ISRI CONVENTION 2015: ISRI officers urge greater participation

Welcoming attendees of the 2015 Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) Annual Convention, held in April in Vancouver, Canada, ISRI Chair Doug Kramer asked, “Who could possibly know more about tough times than the people in this room?”

 

Kramer, president of Los Angeles-based Kramer Metals Inc., asked the question while providing an introduction to general session speaker Stan Slap, an author and consultant who was preparing to speak on managing a business through tough times.

 

Kramer urged the ISRI members in attendance to get more involved in the association and to take advantage of the group’s benefits. “Weathering the tough times is not something you do yourself,” he remarked. Referring to the downturn of 2000 and 2001, Kramer added, “We survived that time by working together.”

 

He urged ISRI members to take advantage of the association’s safety programs, its access to Superfund Recycling Equity Act (SREA) reports on consuming destinations and to attend national and regional ISRI events. “I’ve had the pleasure to work with industry greats,” said Kramer, “and what did they have in common? They showed up.”

 

ISRI Chair-Elect Mark Lewon, a vice president with Utah Metal Works, urged ISRI members to work with the association or independently to familiarize elected officials, the media and the community with how the recycling industry works. “Don’t manage public affairs by not managing them,” he stated.

 

Lewon called the ISRI government relations staff “best in class” and urged all ISRI members and chapters to work in cooperation with the staff to help project a positive image for the industry. 

 

Closing General Session Speaker Robert Gates, former United States Secretary of Defense, provided insights into his years working for both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

 

When asked about the biggest problem confronting America, Gates responded, “I think the greatest threat to the United States can be found in the two square miles containing the Capitol Building and the White House. If they can’t figure out how to work together—and to be seen by the rest of the world to be solving our own problems,” then the U.S. will slowly sacrifice its leadership position, said Gates. “Ugly partisanship is not new; what’s new is the paralysis. One year (as Secretary of Defense), I never got a budget at all.”

 

The 2015 ISRI Convention & Exposition was at the Vancouver Convention Centre April 21-25.