The Giftware Association had its first National Committee meeting of the year in March. The National Committee is a group of industry professions and key players from all aspects of our membership who help steer us on projects and decide on the general direction of the Association.

The National Committee has formed an important part of the GA since the beginning of its 70 year history. Being the backbone of the Association it has to make important decisions and come to conclusions on how to push the business through tough times. The National Committee is made up of 12 individual members who have a wide-ranging experience, whether they are from a supplier background or a retailer, or even an organisation that runs trade shows. You can find out more about who is on our National Committee currently here and a bit more information on them and their backgrounds. There is a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman who head all meetings and carry the flow of the meetings, with the Giftware Association team either attending all of the meeting or specific parts where their expertise is needed.

The meetings take place a few times a year, generally lasting for a few hours, and discussions range from memberships, ongoing projects and marketing activity with all members given the right to challenge any decisions made and to vote on projects going forward. It’s useful to get a varied view and people past experiences that can shape how a project eventually turns into.

As we need backing from our National Committee for all major projects, with their combined expertise and experience they can steer us and offer us helpful advice.

The new and exciting projects that were discussed at this month’s first meeting were the exciting relaunch of Design Deposits and to have a more robust system for uploading designs offering our members more protection; our 70^th Birthday celebrations; and the AGM were discussed with much excitement.

Also discussed were the upcoming shows which we are having more involvement with, and cross promotion for these events, this year we are working closely with the Stationery Show, BCTF, Harrogate and Pulse as well as continuing our already existing relationships with shows such as Top Drawer, Spring and Autumn Fair.

The meetings are open for discussion about any new projects that will encourage membership and help the Giftware Association grow.