Welding & Gases Today Editor’s Blog 
  

It’s a major annual event for the Gases and Welding Distributors Association—the announcement of the new GAWDA board of directors, who will help lead the association through the coming year.

For 2009-10, we thought we’d handle the introduction a bit differently than in years past, when we would publish photos along with brief Q&As to help association members get to know the board a little better.

This time around, we centered the introduction on the theme of the board of directors as “superheroes” of the association, giving of their time and sharing their industry expertise to help make the association and the industry stronger.

In keeping with that theme, this year we developed a five-page comic-book style treatment to introduce the board, which you can see online at http://www.weldingandgasestoday.org/content/1q10/meetboard2009.pdf.

I hope you like it.

Jenny McCall named first woman president in the association’s 65-year history.

As you read this, the Gases and Welding Distributors Association (GAWDA) has just concluded its convention in San Antonio, Texas, where association members reconnected with fellow distributors, learned from industry experts and gathered information on how to grow their businesses.

The convention also served as the backdrop for the election of a new GAWDA president for 2009-2010.

It was a historic moment for the association, as Jenny McCall, 39, president of WESCO Gas & Welding Supply in Prichard, Alabama, became the first woman to lead the 65-year-old association, which is composed of North American distributors, manufacturers and suppliers of gases and welding equipment and materials.

I recently interviewed Jenny for a “Presidential Spotlight” to run in the next issue of Welding & Gases Today. During that conversation, she told me about her first GAWDA Convention 15 years ago and the moment when she was sitting at the back of the room watching the new president, Randy Squibb, being introduced.

“I can still recall as if it was yesterday, thinking: What a feeling that would be, walking down that aisle as the first female president of GAWDA,” she said. “I didn’t know how I was going to do it or what it took to make something like that happen—but here I am! Now my plan is to give it my all and do the very best that I can to make GAWDA a stronger and better organization.”

It’s hard to imagine what an exciting moment the election must have for Jenny McCall, or how demanding the next year will be for this newest GAWDA president. One thing’s for sure—she is clearly ready to tackle whatever challenges lie ahead.