I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have quotes or sayings that I hear from others that stick in my mind.  Quotes like:

“Start out the way you want to end up.”

“If I would have had more time, I would have written less” – my personal favorite

And

“The world is run by those that show up”.

This last one, “The world is run by those that show up”, came to mind earlier this week when we were preparing for another round of meeting in Washington DC.

NAFTZ has been showing up in DC.  Showing up in Legislators offices, meeting with congressional appropriations staff, in agency offices and pressing for action when decisions in DC have unfavorable impacts on our members and in support of the FTZ program overall.

What has NAFTZ been doing differently?  Working to execute our Advocacy 5-year plan which has been in place now for about a year and a half.  So far, so good!  I thought this would be a good time to provide you with an update on a couple of the plan’s items:

Build ongoing and consistent relationships with legislators and agencies

This is the ‘Showing Up’ part.  With frequent in-person meetings in DC, our in-person fly-in attached to the Legislative Summit and our now twice-per-year Virtual Fly-Ins, we’re building relationships, keeping conversations going, being more proactive and well, showing up – again and again.  We’re working hard to be viewed as a reliable source of trustworthy FTZ information and demonstrating the importance of the FTZ program.

Create & lead an FTZ coalition of allied associations and organizations

This effort started earlier this year in earnest by being a leader in re-instating regular information lunch meetings between staffs of trade-related associations.  The initial results of this work were clearly seen at the Legislative Summit with leaders from the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the National Retail Federation, and NCBFAA presenting their perspectives on FTZ and other common issues in a panel discussion kicking off the February event.  We will continue to expand these efforts as we’ll next be connecting with the National Governors Association. 

These are just two of the areas covered by our 5-year plan.  In the coming Zones Reports, we’ll visit other areas in the 5-year plan.  Want to talk more about NAFTZ Advocacy or get engaged?  Contact Melissa Irmen at mirmen@naftz.org, or visit www.naftz.org.