Letter from the Executive Vice President

2023 was another strong year for our industry.  Looking back on 2023, it is great to see that the construction market has remained robust and that many projects have been funded.  This obviously equates to strong fiscal years for many of our members, manufacturers, and rep firms.

If the 2023 convention is a gauge of how our industry is doing, then we are booming as we saw our largest participation to date in 1006 attendees at this year’s event.  While we have business meetings and engaging speakers, this event is like no other in the industry as it provides a family environment with many spouses and kids attending the event.  We program for this as we want many of those kids to be the next generation in our industry.  It also creates much deeper rooted relationships between our many vendors, reps and distributors.  Our vendor sponsors have also provided us with the highest level of sponsorship in history in 2023 and we are very grateful for their tremendous contributions to SWA.

Our mission to provide education, regional benchmarking and industry networking has continued to create opportunities for our members to grow and equip their company’s leaders.  Our four councils provide opportunities for volunteers to assist in guiding our association’s values to the membership.  The Leadership Development Council (LDC), is focused on providing educational opportunities and networking for the next generation of our industry.  The Mechanical Products Council (MPC), is focused on providing education and networking among our many commercial and PVF companies.  Our Women in Leadership Council (WLC), is primarily focused on a mentorship program between the seasoned women in our industry and women who are beginning to make this industry their career.  Finally, our Suppliers Advisory Council is a group of the industry’s best and brightest minds in the manufacturing and manufacturing rep companies that assist in steering SWA’s convention and membership engagement. 

Throughout the year these groups work to provide manufacturer, rep and distributor tours, networking activities and provide one on one mentoring meetings. They meet twice a year face to face to coordinate their annual activities, once at the annual convention and again at our Winter Board meeting in Nashville. 

The SWA Board of Directors continues to bring strong and active leadership to our association and is comprised of 20 individuals from a variety of our distributor member companies.

We continue to grow and advance our mission in aiding in the networking and education of those in our region.  Our 2024 convention will be held at the JW Marriott in Marco Island, FL June 22-25th.   

Thank you to all our volunteers and our amazing sponsors for your commitment and support of SWA.

As always, we are available to you and look forward to any feedback or ideas you may have for us to better serve you.

Blessings,

Terry Shafer

Executive VP

Southern Wholesalers Association
7107 Crossroads Blvd.  |  Suite 106  |  Brentwood, TN  |  37027
615.371.5004 Office  |  615.371.5444 Fax  |  615.516.0106 Cell

[email protected]

 

INDUSTRY CALENDAR

1/17/2024 1/19/2024 2024 IMARK LPG Expo
1/21/2024 1/23/2024 2024 IMARK Annual Plumbing Meeting
2/27/2024 2/29/2024 KBIS 2024
3/4/2024 3/8/2024 The Commonwealth Group Spring Conference
6/4/2024 6/5/2024 NCWA Annual Convention
6/23/2024 6/25/2024 SWA Annual Convention