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After 40 years of being known as the Scaffold Industry Association (SIA), the SIA has voted to change its name to the Scaffold & Access Industry Association (SAIA), starting October 1.
In July, the SIA’s 32-member board voted unanimously to recommend changing the organization’s name by adding the reference to access equipment. Then at a general-membership meeting held during the SIA’s convention and exposition in Minneapolis, Minn. in mid-July, more than 99 percent of member companies attending the meeting voted for the name change, too.
“It may take some time for the new name to become second nature, and the acronym SAIA may not roll off the tongue quite as easily as SIA, but give it time,” said Steve Smith, SIA president. “It took many years for the original name to be recognized countrywide and around the globe.”
Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., the national organization says it promotes, represents, and enhances the access, scaffolding and forming industry for the benefit of its members, the public, and industry, with a special interest of safety.
SIA executive director Laurie Weber says the new name shows the organization’s actual scope of focus and activities. “We carefully considered the decision to change the organization’s name,” said Weber. “But our members recognize that we actually have been involved for years with all kinds of powered access equipment, as well as scaffolding. Adding ‘& Access’ to the name more accurately reflects the breadth of our activities,” Weber said.
Weber says that 93 percent of SIA members manufacture, sell, rent, erect, or service scaffolding or access equipment. “We are the secretariat for the A92 subcommittee that develops standards adopted by ANSI to guide aerial work platform best practices in the United States,” she notes. Weber also says that SIA also has built alliances that benefit both scaffolding and AWP members, such as its alliance with OSHA. The SIA also facilitates the AWP Council, an industry association that promotes access-equipment safety awareness through a more informed access industry.
Although the new Scaffold & Access Industry Association (SAIA) name takes effect October 1, Weber says the organization is starting to use it now.
Source: Lift and Access
In July, the SIA’s 32-member board voted unanimously to recommend changing the organization’s name by adding the reference to access equipment. Then at a general-membership meeting held during the SIA’s convention and exposition in Minneapolis, Minn. in mid-July, more than 99 percent of member companies attending the meeting voted for the name change, too.
“It may take some time for the new name to become second nature, and the acronym SAIA may not roll off the tongue quite as easily as SIA, but give it time,” said Steve Smith, SIA president. “It took many years for the original name to be recognized countrywide and around the globe.”
Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., the national organization says it promotes, represents, and enhances the access, scaffolding and forming industry for the benefit of its members, the public, and industry, with a special interest of safety.
SIA executive director Laurie Weber says the new name shows the organization’s actual scope of focus and activities. “We carefully considered the decision to change the organization’s name,” said Weber. “But our members recognize that we actually have been involved for years with all kinds of powered access equipment, as well as scaffolding. Adding ‘& Access’ to the name more accurately reflects the breadth of our activities,” Weber said.
Weber says that 93 percent of SIA members manufacture, sell, rent, erect, or service scaffolding or access equipment. “We are the secretariat for the A92 subcommittee that develops standards adopted by ANSI to guide aerial work platform best practices in the United States,” she notes. Weber also says that SIA also has built alliances that benefit both scaffolding and AWP members, such as its alliance with OSHA. The SIA also facilitates the AWP Council, an industry association that promotes access-equipment safety awareness through a more informed access industry.
Although the new Scaffold & Access Industry Association (SAIA) name takes effect October 1, Weber says the organization is starting to use it now.
Source: Lift and Access
