.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about these three dynamics of the national level. Let's start with the network piece. The national level wants the local chapters to network, but also the national network. Can you guys tell us a little bit about what networking looks like in the NTMA? And feel free to jump in whoever feels like. I would love to feel that.

Speaker 2:

I think I think at the national level for networking, ntma offers two conferences which would be engaged and that is pretty much open to any NTMA member, and then they also have a chapter leadership summit every year and that's mostly for chapter leaders, board members and chapter executives and things like that.

Speaker 1:

Very cool. And then they also provide some ongoing conversations. I know some of you were actually involved in a call just before this call with the national level, so can you guys tell me a little bit about those other things that they do to help support the local chapters? Fred, I think you might have been on that call, is that correct?

Speaker 5:

yeah, I'll jump in. Yeah, so the call we just wrapped up was at the national level. It was for the trustees of the chapters. Basically it was really the trustees of the chapters. Basically it was really the highlights of the rules and regulations and responsibilities as a trustee how to run, help help the executive director run the meeting, call the meetings to order, uh, log the minutes, voting rights, things like that. So, um, but you know, we we also recently just had an event where the national director of membership was involved and in Kansas City for that event. So the national organization does a lot for advocacy. We've been communicating heavily with tariffs and tariff discussions and legislative requirements. So it's a pretty active national level.

Speaker 4:

Well, you brought that up and I would say one way members can connect nationally is through the NTMA Connect platform and I know there are a lot of ongoing discussions and we get to see little snippets of those as they are sent out every week, but definitely a way you can chime in for job sharing or information seeking or, as Fred said, discussions about taxes and tariffs and that type of thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so let's talk about that advocacy piece that Fred mentioned and then we'll come back to the learn piece. But advocacy can mean different things to different people. So what type of advocacy would you say the national level is directly involved in, because they've got people going to DC having conversations, seats at the table? What can you guys share with the members on why it's important for them to be a part of this program to support those efforts?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, there's a lot of work that's done at the national level. The lobbyist effort is huge at the national level. The lobbyist effort is huge. It gives all the smaller shops an advantage to see what's going on and keep in tune with what's happening with all the things at that level and to give input. And so there's webcast on that that we can all join as a member, and so that's well.

Speaker 3:

The other thing is, at the national level most members it almost benefits the owners a little more because they can kind of compare their companies to other companies around the rest of the country and you don't really get that opportunity at a local level and so there's really not it's not a competitive type situation. You can talk with other tool shops. I can talk with tool shops in Pennsylvania or Arizona or wherever and say, well, what do you guys do about this or how do you handle this? So it's very helpful from an owner's perspective to just get a gauge on how you compare it to the rest of the nation. So that's very helpful. And also there's the help from the other sponsorships which are totally different than the sponsorships and affinity partners that are at the local level. They're totally different at the national level. So it's just-.

Speaker 4:

To just continue a little on to what you said, also the benchmarking reports. I know members report utilizing those and the members that take the time to fill those out, which they're really not too long. But that is again a great comparison tool to see how your business aligns with others within the region and then nationally.

Speaker 1:

So, jeff and Fred, as guys that are in leadership level of your organization, how do you access those reports? Do they come to you in email or is a link that you have to go log into? Help our owners understand where they can get that data so that they can be as educated as possible yeah, I've seen it a number of different places.

Speaker 5:

I mean the ntma website, you know, has a portal that you can log into and you can get a lot of up-to-date data. But you know you also get a lot of email communications. Last week, for example um was it last week. Last week was uh some tariff questions that came from the executive level that wanted to know uh, about additional items that companies were looking for to be placed on tariff lists to protect their level of business. So I've seen both. I've seen the email comms and then always try to stay logged into the NTMA portal to get up-to-date data.

Speaker 1:

Jeff, any other insights on that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, no, the data is good. I mean it comes back with the amount of people that participated, the size of their business, so you can kind of look at your comparison to see if you're in the same size as the other people who entered the information. And so it's very helpful and there's a. I think there's about three or four different areas that you can, you know, get those reports from and be be active and involved.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, shelley, do you have any insights on that? Obviously you're not on the ownership side, but as the executive director, you probably value some of those reports and that type of thing too. Do you have any insights to share on the importance of?

Speaker 2:

that data. I think they cover it all really well. We get those requests from national and just send them on to our members. Usually that's about all of my part of that. Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 4:

You know, I know something we discovered last week or two weeks ago, Ryan, when we were meeting with Carrie, our chapter relations manager, is that not necessarily all of those that attend events are getting those emails. So, for example, the one voice calls which are the monthly advocacy updates, not everyone on our board was in tune with those because it was just going to the owner or maybe a company president. So we learned that anybody who would like to be a part of those calls or get that information, they just need to get that email to their chapter exec. We can send that on and make sure that they are linked in where they would like to be and getting the updates they would like.

Speaker 1:

That's great. So I think that's an important piece, that there's various things for the different levels of leadership within your organization, from the top level of ownership to your mid-level leaderships, and we're going to, in just a moment, get to some of those other resources on the learn side. That's for every level as well. But one thing that I'm thinking about on this front other industries have licensure requirements and that type of thing, and for you to be a part of a program like real estate, you have to get a license and you have to be a part of a brokerage, and then you're part of the National Association of Realtors and they're an advocacy program. This industry is a little bit different because you don't have to have a licensor and you don't have a representation, unless you join by choice an association like NTMA and you raise your voice and you raise your impact by being a part of the NTMA national organization and then you also have the benefit of building a part of the NTMA national organization and then you also have the benefit of building a network of relationships in the local association, and so I just think it's really important for people to understand that being a part of NTMA helps you have a voice in DC and in your state areas for some of the conversations that you want to have with our political leaders.

Speaker 1:

Anyone else want to add anything to that comment? All right, let's keep going here. Let's talk a little bit about the learn side. What resources are available from the national level on the learn side of things? Anyone have any insights on that? Excuse me, catherine, do you know much about the LEARN programs?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I can talk to you about the NTMAU online education platform. So it is a portal and each chapter can kind of conduct business as they see fit with that. As a local chapter in Kansas City we pay for that portal and then any member who would like to enroll an employee in one of the courses, they just reach out to me after viewing those online and you could just literally NTMAU courses, look it up and they come in a variety of series and then each series has three or four modules and I believe there are five or six of those total. But it's a great way you know if you're a little bit slow, if somebody's new, if you're onboarding, you're doing, you know, training and trying to really just fill a day for somebody who's new. It's a great way to get them going and get them learning, get them exposed.

Speaker 1:

And Catherine is this is this helping people to understand technical skills, leadership skills, what are? What's the type of content that you're going to see in that?

Speaker 4:

I would definitely say more technical skills, and all of the courses are approved by the Department of Labor. Now there are some general mathematics type skills that are included, which would be like your measurements, your conversions, your decimals, and then it gets advanced math as well, but definitely more technical blueprint reading, things related to die, making things that you would need to complete daily tasks in a shop. Excellent and we have used quite a few of those courses as a part of our precision machinists approved apprenticeship program through the Department of Labor.

Speaker 1:

Love it, Shelly. How have you seen that MTMAU be used by your members?

Speaker 2:

Our members use it quite often also in st louis. Our chapter covers the cost, so it's free to our members to take those courses. There's also an aptitude test where you can kind of see where your skills are lacking for a certain employee, so that's been helpful too. And then some people just plug them into which class they need and other companies will send them through the apprenticeship program and have them take each series one at a time and cover the whole thing um. One other thing that we offer besides ntmau would be emerging leaders, and it's like a conference that you can send um your employees to and it kind of focuses on taking, like that, the mechanic or shop guy and turning them into a supervisor or more in a management role helps them understand those things.

Speaker 3:

And some of them-.

Speaker 1:

Go ahead sorry about that, jeff and then we'll keep going.

Speaker 3:

To follow up with the cohorts. There's also an executive cohort and a sales cohort to help those type people in your organizations, and so those are other things on the national level for training and learning. And then, if you do go to the conferences, there is learning at the conferences with roundtable discussions. For example, there was an AI seminar at the last one, and so you know there'll be four to five different topics. Sometimes they're set up for the whole group of the people and other times you'll break out into smaller groups and do a roundtable session. You'll break out into smaller groups and do a roundtable session and those are very helpful because then other people in different areas get involved and you hear from. You know what's happening up east, what their issues are, what's happening out west, what their issues are. You know what us Midwest guys are struggling with. You know.

Speaker 1:

Well and Jeff, what that helps with so much is it helps us break down some of our silo experience. We only know what we know, but when you start talking to other shops you start realizing, oh, there's a different way to look at that, or there might be some opportunities there. So I love that you're sharing about those cohort opportunities. Catherine, was there something else you were going to add to the conversation? Oops, catherine, are you? I think she froze up. I think maybe she did All right, we will keep on going here. So let's move on, let's go. We've talked national, let's come on down to the local level. And, if I could, let's start with you, shelly. What does the local chapter do to help fulfill the NTMA's objective?

Speaker 2:

Well, I wrote some notes on that one. So the NTMA's mission states that we're here to help our members achieve profitable growth and business success. And I think we do that well by networking and workforce development. And of course we try to cover the other areas as well. But in st louis we really focus on networking and workshop around workforce development. Um, but this year for our workforce development we're kind of expanding our scholarship committee to also include some grants for junior, high and high school level. We're really trying to get into the kids, get to the kids at a younger level.

Speaker 1:

Love it and Fred, I'm going to come to you. Fred, what can you share about the how the national objective is being carried out at the local level?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, so Kansas City, we've taken a the last two years. Since Catherine's involvement. We've taken a real active approach in workforce development. The Department of Labor approved apprenticeship program. We've had numerous educators and their organizations attend our meetings and shop tours. We've really worked to break down the walls of competition and build collaboration amongst shops as well to help foster growth and development and job sharing and those types of opportunities within the Kansas City network.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, great man, I love that. I appreciate that.

Speaker 3:

I'd like to add on the local networking level. It's a lot more involved. You get a lot more opportunity to network. So, you know, if you're networking once a month instead of like twice a year at the national level, so you're making better relationships. Um, you're having fun and some of these stuff maybe a golf outing or a trap shooting or something, and uh, on some fundraisers or you know, you know, going to different events. The shop tours are always very popular and uh, and they're always well attended. So so I just think there's a lot more time spent at the local level. So you're getting a little more bang for your buck and it's a little easier to get more people from your company there at those events. And, you know, try to spread the information to your organization quicker, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that and I know at the Kansas City chapter and I imagine at the St Louis chapter this will happen too that from an advocacy perspective, sometimes you get the ear of some of your senators or representatives or even the governor. I know last week at the Missouri Association of Manufacturers event, catherine had connected with the governor and had invited him to a future event that we're having and stuff like that. So there's a level of advocacy that happens even at the local level. Shelly, is that happening in the St Louis area as well, as you're getting some attention of some of those leaders in the states?

Speaker 4:

Occasionally.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, there's a little bit, I mean, but we kind of have to do it ourselves, you know. I mean we like, if we want to give, you know, get information from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce or give them information, I mean we kind of, you know, got to go to them and, you know, get the right contact and that sort of thing. But yeah, there is some of that, but I don't know that it's quite as much as at the national level.

Speaker 1:

Sure, which makes sense.

Speaker 3:

I can definitely appreciate that, but for one example, like the last Proposition A that passed in Missouri, like so our chapter, we had a seminar with a local law firm on. You know what all the members could do and how they could prepare for those changes. You know in the work environment, so it's more, a little bit more reactionary. You're trying to help the industries on what is happening in those areas and you know what they need to guide them through those specifics.

Speaker 1:

Love it. That's very helpful. Fred and Jeff, let's kind of turn our attention to you guys a little bit. I'd love to hear what prompted you to get involved in NTMA and then what prompted you to go to that next level of become a part of the leadership team. So, fred, let's start with you. What got you involved and then why did you decide to take it to that next level?

Speaker 5:

So when I took over Ultratech three years ago, I felt that our local, really our local brand, our local network was non-existent. You know, people knew of us but didn't really know anything about us. And that's really been over the last three years, both on a national level, outside of NTMA, with our major tier one customers, as well as with our peers within the Kansas City market. My goal has been to really get our brand out there, get people to know who we are, what our capabilities are, our willingness to work with other shops. I don't view anybody in the NTMA as a competitor, even though there are a handful of shops that are, I would say going after the same statement of work.

Speaker 5:

But I don't really consider any of them competitors. We all have a very niche capabilities and what got me involved? You know, really I was just a board member last year, but I guess you could say I don't sit quietly in the shadows and I think that made me as the board president this year. I should have gotten my peers to elect me as the board president this year.

Speaker 5:

That's great, and what would you say is your vision for where the Kansas City chapter is going this year?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, this year one of my big goals, and along with Catherine's, is really two big initiatives, in my opinion.

Speaker 5:

The first is to establish a Kansas City Manufacturers Network, or Manufacturers Expo if you will. I want shops to have the opportunity to brag about who they are, what they are, what they can do, and to bring large manufacturing OEMs that sub out work within our area through and exhibit the best that Kansas City has to offer. And so we're really working hard to pull together a show similar to the MAM show, but on a local level. And then also part of that is to branch out across the state and get a better working relationship with, or really establish a relationship with, the St Louis chapter. And then also as part of the Kansas City chapter, we have kind of a subset to our organization that's called she Leads Women Driving Manufacturing, women Driving Manufacturing, women Driving Manufacturing and Catherine was kind of the brainchild of Catherine's. To start this subsector of the NTMA focused on women in manufacturing and to see that grow as a chapter and continue to develop and build that subset is really a key initiative as well.

Speaker 1:

Love it, that's great. Love it, fred. Jeff. Let's turn to you. Tell us a little bit about, I mean, your company has been a part of it for 40 years, but why did you choose to become an active participant and then step into a leadership role with St Louis NTMA?

Speaker 3:

Sure, well, my father got into the NTMA years ago because he was a great toolmaker but he had two years of trade school and being a machinist and, frankly, didn't know a lot about running a business, and you know. So back in the late 70s and 80s this was a great tool and a great thing to learn about. All those things on how to how to run a business without having to go to a four-year college, so that. So that helped him.

Speaker 3:

Throughout the years I was involved, before children, children or before my children got to be about, you know, eight to ten years old, and went to national conventions and went to the local meetings and that. And then, once it got to, you know, worried about kids and running them all over. I kind of strayed away a little bit. And then, once the kids got back out of the house, I'm like, well, it's time for me to give back a little bit, back out of the house. I'm like, well, it's time for me to give back a little bit. And really, workforce development is a big reason why and the networking and just making sure that our industry as a whole in the St Louis area is thriving and it just helps everybody else. You know. All shops have their specialties and their niche and what they're good at and if you can help another guy get the right work to the right person, it just helps the whole industry.

Speaker 1:

Love it. And, jeff, is there anything that you guys would say is a focus of 2025 for you guys? Or are you just coasting in the trajectory you've been going, or are you just coasting in the trajectory you've been going.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I would say our main focus has been trying to gain new membership. Our membership is pretty strong but we're still trying to grow it. I think coming out of COVID, you know we did pretty good as a membership, trying to get everybody back engaged and you know, coming to meetings and that sort of thing, and we've been very we change it up a lot. We don't just have the traditional, you know, go to the restaurant, have a seven o'clock meeting, listen to a guy speak for 40 minutes and then go home. You know we try to. We try to do luncheons, maybe a breakfast, maybe a fun, you know, go to a bar and have a beer or whatever. So Shelly's done a great job at really rebranding and remarketing and putting a fresh approach. But we've all at the chapter tried to put a fresher approach to try to get more involvement. So I would say our key focus is just trying to increase membership and continue our efforts in the workforce development and supporting scholarships.

Speaker 1:

That's great.

Speaker 1:

I really appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to kind of go off script a little bit here because, just as Jeff was talking about his story and knowing a little bit of Fred's story, one thing that occurs to me is that a lot of the conversation out there in the industry right now is that there's about to be high turnover, not only in our machinists but in our ownership, and I'm going to kind of turn on the promotion piece here for NTMA to say that if you are an owner that is approaching this season of life where you're thinking about getting out of the industry, establishing yourself in an association like NTMA can be of great value, because a lot of the people that are going to be buying into this industry may not have tooling and machining background or may not have manufacturing background, and I think it's very important that you establish a network.

Speaker 1:

And, fred, I'm going to come back to you if I may, because you part of the reason you got involved in MTMA is you didn't have a specific network in this field. Can you tell me why this partnership with MTMA has been important for you developing success in your company?

Speaker 5:

Yeah, that's a great. I was going to jump in there if you didn't ping me. But you know, after I left the military I got into the manufacturing industry and I spent 15 years in manufacturing, but not in machining or not in this type of manufacturing. And so when I found myself taking over Ultratech three years ago, I had no network. Not only did I have no machining experience, I wasn't a machinist. I'd never been in a machine shop. I also was a big international traveler and international business, so I had really no local network in Kansas City.

Speaker 5:

So NTMA has been instrumental in meeting so many of my peers within an industry I had never been in and really establishing friendships and learning just learning from folks whose parents had started the company and then the kids were running, and just decades and decades of family-run businesses that are in this industry and seeing some of the, some of their shops and and really walking into an industry that welcomed me with open arms and was, you know, invited to so many shops to take tours and talk. I mean, there's a shop out near where I live, cnr. Time's gotten away from me but I was going out there like once a quarter and having coffee in the morning with the owner and his daughter and just sitting around and shooting the breeze and having a coffee and talking about business and opportunities like that that the NTMA presented me have just propelled my career into an entirely different space that I'd never imagined.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is great, fred. I really appreciate you sharing that. And again, I would just appeal if you are thinking about being a part of the NTMA, if your company is going to be on the market in the next five to 10 years because you're looking at getting out or whatever the case may be, this is actually a good investment to prepare the network of relationships for your organization to make you a greater value, your company, a greater value to a potential buyer, because there's an established network for whoever comes into it. So just wanted to share that part of it. Let's shift gears here a little bit.

Speaker 1:

I want to get back to our directors of the local association and I want to talk about something that I didn't understand until recently, about the financial structure of the organization. When I pay to become a member of MTMA, I'm actually buying into the national association and the local chapter, but a good portion of my resources actually go to the National Association, and so sometimes people might be like man, where's that money going to that I'm paying? Well, it's not going into Shelly and Catherine's pocket. It's actually going into some of the other expenses. But that's part of the reason that there's a number of events that are fundraiser events or when you go to a luncheon, you're paying for that luncheon because that your advocacy, you're essentially your membership is paying for the advocacy and it's paying for the staffing just to keep the ball moving. Catherine Shelley, I'd love for you two to chime a little bit about helping people understand where their money's going to.

Speaker 4:

I think the first thing to understand is that there are actually two types of members. So in our chapter we call that regular members and associate members. So our regular members would be our metal manufacturers, our tool and die makers, our machine shops, our metal fabricators. Those are the individuals that join at the national level and the bulk of their dues do go to support the national efforts, especially advocacy, as you shared, and then the several national conferences that were addressed earlier. Then associate members or industry partners join directly with us here locally. So that is one way that we can generate revenue, and I know every chapter has a different approach to how they balance out the number of regular members and associate members, but I think that would be the first thing I would note. Shelly, do you want to take it from there?

Speaker 2:

No, I think that's great. We have actually three levels of membership. So we have our shop members and we have associate members, which are industry partners. And then, like Catherine said, the shop shop members their funds go mostly to national. And then the associate members industry partners that funding stays at the chapter level. And then we also have educational members um, some of our local colleges um do pay dues to to be members as well. But, yeah, we have two events that are actually fundraisers, that being our golf outing and our clay shooting competition. Those two fun, those two fundraisers, form our workforce development funds and the rest of our events, if they're charged, it's a very minimal fee and it's just to cover the cost of that event, not a moneymaker.

Speaker 4:

Yes, we are all not-for-profit associations, trade associations, and we are just trying to break even. So I think that sometimes that's hard for people to understand, like you pay to be a part of something and then you pay to do events and then we may ask for a sponsorship. We are not trying to ask, ask, ask. We are not trying to be that person that is a pest that you want to flick away. We are just trying to do what's best for our members, provide top quality events, bring in great speakers, secure wonderful venues and experiences and not lose money in the process of doing that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I love that. And, catherine, I know you and I have just recently talked about this. But for those who are vendors, who are associate members or considering that, I know in the Kansas City chapter there's a ratio that you want to keep that into what advice do you have for how that vendor shows up at events? Because we've all seen that person that just comes and tries to sell everyone and get business. But we really have seen effectiveness coming from the relationship side. Can you, can you encourage prospective vendors to wrap their brain around how to go about building these relationships?

Speaker 4:

Oh, absolutely. You know, obviously, if you are a vendor, you are there to sell and you are there to benefit your personal career and to help your business meet its goals. That's, that's understood. Everybody gets that. But what they don't want is to be constantly hounded when they are at an event trying to participate, to enjoy a speaker or to engage, to network genuinely. So we really do have a pretty strict no solicit policy. If it comes up organically in conversation, if a regular member requests a business card or another associate, however, that's going to work out, that's awesome. Set your meet.

Speaker 4:

But we really discourage the distribution of any type of material or business cards at events. We encourage genuine relationship building and you know, I think one example that kind of stands out to me is we were at a shuffleboard event and one of our members came in shorts and he was apologizing. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. You know our air conditioner went out and we don't know what to do. We can't find the right fit to come and service this. I'm like well, we happen to have an associate here from MCOR. Why don't I introduce you? You know, it just so naturally came to be and they were there. They both showed up and it worked for them, so they work for them. So that's the type of thing we're looking for.

Speaker 1:

Very good, Shelly. Do you have any encouragement for your associate members or vendors that might be partnering with your organization?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we have great associate members and we've not had a lot of problems with soliciting. You know, kind of like Catherine said, they're just very respectful of the members and it it's organic conversations and and friendships that build. I think she's she was right on with that we, we do, uh, limit our associate membership to 50 percent of our shop membership. So we, we do limit it to that and we try to spread it out to where we only have one bank and one marketing company, and so there are times we have more than one, but it's usually very minimal.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, we do the same thing, and we allow only two individuals from the same sector if they are non-manufacturing related. So never at an event would we have more than two banks, more than two insurance companies. We're pretty strict about that also.

Speaker 1:

Very good, hey, great stuff. Let's move to that. We've talked about national, we've talked about local. Let's move to this exciting collaboration effort. Fred, I know you said this is one of your initiatives in building relationships here. I know everybody's been a part of this conversation. But, fred, let's start with you talking about what's the goal here, and then I'm going to go over to Catherine and say what is the event looking like, and then, shelly and Jeff, I'm going to have you guys talk about why St Louis would come over for this. So let's start with Fred.

Speaker 5:

Yeah so it's really simple Stop sending business outside of our region. The capabilities within our region far exceed what people know. People drive by my shop every day and they have absolutely no clue what we do here. We have major OEMs within Kansas City that outsource work on a regular basis and ship it to the coasts or to Chicago or out of our, out of our region. And so st Louis, kansas City, where we're all you know, we're have large manufacturers. We have phenomenal, talented, skilled machine shops that have capacity.

Speaker 5:

Everybody wants to talk about on-shoring. I want to take it a step further and let's in-community it and keep it within our community. And to the point of collaboration, where I may be strong and others are weak, or vice versa, let's pull together and learn about each other's capabilities. So I have shops within the Kansas City market that want to go after government contract work, but the barrier of entry is so high with cybersecurity compliance and all of the other red tape associated with government contract work where we're 95% defense related. So so let's help you right. If there's a project you want to go after, let's bid it and we'll sub it and we can work together and vice versa.

Speaker 5:

There are areas of expertise we do not have. I don't have lasers, I don't have water jets, I don't have press brakes, I don't have Swiss machines. There are jobs that I want to bid that involve those types of manufacturing processes. So instead of having to turn those down or only bid a portion of it, let's partner with somebody else so that I can get that entire package. And so St Louis is you know, it's three and a half, four hours away. Why would we not want to partner with organizations that are just across the state line that have the same approach that we're taking? And let's work together to build Kansas and Missouri manufacturing and continue to grow it and share and work with each other and learn shops. I mean, there's a lot of times where I've had to call and ask you know if somebody has a certain capability. So we will double our capabilities by adding a collaboration with another MTMA chapter.

Speaker 4:

And let's go back to relationship building and trust building. That's what this event is about, and you can be honest about what your capabilities are. When you trust another company, you can job share. When you trust another company that they are not going to try to steal your customer, your client, and that you really can partner and work together, is an opportunity to build those relationships. We do, obviously, have quite a few learning opportunities. We have a great keynote speaker coming to address the economy, specifically related to metal manufacturing, talking about tariffs, and then we have some great breakout sessions, some shop tours, but we can have fun together as well and I think that's the best way to kick off a new relationship and we're really excited to welcome our St Louis neighbors.

Speaker 1:

And I'm going to say this. I missed this comment earlier, but it seems appropriate here. Jonathan says I always tell people to attend and be of service, serve manufacturers and businesses naturally, and business naturally happens. I think that's going to be true of this event as well that you just learn about each other. If you just invest in conversations with each other, if you just learn what people have to offer, you may discover that there's business opportunities around you. You had no idea it could open up.

Speaker 4:

And shout out to Dr Min they are going to be our social sponsor, so we are looking forward to a great night on behalf of them and their willingness to serve our industry. So thank you, jonathan.

Speaker 1:

All right, love that. So, catherine, there's also the Bots KC event on the backside of this. Can you tell us a little bit more about the logistics of what people can expect at the event? You've talked about the speakers and that type of thing, but what else is happening?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I feel like, I'll be honest, every part of this event was playing with a purpose. We wanted to connect with St Louis, we wanted to grow BotskC, we want to expose the community at large to manufacturing and we want to expose our manufacturers to the students who are interested in engineering, robotics and metalworking careers. So what was the best way to do it? To bring everybody here around the BOTS QC event. So that's kind of where this date came from. We'll have all of the St Louis members here the day before the BOTS competition kicks off and then Friday the 25th, when things get going, we're actually wrapping up, and we're wrapping up at Johnson County Community College right as the initial rounds of BOTS QC competition get going Community College right as the initial rounds of Botts KC competition get going.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, and so let me go to Shelly and Jeff. You guys are coming from across the state. Why would you encourage your members to consider being a part of this collaborative event?

Speaker 3:

You want me to start, Shelly?

Speaker 2:

I don't care, I'll start. I just want to echo what Fred and Catherine said. We are so excited about this event and, like they said, that, the networking that will happen at this event you know, like Fred said, multiplying that into two chapters and being able to reach those neighboring states and keep our business local, like that I think is going to be great. But Catherine has done a phenomenal job of putting together all of the events and speakers for the joint business summit and we're just really excited to see it come to life.

Speaker 4:

And there are quite a few bots teams coming out of your area. So that's cool, you'll get to see them as well. So they're not just Kansas City teams. These teams are traveling in for the event.

Speaker 2:

I think.

Speaker 4:

I need to tap my fruit fly, so I'm sorry, I got all kinds. I got the hands going on today, ryan.

Speaker 1:

You're fired up. You. I got all kinds, I got the hands going on today. Ryan, you're fired up. You're ready to go? All right, jeff, what would you want to say as someone who has your own business to run? You've got a busy schedule Plus you're on the board. What do you want to say to the busy shop leader who is wrestling with whether or not they should come?

Speaker 3:

Well, I'd say this one, it's a short drive, ok, and you can stay one night, two nights, you can just stay one night, leave whatever. I mean it's a easy, it's an easy workaround. So I mean it's a. It's a pretty relatively inexpensive thing for, you know, for high value, for a lot of networking and a lot of good reconnections. Just to give you a little history, this, this event used to be at the Lake of the Ozarks years ago and it was very popular and people would go out on boat rides and have a good time and they were great fun events and that kind of just died off. Things ebb and flow. But we thought and Kansas City with the spots was a great opportunity to do it in the Kansas City side this year, and I think it's a great idea because it gives just another reason for the St Louis members to actually see our teams there, you know, because we support those teams here as our St Louis chapter does, and so it'd be nice to get to see their efforts.

Speaker 4:

And hopefully this event just lays the foundation for our October Manufacturing Expo. We absolutely want the St Louis shops to show up and show out there. We'll have again Missouri Association of Manufacturers. I'm sure some of those in the St Louis area are members of that association as well. You know this is really laying the foundation for us to come together. We talk about doing a lot of things and how we want to have a bigger impact, and you know how we. We want to do more business, we want to attract employees and, bam, this year we are doing it. So we are, we're talking the talk and walking the walk with these events.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Guys, this has been a lot of fun for me. We are going to wrap things up here shortly and I'll just give each of you kind of a teaser that I'm just going to say hey, what do you want to say to our listeners who are either watching this live or maybe listening to it after the fact? What would you want to say to them about being a part of NTMA and showing up at NTMA? I'll let each of you just give a sentence or two about that before we wrap up, but I want to thank everyone for being a part of this panel and I want to thank our viewers for checking this out or listening to it if you're listening to it on your favorite podcast service and stuff. But we are doing this because we want to help build the network, and I'm just honored to be a part of this.

Speaker 1:

I started this podcast earlier this year 2025, in relationship with NTMA, and it's really to help encourage and equip people in production, and I couldn't help but think that telling people more about the NTMA wouldn't be a part of that solution. So, with that being said, let's go ahead and run the circle here I'm actually going to start with. Let's start with the Kansas City folks and then we'll wrap it up with the St Louis folks. Fred, do you mind kicking it off? What do you want to tell people about why they should be an active part of this organization? Oops and Fred, I think you're muted. Let me get you unmuted there, Yep there we go, Sorry.

Speaker 5:

You know there's a lot of associations, a lot of groups, a lot of organizations. You can join the NTMA is relatively low, cost your day, that you should be in an industry association, that one on a national level fights for your best interest in manufacturing, small business manufacturing on Capitol Hill, and two on a local level where you need to come and bring the right mindset. You only get out of it what you put in it and we have members that have been belonged for a very long time and don't come to events and it's networking and socializing are not for everybody. And as leadership has changed over the years, so has the um, the, the mission and the tactics and the, the camaraderie. You know we hear on occasion.

Speaker 5:

I belonged years ago and they stole our employees or people. You, you know it's. If you don't like it, then take an active part in trying to change it. But you know, I feel that over the last few years our chapter has taken such a different approach at networking within our industry, respecting each other, building relationships and, like I said, somebody coming into this newer in the industry you don't gain the experience, the exposure and the knowledge that people are willing to share without being a member of an association like this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Fred, I appreciate that. Catherine, what thoughts do you have for people to encourage them to be a part of NTMA?

Speaker 4:

I know. Earlier I spoke about NTMA Connect and I think Connect is the greatest service that as chapter executive I can offer. I don't necessarily have the technical knowledge or the very skilled expertise that machinists or shop owners have, but I feel like pretty sound in my ability to connect you with just about anybody, be it sales, be it a need that you have in your shop. You know, I think that I can find you an answer through our network and I think our network wants to support one another and they want to see other shops succeed.

Speaker 1:

Love it. Thank you for that, catherine. Jeff, let's go over to you. What would you want to say to prospective members or members that are part of it but maybe aren't active?

Speaker 3:

yet All right, I've got two simple things. At any NTMA event, you'll always pull out and come back with one gold nugget. Ok, at least there's always going to be something. You got to look for that nugget and you got to remember it and you got to use it. And other than that, if you're not careful like my family they make good friends for life You'll end up having a lot of friendships and maybe have a little fun along the way, love that, love that.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, jeff and Shelly. What would you like to say to our listeners?

Speaker 2:

Really all I wanted to say is just get involved. Once you get involved with NTMA, all of those things grow the friendship, the networking. It helps grow your business in so many ways as well. But if you don't get involved it's not as personal of a benefit there. So just involvement, I think, is great, is key.

Speaker 4:

I think Shelly's saying y'all better get signed up for the Joint Chapter Business Summit. Shelly's fancy. She does it through her website. You can just send me an email.

Speaker 3:

That looks good, she'll push them.

Speaker 1:

All right Panel, thank you so much for being here today. You guys have done a great job. I'm honored to be part of the MTMA community and I'm just thankful for the leadership that we have, both here in Kansas City and the leadership there in St Louis. Let's continue to build these relationships, not only for this year but for years and decades to come, because good things are happening in the Midwest and manufacturing, and it's an exciting time to be a part of this space. So, with that being said, I'm going to ask the panel just to stay on. After I end the stream, I'll just share a couple more things with you all, but to our audience, thank you so much for being here and listening. We will look forward to continuing to connect with you, and hopefully in person in Kansas City in April. Take care.

Speaker 3:

Thanks Ryan, all right guys.