This year’s annual Steel Framing Industry Association General Session was held at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. This year, SFIA President Jim Collins presented to the association’s members. Industry members listened as Collins gave an update on the association as well as the trends of the steel framing industry.

Last year was another very active period for the SFIA and cold-formed steel framing industry, marked by the expansion of new information and educational programs and the integration of the Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute into the SFIA. This move not only strengthens the industry’s ability to reach design professionals and influence the market, but also brings the total number of members on the SFIA roster to nearly 2,500.

This year marks another major step forward, as the SFIA becomes an accredited Standards Development Organization while continuing to build opportunities for members to leverage industry resources to build their businesses. Collins reported on the evolution and growth of the SFIA and previewed the significant developments in store for 2024.

Following the Annual Meeting, the General Session followed.

“With the rapid changes being experienced by the SFIA and the industry, SFIA leadership has seen a need to review our organizational strategies to ensure that programs and services provided by the SFIA are aligned with the needs of members and the market,” Collins said.

The 2024 General Session features the two most important elements in the refreshed strategic plan, including the results of surveys of SFIA members, who were asked to identify and prioritize the most important roles the SFIA plays and where improvements can be made. In addition, the association also asked members to help prioritize which SFIA programs supported the mission. The development of the updated plan has been led by Darcy Bien, partner with the firm Partners in Change and the keynote speaker for this important session.

In addition to helping introduce the updated SFIA strategic plan, Bien led an interactive session designed to help provide attendees with ideas and tools they can use for developing and evaluating their own department and company strategies. Bien also discussed how to put in place methods to monitor and measure the impact of these strategies, as well as to ensure the plan remains an important tool for helping achieve long-term goals.