Archie Fletcher has taken over the reins of PERA, shifting leadership from the West Coast to the Midwest for the first time in the organization’s history.
Fletcher’s new position follows the resignation of executive director Ed Clare, who had been with the organization and was one of its founders in 1993.
Fletcher was elected president of the 12-person board of the international Production Equipment Rental Association last October. Clare had also been PERA president.
In naming a new executive director, Fletcher said the board may bypass a full-time person and opt for hiring an association firm.
PERA has about 165 members throughout the world, including 100 equipment manufacturers who are sustaining members.
The PERA board consists of 12 voting and one non-voting member: one each from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Colorado, Oregon and Chicago and two from Texas. The non-voting member is also from L.A.
Fletcher said “the people on the board are there because they want to be active and have PERA mean something” to the organization and the industry as a whole.
“When the PERA logo is on a company’s stationery, that’s like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,” he said.
The board now formally meets twice a year, in March and October, a more businesslike change from meetings previously scheduled at busy trade shows where members tended to be distracted from PERA business-at-hand.
The March 2006 meeting will be held in Chicago.
One of the board’s goals is to increase membership and bring lapsed members back into the fold?notably large companies that had dropped their membership when they felt PERA was not doing enough for them, Fletcher said.
The only other current Chicago PERA member is Midwest Camera Cars and Cranes.
In the past, Schumacher Camera and Essanay Studio & Lighting had been members. Carole Schumacher resigned from the board and PERA several years ago. Essanay opted not to rejoin after one year of membership.
Under revived leadership, PERA’s goals are to do a better job of marketing, improve communications and the exchange of information, study insurance issues, facilitate safety issues, and agree on uniform terms and conditions, Fletcher stated.
PERA produce the successful Hands On equipment trade shows that travel to different production centers each year. Hands On exhibited in Chicago in 2002.
Archie Fletcher can be reached at 312/932-2700. See www.pera.ws.
