A Truly Enriching Experience

CETA’s 2018 Regional Meeting in Minneapolis, MN

By Michael Hamline / Published August 2018

Cleaner Times staff takes in a Twins ballgame.

In June 11, CETA held its regional meeting at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest. A.R. North America, which is headquartered in Fridley, MN—part of greater Minneapolis hosted the regional meeting. Debbie Murray, CETA Managing Director, notes, “The well-attended regional meeting was invigorating as well as informative.”

Chad Rasmussen, CETA president, says, “I was encouraged by the membership’s engagement during the meeting. It was great to hear questions, answers, and ideas shared. There is incredible strength in our association, and I was so happy to participate in it.”

Dustin Hillis, the co-author of Navigate 2.0: Selling the Way People Like to Buy, opened the meeting and challenged everyone through humorous anecdotes to better understand their customers. He talked about the four different buying styles—fighter, entertainer, counselor, and detective—and highlighted the main character traits, fear, reaction under stress, key phrases, and primary question each type of buyer has. To sum it up, know your customer.

CETA board of directors went out on tour.

Marlo Dean, who serves as CETA’s secretary and chairman of the CETA Technical and Standards Committee, delivered a vital presentation on California’s Proposition 65 and its impact on the industry. Rasmussen states, “The most important take-away from the regional meeting is that Proposition 65 is going to affect all of us in some way. In the past, simply putting a warning label was enough. It is more complex now, and compliance is going to be more difficult. The CETA Technical Committee has worked hard to make compliance as easy as possible, and the association is hopeful that manufacturers and suppliers will participate.” To gain a further understanding of what Proposition 65 means and how CETA is assisting its members, turn to this month’s Industry News column on page 10.

In addition to the two presentations, it was good to hear from Erin Peterson, one of the 2018 CETA Scholarship winners. She expressed her gratitude for the scholarship, which was sponsored by American Pressure, and allowed her to study abroad in Rome, Italy this past semester.

As regards the next regional meeting, Rasmussen remarks, “The association hopes to have more of these types of meetings in the future. We do not have the next regional meeting scheduled but will begin planning something for next year.” If you’re trying to make up your mind on attending the next regional meeting once it is scheduled, consider Rasmussen’s counsel: “I encourage those who are on the fence about attending regional or annual meetings to just try attending a meeting. For those who have not been in a while, come see us again. The association has a lot to offer, but the greatest value I see in membership is the opportunities that we have to learn from each other.”

The CETA board of directors took time on June 12 to tour several of their CETA members’ facilities in the Minneapolis area, such as Nilfisk (parent company of Pressure-Pro and Hydro-Tek), Cat Pumps, A.R. North America, Hydra-

Erin Peterson, one of this year’s CETA Scholarship winners, says “thank you.”

Flex, and American Pressure. Murray remarks, “Although the constraint of time limited the number of visits the board could make to CETA member sites, we are very thankful for the warm reception and gracious hospitality that we received everywhere we went. A regional meeting, a board meeting, tours—and all in the place, Minneapolis, where CETA began—made for a truly enriching experience.”