March 6, 2025 • 54 mins
Manufacturing leaders from the Kansas City and St. Louis chapters of the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) discuss how their organization creates value for members and fosters collaboration across regional boundaries. The conversation explores both national and local benefits of NTMA membership while highlighting upcoming initiatives to strengthen manufacturing throughout Missouri.
• NTMA operates on national and local levels with three key pillars: networking, learning, and advocacy
• National membership provides critical lobbying in Washington DC, industry benchmarking reports, and conferences that connect manufacturers across the country
• Local chapters focus on workforce development through apprenticeship programs and educational opportunities
• Both Kansas City and St. Louis chapters emphasize relationship-building and breaking down competitive barriers
• Joint Business Summit planned between chapters to keep manufacturing business local through strategic partnerships
• Presidents of both chapters have 40+ year company involvement with NTMA, demonstrating long-term value
• "She Leads: Women Driving Manufacturing" initiative supports female leadership in the industry in Kansas City
• NTMA membership benefits owners transitioning businesses by establishing valuable industry relationships
• Associate members (vendors/suppliers) are encouraged to build genuine relationships rather than directly selling
• Upcoming Manufacturing Expo will showcase regional capabilities to OEMs and potential customers
Register for the Joint Chapter Business Summit happening this April in Kansas City to connect with manufacturers across Missouri and explore partnership opportunities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Good afternoon everyone.
This is Ryan Nelson and I amthe host of the People in
Production podcast, and that isa podcast that we've created
just to really invest in somegreat conversations with people
in the production industry.
We've largely been focused inthe Kansas City area and the
members of the MTMA Kansas Citychapter, but today we are
(00:25):
excited to welcome our friendsfrom over at the St Louis
chapter and we're going to sharesome of why that relationship
is important to us and it'sgoing to be a good conversation
for us to be having.
But just want to welcome you,let you know that we are here to
serve you.
In theory, if anyone's watchingthis live, you can leave a
comment in the chat on YouTubeand hopefully we will see that
(00:49):
and I'll be able to share thatat times, or we could discuss it
if there's something you wannaknow more about.
But we are just so gratefulthat you're here, that you're a
part of this, and lookingforward to our conversation
today.
I'm gonna bring in our team, ourpanel of participants, here.
Let me hit a few buttons hereand we'll get this started, all
right?
(01:09):
Hey guys, welcome everyone tothe chat.
I'm glad that you are here.
As I had mentioned before, wehave the St Louis chapter and
the Kansas City chapterrepresented, so I'd love to just
start.
Our top row is our St Louiscontingency, so I'd like to
start just by introducing Shelly.
Shelly, could you introduceyourself and tell us about your
(01:31):
role in St Louis chapter of theMTMA and what you've been doing
and how long you've been a partof that team?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Sure Thank you, ryan, for inviting us.
This is a great opportunitywe're excited about.
Thank you, ryan, for invitingus.
This is a great opportunitywe're excited about.
As he said, my name is ShellyMcIntosh and I am the chapter
executive for the St Louischapter and I've just been in
this role for about a year, butI really enjoy it and I'm
learning a lot, and this year wehave a very busy year.
(02:00):
We have an event just aboutevery month and we're just
really looking forward togetting into that.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That's great, shelly.
Thank you so much for that.
Next, I would like to introduceeveryone to Jeff.
Jeff, I'm going to bring you onup.
Tell us about yourself, jeff.
How long have you been a partof MTMA, and tell us a little
bit about your company.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Sure, I'm Jeff Hellebush with Hellebush Tool
and Die and we build injectionmolds and die cast dyes.
We're about 50 miles west of StLouis.
We've been a member of NTMA forover 40 years.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Wow, that's amazing.
I love that, and your currentrole is president.
Is that correct?
That's correct, yes, and so ina little while we're going to
talk a little bit about why youchose to invest at that level,
but love your investment in itand love hearing the long
history that you've had with theNTMA, so thanks for being here
today, jeff.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Next, we're going to go to the bottom row here and
we're going to talk withCatherine, who's the director of
the Kansas City chapter.
Catherine, introduce yourself.
Tell us how long you've beenwith KCNTMA.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Hi, good to see everybody, or I guess you get to
see me and we get to hopepeople watch.
But I have been with the NTMAfor just over a year and a half
now and I'm glad to really bepicking up some momentum and
having a lot of wonderful thingshappening and going on to
support our chapter.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
That's great.
You've been doing a great joband I've been able to be a part
of this journey for some of thattime that you've been here, and
I love it and appreciate youbeing here today.
And, last but not least, we'regoing to go on over to Fred down
in the bottom road.
Fred is the president of theKansas City chapter and Fred,
tell us about your business andtell us about how long you've
been a part of KCNTMA.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Yeah, ryan, thanks for pulling this together.
Fred Stepkovitz, president ofUltratech Aerospace.
Ultratech has been involved inthe NTMA for 40 years.
I have been involved in thelast two years and recently got
elected as the board presidentfor the Kansas City chapter, so
we have been fairly active.
(04:10):
My previous CFO was thetreasurer on the board for a
number of years, so we've alwaysplayed a very active role with
the Kansas City chapter forquite some time.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
All right, fred, appreciate that.
So glad to have you here today.
Um, for our guest today, and Isee that we have some folks
online.
I want you to know that intheory, if all the technology
works right, you can leave acomment or a question in the
chat on youtube and um orwhatever avenue.
You're listening to this andhopefully we'll be able to see
that and we might be able toanswer those questions.
(04:43):
So, uh, if some of you that arewatching right now wouldn't
mind just saying hi or sayingyou're glad to be here or
something, we can confirm thatthat's working.
And we know there's a littlebit of a lag between when we are
presenting and when it's gonnaget back to us.
But if someone wants to leave acomment, we will just confirm
that we have that connection.
But everyone, thank you so muchfor this conversation.
(05:12):
When some new conversationsstarted happening over the past
six to eight months about somecollaboration opportunities, it
got really exciting for me tosee what's happening in the NTMA
.
But what I'd like to do in ourconversation is start at the
national level, then go to thechapter levels what each chapter
is doing and then we can kindof dive into the collaboration
dynamics that we're looking at.
So first of all let's start atour discussion about the
(05:36):
national organization.
I see from my experience withNTMA that the national
organization is focused onnetwork, learn and advocacy, and
there I see Kathy and Shellysay Catherine and Shelly say
hello.
So there it is right, thereAppreciate you all being there,
(05:58):
good stuff.
So let's talk at that nationallevel and this might be a little
bit more in the wheelhouse ofShelley and Catherine, but
certainly I know that thepresidents of the organizations
are a part of some conferencecalls and stuff.
Let's talk about these threedynamics of the national level.
Let's start with the networkpiece.
The national level wants thelocal chapters to network, but
(06:21):
also the national network.
Can you guys tell us a littlebit about what networking looks
like in the NTMA?
And feel free to jump inwhoever feels like.
I would love to feel that.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I think I think at the national level for
networking, ntma offers twoconferences which would be
engaged and that is pretty muchopen to any NTMA member, and
then they also have a chapterleadership summit every year and
that's mostly for chapterleaders, board members and
chapter executives and thingslike that.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Very cool.
And then they also provide someongoing conversations.
I know some of you wereactually involved in a call just
before this call with thenational level, so can you guys
tell me a little bit about thoseother things that they do to
help support the local chapters?
Fred, I think you might havebeen on that call, is that
(07:16):
correct?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
yeah, I'll jump in.
Yeah, so the call we justwrapped up was at the national
level.
It was for the trustees of thechapters.
Basically it was really thetrustees of the chapters.
Basically it was really thehighlights of the rules and
regulations and responsibilitiesas a trustee how to run, help
help the executive director runthe meeting, call the meetings
to order, uh, log the minutes,voting rights, things like that.
(07:39):
So, um, but you know, we wealso recently just had an event
where the national director ofmembership was involved and in
Kansas City for that event.
So the national organizationdoes a lot for advocacy.
We've been communicatingheavily with tariffs and tariff
(08:00):
discussions and legislativerequirements.
So it's a pretty activenational level.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well, you brought that up and I would say one way
members can connect nationallyis through the NTMA Connect
platform and I know there are alot of ongoing discussions and
we get to see little snippets ofthose as they are sent out
every week, but definitely a wayyou can chime in for job
sharing or information seekingor, as Fred said, discussions
(08:27):
about taxes and tariffs and thattype of thing.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, so let's talk about that advocacy piece that
Fred mentioned and then we'llcome back to the learn piece.
But advocacy can mean differentthings to different people.
So what type of advocacy wouldyou say the national level is
directly involved in, becausethey've got people going to DC
having conversations, seats atthe table?
What can you guys share withthe members on why it's
(08:51):
important for them to be a partof this program to support those
efforts?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, there's a lot of work that's done at the
national level.
The lobbyist effort is huge atthe national level.
The lobbyist effort is huge.
It gives all the smaller shopsan advantage to see what's going
on and keep in tune with what'shappening with all the things
at that level and to give input.
And so there's webcast on thatthat we can all join as a member
(09:21):
, and so that's well.
The other thing is, at thenational level most members it
almost benefits the owners alittle more because they can
kind of compare their companiesto other companies around the
rest of the country and youdon't really get that
(09:41):
opportunity at a local level andso there's really not it's not
a competitive type situation.
You can talk with other toolshops.
I can talk with tool shops inPennsylvania or Arizona or
wherever and say, well, what doyou guys do about this or how do
you handle this?
So it's very helpful from anowner's perspective to just get
(10:04):
a gauge on how you compare it tothe rest of the nation.
So that's very helpful.
And also there's the help fromthe other sponsorships which are
totally different than thesponsorships and affinity
partners that are at the locallevel.
(10:24):
They're totally different atthe national level.
So it's just-.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
To just continue a little on to what you said, also
the benchmarking reports.
I know members report utilizingthose and the members that take
the time to fill those out,which they're really not too
long.
But that is again a greatcomparison tool to see how your
business aligns with otherswithin the region and then
nationally.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
So, jeff and Fred, as guys that are in leadership
level of your organization, howdo you access those reports?
Do they come to you in email oris a link that you have to go
log into?
Help our owners understandwhere they can get that data so
that they can be as educated aspossible yeah, I've seen it a
number of different places.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
I mean the ntma website, you know, has a portal
that you can log into and youcan get a lot of up-to-date data
.
But you know you also get a lotof email communications.
Last week, for example um wasit last week.
Last week was uh some tariffquestions that came from the
executive level that wanted toknow uh, about additional items
(11:28):
that companies were looking forto be placed on tariff lists to
protect their level of business.
So I've seen both.
I've seen the email comms andthen always try to stay logged
into the NTMA portal to getup-to-date data.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Jeff, any other insights on that?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, no, the data is good.
I mean it comes back with theamount of people that
participated, the size of theirbusiness, so you can kind of
look at your comparison to seeif you're in the same size as
the other people who entered theinformation.
And so it's very helpful andthere's a.
I think there's about three orfour different areas that you
(12:09):
can, you know, get those reportsfrom and be be active and
involved.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, shelley, do you have any insights on that?
Obviously you're not on theownership side, but as the
executive director, you probablyvalue some of those reports and
that type of thing too.
Do you have any insights toshare on the importance of?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
that data.
I think they cover it allreally well.
We get those requests fromnational and just send them on
to our members.
Usually that's about all of mypart of that.
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
You know, I know something we discovered last
week or two weeks ago, Ryan,when we were meeting with Carrie
, our chapter relations manager,is that not necessarily all of
those that attend events aregetting those emails.
So, for example, the one voicecalls which are the monthly
advocacy updates, not everyoneon our board was in tune with
(13:00):
those because it was just goingto the owner or maybe a company
president.
So we learned that anybody whowould like to be a part of those
calls or get that information,they just need to get that email
to their chapter exec.
We can send that on and makesure that they are linked in
where they would like to be andgetting the updates they would
like.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
That's great.
So I think that's an importantpiece, that there's various
things for the different levelsof leadership within your
organization, from the top levelof ownership to your mid-level
leaderships, and we're going to,in just a moment, get to some
of those other resources on thelearn side.
That's for every level as well.
But one thing that I'm thinkingabout on this front other
(13:40):
industries have licensurerequirements and that type of
thing, and for you to be a partof a program like real estate,
you have to get a license andyou have to be a part of a
brokerage, and then you're partof the National Association of
Realtors and they're an advocacyprogram.
This industry is a little bitdifferent because you don't have
to have a licensor and youdon't have a representation,
(14:02):
unless you join by choice anassociation like NTMA and you
raise your voice and you raiseyour impact by being a part of
the NTMA national organizationand then you also have the
benefit of building a part ofthe NTMA national organization
and then you also have thebenefit of building a network of
relationships in the localassociation, and so I just think
it's really important forpeople to understand that being
(14:23):
a part of NTMA helps you have avoice in DC and in your state
areas for some of theconversations that you want to
have with our political leaders.
Anyone else want to add anythingto that comment?
All right, let's keep goinghere.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthe learn side.
What resources are availablefrom the national level on the
(14:46):
learn side of things?
Anyone have any insights onthat?
Excuse me, catherine, do youknow much about the LEARN
programs?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah, I can talk to you about the NTMAU online
education platform.
So it is a portal and eachchapter can kind of conduct
business as they see fit withthat.
As a local chapter in KansasCity we pay for that portal and
then any member who would liketo enroll an employee in one of
the courses, they just reach outto me after viewing those
(15:16):
online and you could justliterally NTMAU courses, look it
up and they come in a varietyof series and then each series
has three or four modules and Ibelieve there are five or six of
those total.
But it's a great way you knowif you're a little bit slow, if
somebody's new, if you'reonboarding, you're doing, you
know, training and trying toreally just fill a day for
(15:39):
somebody who's new.
It's a great way to get themgoing and get them learning, get
them exposed.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
And Catherine is this is this helping people to
understand technical skills,leadership skills, what are?
What's the type of content thatyou're going to see in that?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
I would definitely say more technical skills, and
all of the courses are approvedby the Department of Labor.
Now there are some generalmathematics type skills that are
included, which would be likeyour measurements, your
conversions, your decimals, andthen it gets advanced math as
well, but definitely moretechnical blueprint reading,
things related to die, makingthings that you would need to
(16:14):
complete daily tasks in a shop.
Excellent and we have usedquite a few of those courses as
a part of our precisionmachinists approved
apprenticeship program throughthe Department of Labor.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Love it, Shelly.
How have you seen that MTMAU beused by your members?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Our members use it quite often also in st louis.
Our chapter covers the cost, soit's free to our members to
take those courses.
There's also an aptitude testwhere you can kind of see where
your skills are lacking for acertain employee, so that's been
helpful too.
And then some people just plugthem into which class they need
(16:53):
and other companies will sendthem through the apprenticeship
program and have them take eachseries one at a time and cover
the whole thing um.
One other thing that we offerbesides ntmau would be emerging
leaders, and it's like aconference that you can send um
your employees to and it kind offocuses on taking, like that,
(17:16):
the mechanic or shop guy andturning them into a supervisor
or more in a management rolehelps them understand those
things.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And some of them-.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Go ahead sorry about that, jeff and then we'll keep
going.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
To follow up with the cohorts.
There's also an executivecohort and a sales cohort to
help those type people in yourorganizations, and so those are
other things on the nationallevel for training and learning.
And then, if you do go to theconferences, there is learning
at the conferences withroundtable discussions.
(17:56):
For example, there was an AIseminar at the last one, and so
you know there'll be four tofive different topics.
Sometimes they're set up forthe whole group of the people
and other times you'll break outinto smaller groups and do a
roundtable session.
You'll break out into smallergroups and do a roundtable
session and those are veryhelpful because then other
(18:17):
people in different areas getinvolved and you hear from.
You know what's happening upeast, what their issues are,
what's happening out west, whattheir issues are.
You know what us Midwest guysare struggling with.
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well and Jeff, what that helps with so much is it
helps us break down some of oursilo experience.
We only know what we know, butwhen you start talking to other
shops you start realizing, oh,there's a different way to look
at that, or there might be someopportunities there.
So I love that you're sharingabout those cohort opportunities
.
Catherine, was there somethingelse you were going to add to
the conversation?
Oops, catherine, are you?
(19:00):
I think she froze up.
I think maybe she did All right, we will keep on going here.
So let's move on, let's go.
We've talked national, let'scome on down to the local level.
And, if I could, let's startwith you, shelly.
What does the local chapter doto help fulfill the NTMA's
objective?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Well, I wrote some notes on that one.
So the NTMA's mission statesthat we're here to help our
members achieve profitablegrowth and business success.
And I think we do that well bynetworking and workforce
development.
And of course we try to coverthe other areas as well.
(19:39):
But in st louis we really focuson networking and workshop
around workforce development.
Um, but this year for ourworkforce development we're kind
of expanding our scholarshipcommittee to also include some
grants for junior, high and highschool level.
We're really trying to get intothe kids, get to the kids at a
(19:59):
younger level.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Love it and Fred, I'm going to come to you.
Fred, what can you share aboutthe how the national objective
is being carried out at thelocal level?
Speaker 5 (20:12):
Yeah, so Kansas City, we've taken a the last two
years.
Since Catherine's involvement.
We've taken a real activeapproach in workforce
development.
The Department of Laborapproved apprenticeship program.
We've had numerous educatorsand their organizations attend
(20:33):
our meetings and shop tours.
We've really worked to breakdown the walls of competition
and build collaboration amongstshops as well to help foster
growth and development and jobsharing and those types of
opportunities within the KansasCity network.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, great man, I love that.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I'd like to add on the local networking level.
It's a lot more involved.
You get a lot more opportunityto network.
So, you know, if you'renetworking once a month instead
of like twice a year at thenational level, so you're making
better relationships.
Um, you're having fun and someof these stuff maybe a golf
(21:19):
outing or a trap shooting orsomething, and uh, on some
fundraisers or you know, youknow, going to different events.
The shop tours are always verypopular and uh, and they're
always well attended.
So so I just think there's alot more time spent at the local
level.
So you're getting a little morebang for your buck and it's a
(21:41):
little easier to get more peoplefrom your company there at
those events.
And, you know, try to spreadthe information to your
organization quicker, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, I love that and I know at the Kansas City
chapter and I imagine at the StLouis chapter this will happen
too that from an advocacyperspective, sometimes you get
the ear of some of your senatorsor representatives or even the
governor.
I know last week at theMissouri Association of
Manufacturers event, catherinehad connected with the governor
(22:16):
and had invited him to a futureevent that we're having and
stuff like that.
So there's a level of advocacythat happens even at the local
level.
Shelly, is that happening inthe St Louis area as well, as
you're getting some attention ofsome of those leaders in the
states?
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Occasionally.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yeah, there's a little bit, I mean, but we kind
of have to do it ourselves, youknow.
I mean we like, if we want togive, you know, get information
from the Missouri Chamber ofCommerce or give them
information, I mean we kind of,you know, got to go to them and,
you know, get the right contactand that sort of thing.
But yeah, there is some of that, but I don't know that it's
(22:56):
quite as much as at the nationallevel.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Sure, which makes sense.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I can definitely appreciate that, but for one
example, like the lastProposition A that passed in
Missouri, like so our chapter,we had a seminar with a local
law firm on.
You know what all the memberscould do and how they could
prepare for those changes.
You know in the workenvironment, so it's more, a
(23:24):
little bit more reactionary.
You're trying to help theindustries on what is happening
in those areas and you know whatthey need to guide them through
those specifics.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Love it.
That's very helpful.
Fred and Jeff, let's kind ofturn our attention to you guys a
little bit.
I'd love to hear what promptedyou to get involved in NTMA and
then what prompted you to go tothat next level of become a part
of the leadership team.
So, fred, let's start with you.
What got you involved and thenwhy did you decide to take it to
that next level?
Speaker 5 (23:55):
So when I took over Ultratech three years ago, I
felt that our local, really ourlocal brand, our local network
was non-existent.
You know, people knew of us butdidn't really know anything
about us.
And that's really been over thelast three years, both on a
(24:15):
national level, outside of NTMA,with our major tier one
customers, as well as with ourpeers within the Kansas City
market.
My goal has been to really getour brand out there, get people
to know who we are, what ourcapabilities are, our
willingness to work with othershops.
I don't view anybody in theNTMA as a competitor, even
(24:38):
though there are a handful ofshops that are, I would say
going after the same statementof work.
But I don't really consider anyof them competitors.
We all have a very nichecapabilities and what got me
involved?
You know, really I was just aboard member last year, but I
(25:03):
guess you could say I don't sitquietly in the shadows and I
think that made me as the boardpresident this year.
I should have gotten my peersto elect me as the board
president this year.
That's great, and what would yousay is your vision for where
(25:24):
the Kansas City chapter is goingthis year?
Yeah, this year one of my biggoals, and along with
Catherine's, is really two biginitiatives, in my opinion.
The first is to establish aKansas City Manufacturers
Network, or Manufacturers Expoif you will.
I want shops to have theopportunity to brag about who
(25:48):
they are, what they are, whatthey can do, and to bring large
manufacturing OEMs that sub outwork within our area through and
exhibit the best that KansasCity has to offer.
And so we're really workinghard to pull together a show
similar to the MAM show, but ona local level.
(26:10):
And then also part of that isto branch out across the state
and get a better workingrelationship with, or really
establish a relationship with,the St Louis chapter.
And then also as part of theKansas City chapter, we have
kind of a subset to ourorganization that's called she
(26:30):
Leads Women DrivingManufacturing, women Driving
Manufacturing, women DrivingManufacturing and Catherine was
kind of the brainchild ofCatherine's.
To start this subsector of theNTMA focused on women in
manufacturing and to see thatgrow as a chapter and continue
to develop and build that subsetis really a key initiative as
(26:57):
well.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Love it, that's great .
Love it, fred.
Jeff.
Let's turn to you.
Tell us a little bit about, Imean, your company has been a
part of it for 40 years, but whydid you choose to become an
active participant and then stepinto a leadership role with St
Louis NTMA?
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Sure, well, my father got into the NTMA years ago
because he was a great toolmakerbut he had two years of trade
school and being a machinist and, frankly, didn't know a lot
about running a business, andyou know.
So back in the late 70s and 80sthis was a great tool and a
(27:37):
great thing to learn about.
All those things on how to howto run a business without having
to go to a four-year college,so that.
So that helped him.
Throughout the years I wasinvolved, before children,
children or before my childrengot to be about, you know, eight
to ten years old, and went tonational conventions and went to
(28:00):
the local meetings and that.
And then, once it got to, youknow, worried about kids and
running them all over.
I kind of strayed away a littlebit.
And then, once the kids gotback out of the house, I'm like,
well, it's time for me to giveback a little bit, back out of
the house.
I'm like, well, it's time forme to give back a little bit.
And really, workforcedevelopment is a big reason why
(28:24):
and the networking and justmaking sure that our industry as
a whole in the St Louis area isthriving and it just helps
everybody else.
You know.
All shops have theirspecialties and their niche and
what they're good at and if youcan help another guy get the
right work to the right person,it just helps the whole industry
.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Love it.
And, jeff, is there anythingthat you guys would say is a
focus of 2025 for you guys?
Or are you just coasting in thetrajectory you've been going,
or are you just coasting in thetrajectory you've been going.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Yeah, I would say our main focus has been trying to
gain new membership.
Our membership is pretty strongbut we're still trying to grow
it.
I think coming out of COVID,you know we did pretty good as a
membership, trying to geteverybody back engaged and you
know, coming to meetings andthat sort of thing, and we've
(29:15):
been very we change it up a lot.
We don't just have thetraditional, you know, go to the
restaurant, have a seveno'clock meeting, listen to a guy
speak for 40 minutes and thengo home.
You know we try to.
We try to do luncheons, maybe abreakfast, maybe a fun, you
know, go to a bar and have abeer or whatever.
(29:37):
So Shelly's done a great job atreally rebranding and
remarketing and putting a freshapproach.
But we've all at the chaptertried to put a fresher approach
to try to get more involvement.
So I would say our key focus isjust trying to increase
membership and continue ourefforts in the workforce
(30:00):
development and supportingscholarships.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
That's great.
I really appreciate that.
I'm going to kind of go offscript a little bit here because
, just as Jeff was talking abouthis story and knowing a little
bit of Fred's story, one thingthat occurs to me is that a lot
of the conversation out there inthe industry right now is that
there's about to be highturnover, not only in our
(30:25):
machinists but in our ownership,and I'm going to kind of turn
on the promotion piece here forNTMA to say that if you are an
owner that is approaching thisseason of life where you're
thinking about getting out ofthe industry, establishing
yourself in an association likeNTMA can be of great value,
(30:47):
because a lot of the people thatare going to be buying into
this industry may not havetooling and machining background
or may not have manufacturingbackground, and I think it's
very important that youestablish a network.
And, fred, I'm going to comeback to you if I may, because
you part of the reason you gotinvolved in MTMA is you didn't
(31:07):
have a specific network in thisfield.
Can you tell me why thispartnership with MTMA has been
important for you developingsuccess in your company?
Speaker 5 (31:17):
Yeah, that's a great.
I was going to jump in there ifyou didn't ping me.
But you know, after I left themilitary I got into the
manufacturing industry and Ispent 15 years in manufacturing,
but not in machining or not inthis type of manufacturing.
And so when I found myselftaking over Ultratech three
years ago, I had no network.
(31:38):
Not only did I have nomachining experience, I wasn't a
machinist.
I'd never been in a machineshop.
I also was a big internationaltraveler and international
business, so I had really nolocal network in Kansas City.
So NTMA has been instrumental inmeeting so many of my peers
(32:02):
within an industry I had neverbeen in and really establishing
friendships and learning justlearning from folks whose
parents had started the companyand then the kids were running,
and just decades and decades offamily-run businesses that are
in this industry and seeing someof the, some of their shops and
(32:24):
and really walking into anindustry that welcomed me with
open arms and was, you know,invited to so many shops to take
tours and talk.
I mean, there's a shop out nearwhere I live, cnr.
Time's gotten away from me butI was going out there like once
a quarter and having coffee inthe morning with the owner and
(32:45):
his daughter and just sittingaround and shooting the breeze
and having a coffee and talkingabout business and opportunities
like that that the NTMApresented me have just propelled
my career into an entirelydifferent space that I'd never
imagined.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, that is great, fred.
I really appreciate you sharingthat.
And again, I would just appealif you are thinking about being
a part of the NTMA, if yourcompany is going to be on the
market in the next five to 10years because you're looking at
getting out or whatever the casemay be, this is actually a good
investment to prepare thenetwork of relationships for
your organization to make you agreater value, your company, a
(33:22):
greater value to a potentialbuyer, because there's an
established network for whoevercomes into it.
So just wanted to share thatpart of it.
Let's shift gears here a littlebit.
I want to get back to ourdirectors of the local
association and I want to talkabout something that I didn't
understand until recently, aboutthe financial structure of the
(33:42):
organization.
When I pay to become a memberof MTMA, I'm actually buying
into the national associationand the local chapter, but a
good portion of my resourcesactually go to the National
Association, and so sometimespeople might be like man,
where's that money going to thatI'm paying?
(34:04):
Well, it's not going intoShelly and Catherine's pocket.
It's actually going into someof the other expenses.
But that's part of the reasonthat there's a number of events
that are fundraiser events orwhen you go to a luncheon,
you're paying for that luncheonbecause that your advocacy,
you're essentially yourmembership is paying for the
(34:25):
advocacy and it's paying for thestaffing just to keep the ball
moving.
Catherine Shelley, I'd love foryou two to chime a little bit
about helping people understandwhere their money's going to.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
I think the first thing to understand is that
there are actually two types ofmembers.
So in our chapter we call thatregular members and associate
members.
So our regular members would beour metal manufacturers, our
tool and die makers, our machineshops, our metal fabricators.
Those are the individuals thatjoin at the national level and
the bulk of their dues do go tosupport the national efforts,
(34:59):
especially advocacy, as youshared, and then the several
national conferences that wereaddressed earlier.
Then associate members orindustry partners join directly
with us here locally.
So that is one way that we cangenerate revenue, and I know
every chapter has a differentapproach to how they balance out
the number of regular membersand associate members, but I
(35:19):
think that would be the firstthing I would note.
Shelly, do you want to take itfrom there?
Speaker 2 (35:24):
No, I think that's great.
We have actually three levelsof membership.
So we have our shop members andwe have associate members,
which are industry partners.
And then, like Catherine said,the shop shop members their
funds go mostly to national.
And then the associate membersindustry partners that funding
(35:44):
stays at the chapter level.
And then we also haveeducational members um, some of
our local colleges um do paydues to to be members as well.
But, yeah, we have two eventsthat are actually fundraisers,
that being our golf outing andour clay shooting competition.
Those two fun, those twofundraisers, form our workforce
(36:07):
development funds and the restof our events, if they're
charged, it's a very minimal feeand it's just to cover the cost
of that event, not a moneymaker.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Yes, we are all not-for-profit associations,
trade associations, and we arejust trying to break even.
So I think that sometimesthat's hard for people to
understand, like you pay to be apart of something and then you
pay to do events and then we mayask for a sponsorship.
We are not trying to ask, ask,ask.
We are not trying to be thatperson that is a pest that you
want to flick away.
We are just trying to do what'sbest for our members, provide
(36:40):
top quality events, bring ingreat speakers, secure wonderful
venues and experiences and notlose money in the process of
doing that.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, and I love that .
And, catherine, I know you andI have just recently talked
about this.
But for those who are vendors,who are associate members or
considering that, I know in theKansas City chapter there's a
ratio that you want to keep thatinto what advice do you have
for how that vendor shows up atevents?
Because we've all seen thatperson that just comes and tries
(37:11):
to sell everyone and getbusiness.
But we really have seeneffectiveness coming from the
relationship side.
Can you, can you encourageprospective vendors to wrap
their brain around how to goabout building these
relationships?
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Oh, absolutely.
You know, obviously, if you area vendor, you are there to sell
and you are there to benefityour personal career and to help
your business meet its goals.
That's, that's understood.
Everybody gets that.
But what they don't want is tobe constantly hounded when they
are at an event trying toparticipate, to enjoy a speaker
or to engage, to networkgenuinely.
(37:45):
So we really do have a prettystrict no solicit policy.
If it comes up organically inconversation, if a regular
member requests a business cardor another associate, however,
that's going to work out, that'sawesome.
Set your meet.
But we really discourage thedistribution of any type of
material or business cards atevents.
(38:05):
We encourage genuinerelationship building and you
know, I think one example thatkind of stands out to me is we
were at a shuffleboard event andone of our members came in
shorts and he was apologizing.
Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.
You know our air conditionerwent out and we don't know what
to do.
We can't find the right fit tocome and service this.
I'm like well, we happen tohave an associate here from MCOR
(38:26):
.
Why don't I introduce you?
You know, it just so naturallycame to be and they were there.
They both showed up and itworked for them, so they work
for them.
So that's the type of thingwe're looking for.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Very good, Shelly.
Do you have any encouragementfor your associate members or
vendors that might be partneringwith your organization?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Yeah, we have great associate members and we've not
had a lot of problems withsoliciting.
You know, kind of likeCatherine said, they're just
very respectful of the membersand it it's organic
conversations and andfriendships that build.
I think she's she was right onwith that we, we do, uh, limit
our associate membership to 50percent of our shop membership.
(39:07):
So we, we do limit it to thatand we try to spread it out to
where we only have one bank andone marketing company, and so
there are times we have morethan one, but it's usually very
minimal.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah, we do the same thing, and we allow only two
individuals from the same sectorif they are non-manufacturing
related.
So never at an event would wehave more than two banks, more
than two insurance companies.
We're pretty strict about thatalso.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Very good, hey, great stuff.
Let's move to that.
We've talked about national,we've talked about local.
Let's move to this excitingcollaboration effort.
Fred, I know you said this isone of your initiatives in
building relationships here.
I know everybody's been a partof this conversation.
But, fred, let's start with youtalking about what's the goal
here, and then I'm going to goover to Catherine and say what
(39:58):
is the event looking like, andthen, shelly and Jeff, I'm going
to have you guys talk about whySt Louis would come over for
this.
So let's start with Fred.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
Yeah so it's really simple Stop sending business
outside of our region.
The capabilities within ourregion far exceed what people
know.
People drive by my shop everyday and they have absolutely no
clue what we do here.
We have major OEMs withinKansas City that outsource work
(40:33):
on a regular basis and ship itto the coasts or to Chicago or
out of our, out of our region.
And so st Louis, kansas City,where we're all you know, we're
have large manufacturers.
We have phenomenal, talented,skilled machine shops that have
(40:54):
capacity.
Everybody wants to talk abouton-shoring.
I want to take it a stepfurther and let's in-community
it and keep it within ourcommunity.
And to the point ofcollaboration, where I may be
strong and others are weak, orvice versa, let's pull together
(41:15):
and learn about each other'scapabilities.
So I have shops within theKansas City market that want to
go after government contractwork, but the barrier of entry
is so high with cybersecuritycompliance and all of the other
red tape associated withgovernment contract work where
we're 95% defense related.
(41:35):
So so let's help you right.
If there's a project you wantto go after, let's bid it and
we'll sub it and we can worktogether and vice versa.
There are areas of expertise wedo not have.
I don't have lasers, I don'thave water jets, I don't have
press brakes, I don't have Swissmachines.
There are jobs that I want tobid that involve those types of
(41:59):
manufacturing processes.
So instead of having to turnthose down or only bid a portion
of it, let's partner withsomebody else so that I can get
that entire package.
And so St Louis is you know,it's three and a half, four
hours away.
Why would we not want topartner with organizations that
(42:22):
are just across the state linethat have the same approach that
we're taking?
And let's work together tobuild Kansas and Missouri
manufacturing and continue togrow it and share and work with
each other and learn shops.
I mean, there's a lot of timeswhere I've had to call and ask
(42:42):
you know if somebody has acertain capability.
So we will double ourcapabilities by adding a
collaboration with another MTMAchapter.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
And let's go back to relationship building and trust
building.
That's what this event is about, and you can be honest about
what your capabilities are.
When you trust another company,you can job share.
When you trust another companythat they are not going to try
to steal your customer, yourclient, and that you really can
partner and work together, is anopportunity to build those
(43:14):
relationships.
We do, obviously, have quite afew learning opportunities.
We have a great keynote speakercoming to address the economy,
specifically related to metalmanufacturing, talking about
tariffs, and then we have somegreat breakout sessions, some
shop tours, but we can have funtogether as well and I think
that's the best way to kick offa new relationship and we're
(43:36):
really excited to welcome our StLouis neighbors.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
And I'm going to say this.
I missed this comment earlier,but it seems appropriate here.
Jonathan says I always tellpeople to attend and be of
service, serve manufacturers andbusinesses naturally, and
business naturally happens.
I think that's going to be trueof this event as well that you
just learn about each other.
If you just invest inconversations with each other,
if you just learn what peoplehave to offer, you may discover
(44:03):
that there's businessopportunities around you.
You had no idea it could openup.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
And shout out to Dr Min they are going to be our
social sponsor, so we arelooking forward to a great night
on behalf of them and theirwillingness to serve our
industry.
So thank you, jonathan.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
All right, love that.
So, catherine, there's also theBots KC event on the backside
of this.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the logistics of what
people can expect at the event?
You've talked about thespeakers and that type of thing,
but what else is happening?
Speaker 4 (44:34):
Yeah, I feel like, I'll be honest, every part of
this event was playing with apurpose.
We wanted to connect with StLouis, we wanted to grow BotskC,
we want to expose the communityat large to manufacturing and
we want to expose ourmanufacturers to the students
who are interested inengineering, robotics and
metalworking careers.
So what was the best way to doit?
(44:55):
To bring everybody here aroundthe BOTS QC event.
So that's kind of where thisdate came from.
We'll have all of the St Louismembers here the day before the
BOTS competition kicks off andthen Friday the 25th, when
things get going, we're actuallywrapping up, and we're wrapping
up at Johnson County CommunityCollege right as the initial
rounds of BOTS QC competitionget going Community College
(45:17):
right as the initial rounds ofBotts KC competition get going.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
That's awesome, and so let me go to Shelly and Jeff.
You guys are coming from acrossthe state.
Why would you encourage yourmembers to consider being a part
of this collaborative event?
Speaker 3 (45:31):
You want me to start, Shelly?
Speaker 2 (45:33):
I don't care, I'll start.
I just want to echo what Fredand Catherine said.
We are so excited about thisevent and, like they said, that,
the networking that will happenat this event you know, like
Fred said, multiplying that intotwo chapters and being able to
(46:00):
reach those neighboring statesand keep our business local,
like that I think is going to begreat.
But Catherine has done aphenomenal job of putting
together all of the events andspeakers for the joint business
summit and we're just reallyexcited to see it come to life.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
And there are quite a few bots teams coming out of
your area.
So that's cool, you'll get tosee them as well.
So they're not just Kansas Cityteams.
These teams are traveling infor the event.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
I think.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
I need to tap my fruit fly, so I'm sorry, I got
all kinds.
I got the hands going on today,ryan.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
You're fired up.
You.
I got all kinds, I got thehands going on today.
Ryan, you're fired up.
You're ready to go?
All right, jeff, what would youwant to say as someone who has
your own business to run?
You've got a busy schedule Plusyou're on the board.
What do you want to say to thebusy shop leader who is
wrestling with whether or notthey should come?
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Well, I'd say this one, it's a short drive, ok, and
you can stay one night, twonights, you can just stay one
night, leave whatever.
I mean it's a easy, it's aneasy workaround.
So I mean it's a.
It's a pretty relativelyinexpensive thing for, you know,
for high value, for a lot ofnetworking and a lot of good
(47:12):
reconnections.
Just to give you a littlehistory, this, this event used
to be at the Lake of the Ozarksyears ago and it was very
popular and people would go outon boat rides and have a good
time and they were great funevents and that kind of just
(47:32):
died off.
Things ebb and flow.
But we thought and Kansas Citywith the spots was a great
opportunity to do it in theKansas City side this year, and
I think it's a great ideabecause it gives just another
reason for the St Louis membersto actually see our teams there,
(47:54):
you know, because we supportthose teams here as our St Louis
chapter does, and so it'd benice to get to see their efforts
.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
And hopefully this event just lays the foundation
for our October ManufacturingExpo.
We absolutely want the St Louisshops to show up and show out
there.
We'll have again MissouriAssociation of Manufacturers.
I'm sure some of those in theSt Louis area are members of
that association as well.
You know this is really layingthe foundation for us to come
together.
We talk about doing a lot ofthings and how we want to have a
(48:25):
bigger impact, and you know howwe.
We want to do more business, wewant to attract employees and,
bam, this year we are doing it.
So we are, we're talking thetalk and walking the walk with
these events.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
I love it.
Guys, this has been a lot offun for me.
We are going to wrap things uphere shortly and I'll just give
each of you kind of a teaserthat I'm just going to say hey,
what do you want to say to ourlisteners who are either
watching this live or maybelistening to it after the fact?
What would you want to say tothem about being a part of NTMA
and showing up at NTMA?
(48:56):
I'll let each of you just givea sentence or two about that
before we wrap up, but I want tothank everyone for being a part
of this panel and I want tothank our viewers for checking
this out or listening to it ifyou're listening to it on your
favorite podcast service andstuff.
But we are doing this becausewe want to help build the
network, and I'm just honored tobe a part of this.
(49:17):
I started this podcast earlierthis year 2025, in relationship
with NTMA, and it's really tohelp encourage and equip people
in production, and I couldn'thelp but think that telling
people more about the NTMAwouldn't be a part of that
solution.
So, with that being said, let'sgo ahead and run the circle
(49:37):
here I'm actually going to startwith.
Let's start with the KansasCity folks and then we'll wrap
it up with the St Louis folks.
Fred, do you mind kicking itoff?
What do you want to tell peopleabout why they should be an
active part of this organization?
Oops and Fred, I think you'remuted.
Let me get you unmuted there,Yep there we go, Sorry.
Speaker 5 (49:59):
You know there's a lot of associations, a lot of
groups, a lot of organizations.
You can join the NTMA isrelatively low, cost your day,
that you should be in anindustry association, that one
on a national level fights foryour best interest in
manufacturing, small businessmanufacturing on Capitol Hill,
(50:23):
and two on a local level whereyou need to come and bring the
right mindset.
You only get out of it what youput in it and we have members
that have been belonged for avery long time and don't come to
events and it's networking andsocializing are not for
everybody.
And as leadership has changedover the years, so has the um,
(50:47):
the, the mission and the tacticsand the, the camaraderie.
You know we hear on occasion.
I belonged years ago and theystole our employees or people.
You, you know it's.
If you don't like it, then takean active part in trying to
change it.
But you know, I feel that overthe last few years our chapter
has taken such a differentapproach at networking within
(51:12):
our industry, respecting eachother, building relationships
and, like I said, somebodycoming into this newer in the
industry you don't gain theexperience, the exposure and the
knowledge that people arewilling to share without being a
member of an association likethis.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah, Fred, I appreciate that.
Catherine, what thoughts do youhave for people to encourage
them to be a part of NTMA?
Speaker 4 (51:37):
I know.
Earlier I spoke about NTMAConnect and I think Connect is
the greatest service that aschapter executive I can offer.
I don't necessarily have thetechnical knowledge or the very
skilled expertise thatmachinists or shop owners have,
but I feel like pretty sound inmy ability to connect you with
just about anybody, be it sales,be it a need that you have in
(52:00):
your shop.
You know, I think that I canfind you an answer through our
network and I think our networkwants to support one another and
they want to see other shopssucceed.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Love it.
Thank you for that, catherine.
Jeff, let's go over to you.
What would you want to say toprospective members or members
that are part of it but maybearen't active?
Speaker 3 (52:17):
yet All right, I've got two simple things.
At any NTMA event, you'llalways pull out and come back
with one gold nugget.
Ok, at least there's alwaysgoing to be something.
You got to look for that nuggetand you got to remember it and
you got to use it.
And other than that, if you'renot careful like my family they
(52:37):
make good friends for lifeYou'll end up having a lot of
friendships and maybe have alittle fun along the way, love
that, love that.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
Thank you, jeff and Shelly.
What would you like to say toour listeners?
Speaker 2 (52:51):
Really all I wanted to say is just get involved.
Once you get involved with NTMA, all of those things grow the
friendship, the networking.
It helps grow your business inso many ways as well.
But if you don't get involvedit's not as personal of a
benefit there.
So just involvement, I think,is great, is key.
Speaker 4 (53:14):
I think Shelly's saying y'all better get signed
up for the Joint ChapterBusiness Summit.
Shelly's fancy.
She does it through her website.
You can just send me an email.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
That looks good, she'll push them.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
All right Panel, thank you so much for being here
today.
You guys have done a great job.
I'm honored to be part of theMTMA community and I'm just
thankful for the leadership thatwe have, both here in Kansas
City and the leadership there inSt Louis.
Let's continue to build theserelationships, not only for this
year but for years and decadesto come, because good things are
(53:46):
happening in the Midwest andmanufacturing, and it's an
exciting time to be a part ofthis space.
So, with that being said, I'mgoing to ask the panel just to
stay on.
After I end the stream, I'lljust share a couple more things
with you all, but to ouraudience, thank you so much for
being here and listening.
We will look forward tocontinuing to connect with you,
and hopefully in person inKansas City in April.
(54:07):
Take care.
Speaker 3 (54:10):
Thanks Ryan, all right guys.
Good afternoon everyone.
This is Ryan Nelson and I amthe host of the People in
Production podcast, and that isa podcast that we've created
just to really invest in somegreat conversations with people
in the production industry.
We've largely been focused inthe Kansas City area and the
members of the MTMA Kansas Citychapter, but today we are
(00:25):
excited to welcome our friendsfrom over at the St Louis
chapter and we're going to sharesome of why that relationship
is important to us and it'sgoing to be a good conversation
for us to be having.
But just want to welcome you,let you know that we are here to
serve you.
In theory, if anyone's watchingthis live, you can leave a
comment in the chat on YouTubeand hopefully we will see that
(00:49):
and I'll be able to share thatat times, or we could discuss it
if there's something you wannaknow more about.
But we are just so gratefulthat you're here, that you're a
part of this, and lookingforward to our conversation
today.
I'm gonna bring in our team, ourpanel of participants, here.
Let me hit a few buttons hereand we'll get this started, all
right?
(01:09):
Hey guys, welcome everyone tothe chat.
I'm glad that you are here.
As I had mentioned before, wehave the St Louis chapter and
the Kansas City chapterrepresented, so I'd love to just
start.
Our top row is our St Louiscontingency, so I'd like to
start just by introducing Shelly.
Shelly, could you introduceyourself and tell us about your
(01:31):
role in St Louis chapter of theMTMA and what you've been doing
and how long you've been a partof that team?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Sure Thank you, ryan, for inviting us.
This is a great opportunitywe're excited about.
Thank you, ryan, for invitingus.
This is a great opportunitywe're excited about.
As he said, my name is ShellyMcIntosh and I am the chapter
executive for the St Louischapter and I've just been in
this role for about a year, butI really enjoy it and I'm
learning a lot, and this year wehave a very busy year.
(02:00):
We have an event just aboutevery month and we're just
really looking forward togetting into that.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That's great, shelly.
Thank you so much for that.
Next, I would like to introduceeveryone to Jeff.
Jeff, I'm going to bring you onup.
Tell us about yourself, jeff.
How long have you been a partof MTMA, and tell us a little
bit about your company.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Sure, I'm Jeff Hellebush with Hellebush Tool
and Die and we build injectionmolds and die cast dyes.
We're about 50 miles west of StLouis.
We've been a member of NTMA forover 40 years.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Wow, that's amazing.
I love that, and your currentrole is president.
Is that correct?
That's correct, yes, and so ina little while we're going to
talk a little bit about why youchose to invest at that level,
but love your investment in itand love hearing the long
history that you've had with theNTMA, so thanks for being here
today, jeff.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Next, we're going to go to the bottom row here and
we're going to talk withCatherine, who's the director of
the Kansas City chapter.
Catherine, introduce yourself.
Tell us how long you've beenwith KCNTMA.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Hi, good to see everybody, or I guess you get to
see me and we get to hopepeople watch.
But I have been with the NTMAfor just over a year and a half
now and I'm glad to really bepicking up some momentum and
having a lot of wonderful thingshappening and going on to
support our chapter.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
That's great.
You've been doing a great joband I've been able to be a part
of this journey for some of thattime that you've been here, and
I love it and appreciate youbeing here today.
And, last but not least, we'regoing to go on over to Fred down
in the bottom road.
Fred is the president of theKansas City chapter and Fred,
tell us about your business andtell us about how long you've
been a part of KCNTMA.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Yeah, ryan, thanks for pulling this together.
Fred Stepkovitz, president ofUltratech Aerospace.
Ultratech has been involved inthe NTMA for 40 years.
I have been involved in thelast two years and recently got
elected as the board presidentfor the Kansas City chapter, so
we have been fairly active.
(04:10):
My previous CFO was thetreasurer on the board for a
number of years, so we've alwaysplayed a very active role with
the Kansas City chapter forquite some time.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
All right, fred, appreciate that.
So glad to have you here today.
Um, for our guest today, and Isee that we have some folks
online.
I want you to know that intheory, if all the technology
works right, you can leave acomment or a question in the
chat on youtube and um orwhatever avenue.
You're listening to this andhopefully we'll be able to see
that and we might be able toanswer those questions.
(04:43):
So, uh, if some of you that arewatching right now wouldn't
mind just saying hi or sayingyou're glad to be here or
something, we can confirm thatthat's working.
And we know there's a littlebit of a lag between when we are
presenting and when it's gonnaget back to us.
But if someone wants to leave acomment, we will just confirm
that we have that connection.
But everyone, thank you so muchfor this conversation.
(05:12):
When some new conversationsstarted happening over the past
six to eight months about somecollaboration opportunities, it
got really exciting for me tosee what's happening in the NTMA
.
But what I'd like to do in ourconversation is start at the
national level, then go to thechapter levels what each chapter
is doing and then we can kindof dive into the collaboration
dynamics that we're looking at.
So first of all let's start atour discussion about the
(05:36):
national organization.
I see from my experience withNTMA that the national
organization is focused onnetwork, learn and advocacy, and
there I see Kathy and Shellysay Catherine and Shelly say
hello.
So there it is right, thereAppreciate you all being there,
(05:58):
good stuff.
So let's talk at that nationallevel and this might be a little
bit more in the wheelhouse ofShelley and Catherine, but
certainly I know that thepresidents of the organizations
are a part of some conferencecalls and stuff.
Let's talk about these threedynamics of the national level.
Let's start with the networkpiece.
The national level wants thelocal chapters to network, but
(06:21):
also the national network.
Can you guys tell us a littlebit about what networking looks
like in the NTMA?
And feel free to jump inwhoever feels like.
I would love to feel that.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I think I think at the national level for
networking, ntma offers twoconferences which would be
engaged and that is pretty muchopen to any NTMA member, and
then they also have a chapterleadership summit every year and
that's mostly for chapterleaders, board members and
chapter executives and thingslike that.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Very cool.
And then they also provide someongoing conversations.
I know some of you wereactually involved in a call just
before this call with thenational level, so can you guys
tell me a little bit about thoseother things that they do to
help support the local chapters?
Fred, I think you might havebeen on that call, is that
(07:16):
correct?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
yeah, I'll jump in.
Yeah, so the call we justwrapped up was at the national
level.
It was for the trustees of thechapters.
Basically it was really thetrustees of the chapters.
Basically it was really thehighlights of the rules and
regulations and responsibilitiesas a trustee how to run, help
help the executive director runthe meeting, call the meetings
to order, uh, log the minutes,voting rights, things like that.
(07:39):
So, um, but you know, we wealso recently just had an event
where the national director ofmembership was involved and in
Kansas City for that event.
So the national organizationdoes a lot for advocacy.
We've been communicatingheavily with tariffs and tariff
(08:00):
discussions and legislativerequirements.
So it's a pretty activenational level.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well, you brought that up and I would say one way
members can connect nationallyis through the NTMA Connect
platform and I know there are alot of ongoing discussions and
we get to see little snippets ofthose as they are sent out
every week, but definitely a wayyou can chime in for job
sharing or information seekingor, as Fred said, discussions
(08:27):
about taxes and tariffs and thattype of thing.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, so let's talk about that advocacy piece that
Fred mentioned and then we'llcome back to the learn piece.
But advocacy can mean differentthings to different people.
So what type of advocacy wouldyou say the national level is
directly involved in, becausethey've got people going to DC
having conversations, seats atthe table?
What can you guys share withthe members on why it's
(08:51):
important for them to be a partof this program to support those
efforts?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, there's a lot of work that's done at the
national level.
The lobbyist effort is huge atthe national level.
The lobbyist effort is huge.
It gives all the smaller shopsan advantage to see what's going
on and keep in tune with what'shappening with all the things
at that level and to give input.
And so there's webcast on thatthat we can all join as a member
(09:21):
, and so that's well.
The other thing is, at thenational level most members it
almost benefits the owners alittle more because they can
kind of compare their companiesto other companies around the
rest of the country and youdon't really get that
(09:41):
opportunity at a local level andso there's really not it's not
a competitive type situation.
You can talk with other toolshops.
I can talk with tool shops inPennsylvania or Arizona or
wherever and say, well, what doyou guys do about this or how do
you handle this?
So it's very helpful from anowner's perspective to just get
(10:04):
a gauge on how you compare it tothe rest of the nation.
So that's very helpful.
And also there's the help fromthe other sponsorships which are
totally different than thesponsorships and affinity
partners that are at the locallevel.
(10:24):
They're totally different atthe national level.
So it's just-.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
To just continue a little on to what you said, also
the benchmarking reports.
I know members report utilizingthose and the members that take
the time to fill those out,which they're really not too
long.
But that is again a greatcomparison tool to see how your
business aligns with otherswithin the region and then
nationally.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
So, jeff and Fred, as guys that are in leadership
level of your organization, howdo you access those reports?
Do they come to you in email oris a link that you have to go
log into?
Help our owners understandwhere they can get that data so
that they can be as educated aspossible yeah, I've seen it a
number of different places.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
I mean the ntma website, you know, has a portal
that you can log into and youcan get a lot of up-to-date data
.
But you know you also get a lotof email communications.
Last week, for example um wasit last week.
Last week was uh some tariffquestions that came from the
executive level that wanted toknow uh, about additional items
(11:28):
that companies were looking forto be placed on tariff lists to
protect their level of business.
So I've seen both.
I've seen the email comms andthen always try to stay logged
into the NTMA portal to getup-to-date data.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Jeff, any other insights on that?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, no, the data is good.
I mean it comes back with theamount of people that
participated, the size of theirbusiness, so you can kind of
look at your comparison to seeif you're in the same size as
the other people who entered theinformation.
And so it's very helpful andthere's a.
I think there's about three orfour different areas that you
(12:09):
can, you know, get those reportsfrom and be be active and
involved.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, shelley, do you have any insights on that?
Obviously you're not on theownership side, but as the
executive director, you probablyvalue some of those reports and
that type of thing too.
Do you have any insights toshare on the importance of?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
that data.
I think they cover it allreally well.
We get those requests fromnational and just send them on
to our members.
Usually that's about all of mypart of that.
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
You know, I know something we discovered last
week or two weeks ago, Ryan,when we were meeting with Carrie
, our chapter relations manager,is that not necessarily all of
those that attend events aregetting those emails.
So, for example, the one voicecalls which are the monthly
advocacy updates, not everyoneon our board was in tune with
(13:00):
those because it was just goingto the owner or maybe a company
president.
So we learned that anybody whowould like to be a part of those
calls or get that information,they just need to get that email
to their chapter exec.
We can send that on and makesure that they are linked in
where they would like to be andgetting the updates they would
like.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
That's great.
So I think that's an importantpiece, that there's various
things for the different levelsof leadership within your
organization, from the top levelof ownership to your mid-level
leaderships, and we're going to,in just a moment, get to some
of those other resources on thelearn side.
That's for every level as well.
But one thing that I'm thinkingabout on this front other
(13:40):
industries have licensurerequirements and that type of
thing, and for you to be a partof a program like real estate,
you have to get a license andyou have to be a part of a
brokerage, and then you're partof the National Association of
Realtors and they're an advocacyprogram.
This industry is a little bitdifferent because you don't have
to have a licensor and youdon't have a representation,
(14:02):
unless you join by choice anassociation like NTMA and you
raise your voice and you raiseyour impact by being a part of
the NTMA national organizationand then you also have the
benefit of building a part ofthe NTMA national organization
and then you also have thebenefit of building a network of
relationships in the localassociation, and so I just think
it's really important forpeople to understand that being
(14:23):
a part of NTMA helps you have avoice in DC and in your state
areas for some of theconversations that you want to
have with our political leaders.
Anyone else want to add anythingto that comment?
All right, let's keep goinghere.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthe learn side.
What resources are availablefrom the national level on the
(14:46):
learn side of things?
Anyone have any insights onthat?
Excuse me, catherine, do youknow much about the LEARN
programs?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah, I can talk to you about the NTMAU online
education platform.
So it is a portal and eachchapter can kind of conduct
business as they see fit withthat.
As a local chapter in KansasCity we pay for that portal and
then any member who would liketo enroll an employee in one of
the courses, they just reach outto me after viewing those
(15:16):
online and you could justliterally NTMAU courses, look it
up and they come in a varietyof series and then each series
has three or four modules and Ibelieve there are five or six of
those total.
But it's a great way you knowif you're a little bit slow, if
somebody's new, if you'reonboarding, you're doing, you
know, training and trying toreally just fill a day for
(15:39):
somebody who's new.
It's a great way to get themgoing and get them learning, get
them exposed.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
And Catherine is this is this helping people to
understand technical skills,leadership skills, what are?
What's the type of content thatyou're going to see in that?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
I would definitely say more technical skills, and
all of the courses are approvedby the Department of Labor.
Now there are some generalmathematics type skills that are
included, which would be likeyour measurements, your
conversions, your decimals, andthen it gets advanced math as
well, but definitely moretechnical blueprint reading,
things related to die, makingthings that you would need to
(16:14):
complete daily tasks in a shop.
Excellent and we have usedquite a few of those courses as
a part of our precisionmachinists approved
apprenticeship program throughthe Department of Labor.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Love it, Shelly.
How have you seen that MTMAU beused by your members?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Our members use it quite often also in st louis.
Our chapter covers the cost, soit's free to our members to
take those courses.
There's also an aptitude testwhere you can kind of see where
your skills are lacking for acertain employee, so that's been
helpful too.
And then some people just plugthem into which class they need
(16:53):
and other companies will sendthem through the apprenticeship
program and have them take eachseries one at a time and cover
the whole thing um.
One other thing that we offerbesides ntmau would be emerging
leaders, and it's like aconference that you can send um
your employees to and it kind offocuses on taking, like that,
(17:16):
the mechanic or shop guy andturning them into a supervisor
or more in a management rolehelps them understand those
things.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And some of them-.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Go ahead sorry about that, jeff and then we'll keep
going.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
To follow up with the cohorts.
There's also an executivecohort and a sales cohort to
help those type people in yourorganizations, and so those are
other things on the nationallevel for training and learning.
And then, if you do go to theconferences, there is learning
at the conferences withroundtable discussions.
(17:56):
For example, there was an AIseminar at the last one, and so
you know there'll be four tofive different topics.
Sometimes they're set up forthe whole group of the people
and other times you'll break outinto smaller groups and do a
roundtable session.
You'll break out into smallergroups and do a roundtable
session and those are veryhelpful because then other
(18:17):
people in different areas getinvolved and you hear from.
You know what's happening upeast, what their issues are,
what's happening out west, whattheir issues are.
You know what us Midwest guysare struggling with.
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well and Jeff, what that helps with so much is it
helps us break down some of oursilo experience.
We only know what we know, butwhen you start talking to other
shops you start realizing, oh,there's a different way to look
at that, or there might be someopportunities there.
So I love that you're sharingabout those cohort opportunities
.
Catherine, was there somethingelse you were going to add to
the conversation?
Oops, catherine, are you?
(19:00):
I think she froze up.
I think maybe she did All right, we will keep on going here.
So let's move on, let's go.
We've talked national, let'scome on down to the local level.
And, if I could, let's startwith you, shelly.
What does the local chapter doto help fulfill the NTMA's
objective?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Well, I wrote some notes on that one.
So the NTMA's mission statesthat we're here to help our
members achieve profitablegrowth and business success.
And I think we do that well bynetworking and workforce
development.
And of course we try to coverthe other areas as well.
(19:39):
But in st louis we really focuson networking and workshop
around workforce development.
Um, but this year for ourworkforce development we're kind
of expanding our scholarshipcommittee to also include some
grants for junior, high and highschool level.
We're really trying to get intothe kids, get to the kids at a
(19:59):
younger level.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Love it and Fred, I'm going to come to you.
Fred, what can you share aboutthe how the national objective
is being carried out at thelocal level?
Speaker 5 (20:12):
Yeah, so Kansas City, we've taken a the last two
years.
Since Catherine's involvement.
We've taken a real activeapproach in workforce
development.
The Department of Laborapproved apprenticeship program.
We've had numerous educatorsand their organizations attend
(20:33):
our meetings and shop tours.
We've really worked to breakdown the walls of competition
and build collaboration amongstshops as well to help foster
growth and development and jobsharing and those types of
opportunities within the KansasCity network.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, great man, I love that.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I'd like to add on the local networking level.
It's a lot more involved.
You get a lot more opportunityto network.
So, you know, if you'renetworking once a month instead
of like twice a year at thenational level, so you're making
better relationships.
Um, you're having fun and someof these stuff maybe a golf
(21:19):
outing or a trap shooting orsomething, and uh, on some
fundraisers or you know, youknow, going to different events.
The shop tours are always verypopular and uh, and they're
always well attended.
So so I just think there's alot more time spent at the local
level.
So you're getting a little morebang for your buck and it's a
(21:41):
little easier to get more peoplefrom your company there at
those events.
And, you know, try to spreadthe information to your
organization quicker, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, I love that and I know at the Kansas City
chapter and I imagine at the StLouis chapter this will happen
too that from an advocacyperspective, sometimes you get
the ear of some of your senatorsor representatives or even the
governor.
I know last week at theMissouri Association of
Manufacturers event, catherinehad connected with the governor
(22:16):
and had invited him to a futureevent that we're having and
stuff like that.
So there's a level of advocacythat happens even at the local
level.
Shelly, is that happening inthe St Louis area as well, as
you're getting some attention ofsome of those leaders in the
states?
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Occasionally.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yeah, there's a little bit, I mean, but we kind
of have to do it ourselves, youknow.
I mean we like, if we want togive, you know, get information
from the Missouri Chamber ofCommerce or give them
information, I mean we kind of,you know, got to go to them and,
you know, get the right contactand that sort of thing.
But yeah, there is some of that, but I don't know that it's
(22:56):
quite as much as at the nationallevel.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Sure, which makes sense.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I can definitely appreciate that, but for one
example, like the lastProposition A that passed in
Missouri, like so our chapter,we had a seminar with a local
law firm on.
You know what all the memberscould do and how they could
prepare for those changes.
You know in the workenvironment, so it's more, a
(23:24):
little bit more reactionary.
You're trying to help theindustries on what is happening
in those areas and you know whatthey need to guide them through
those specifics.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Love it.
That's very helpful.
Fred and Jeff, let's kind ofturn our attention to you guys a
little bit.
I'd love to hear what promptedyou to get involved in NTMA and
then what prompted you to go tothat next level of become a part
of the leadership team.
So, fred, let's start with you.
What got you involved and thenwhy did you decide to take it to
that next level?
Speaker 5 (23:55):
So when I took over Ultratech three years ago, I
felt that our local, really ourlocal brand, our local network
was non-existent.
You know, people knew of us butdidn't really know anything
about us.
And that's really been over thelast three years, both on a
(24:15):
national level, outside of NTMA,with our major tier one
customers, as well as with ourpeers within the Kansas City
market.
My goal has been to really getour brand out there, get people
to know who we are, what ourcapabilities are, our
willingness to work with othershops.
I don't view anybody in theNTMA as a competitor, even
(24:38):
though there are a handful ofshops that are, I would say
going after the same statementof work.
But I don't really consider anyof them competitors.
We all have a very nichecapabilities and what got me
involved?
You know, really I was just aboard member last year, but I
(25:03):
guess you could say I don't sitquietly in the shadows and I
think that made me as the boardpresident this year.
I should have gotten my peersto elect me as the board
president this year.
That's great, and what would yousay is your vision for where
(25:24):
the Kansas City chapter is goingthis year?
Yeah, this year one of my biggoals, and along with
Catherine's, is really two biginitiatives, in my opinion.
The first is to establish aKansas City Manufacturers
Network, or Manufacturers Expoif you will.
I want shops to have theopportunity to brag about who
(25:48):
they are, what they are, whatthey can do, and to bring large
manufacturing OEMs that sub outwork within our area through and
exhibit the best that KansasCity has to offer.
And so we're really workinghard to pull together a show
similar to the MAM show, but ona local level.
(26:10):
And then also part of that isto branch out across the state
and get a better workingrelationship with, or really
establish a relationship with,the St Louis chapter.
And then also as part of theKansas City chapter, we have
kind of a subset to ourorganization that's called she
(26:30):
Leads Women DrivingManufacturing, women Driving
Manufacturing, women DrivingManufacturing and Catherine was
kind of the brainchild ofCatherine's.
To start this subsector of theNTMA focused on women in
manufacturing and to see thatgrow as a chapter and continue
to develop and build that subsetis really a key initiative as
(26:57):
well.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Love it, that's great .
Love it, fred.
Jeff.
Let's turn to you.
Tell us a little bit about, Imean, your company has been a
part of it for 40 years, but whydid you choose to become an
active participant and then stepinto a leadership role with St
Louis NTMA?
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Sure, well, my father got into the NTMA years ago
because he was a great toolmakerbut he had two years of trade
school and being a machinist and, frankly, didn't know a lot
about running a business, andyou know.
So back in the late 70s and 80sthis was a great tool and a
(27:37):
great thing to learn about.
All those things on how to howto run a business without having
to go to a four-year college,so that.
So that helped him.
Throughout the years I wasinvolved, before children,
children or before my childrengot to be about, you know, eight
to ten years old, and went tonational conventions and went to
(28:00):
the local meetings and that.
And then, once it got to, youknow, worried about kids and
running them all over.
I kind of strayed away a littlebit.
And then, once the kids gotback out of the house, I'm like,
well, it's time for me to giveback a little bit, back out of
the house.
I'm like, well, it's time forme to give back a little bit.
And really, workforcedevelopment is a big reason why
(28:24):
and the networking and justmaking sure that our industry as
a whole in the St Louis area isthriving and it just helps
everybody else.
You know.
All shops have theirspecialties and their niche and
what they're good at and if youcan help another guy get the
right work to the right person,it just helps the whole industry
.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Love it.
And, jeff, is there anythingthat you guys would say is a
focus of 2025 for you guys?
Or are you just coasting in thetrajectory you've been going,
or are you just coasting in thetrajectory you've been going.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Yeah, I would say our main focus has been trying to
gain new membership.
Our membership is pretty strongbut we're still trying to grow
it.
I think coming out of COVID,you know we did pretty good as a
membership, trying to geteverybody back engaged and you
know, coming to meetings andthat sort of thing, and we've
(29:15):
been very we change it up a lot.
We don't just have thetraditional, you know, go to the
restaurant, have a seveno'clock meeting, listen to a guy
speak for 40 minutes and thengo home.
You know we try to.
We try to do luncheons, maybe abreakfast, maybe a fun, you
know, go to a bar and have abeer or whatever.
(29:37):
So Shelly's done a great job atreally rebranding and
remarketing and putting a freshapproach.
But we've all at the chaptertried to put a fresher approach
to try to get more involvement.
So I would say our key focus isjust trying to increase
membership and continue ourefforts in the workforce
(30:00):
development and supportingscholarships.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
That's great.
I really appreciate that.
I'm going to kind of go offscript a little bit here because
, just as Jeff was talking abouthis story and knowing a little
bit of Fred's story, one thingthat occurs to me is that a lot
of the conversation out there inthe industry right now is that
there's about to be highturnover, not only in our
(30:25):
machinists but in our ownership,and I'm going to kind of turn
on the promotion piece here forNTMA to say that if you are an
owner that is approaching thisseason of life where you're
thinking about getting out ofthe industry, establishing
yourself in an association likeNTMA can be of great value,
(30:47):
because a lot of the people thatare going to be buying into
this industry may not havetooling and machining background
or may not have manufacturingbackground, and I think it's
very important that youestablish a network.
And, fred, I'm going to comeback to you if I may, because
you part of the reason you gotinvolved in MTMA is you didn't
(31:07):
have a specific network in thisfield.
Can you tell me why thispartnership with MTMA has been
important for you developingsuccess in your company?
Speaker 5 (31:17):
Yeah, that's a great.
I was going to jump in there ifyou didn't ping me.
But you know, after I left themilitary I got into the
manufacturing industry and Ispent 15 years in manufacturing,
but not in machining or not inthis type of manufacturing.
And so when I found myselftaking over Ultratech three
years ago, I had no network.
(31:38):
Not only did I have nomachining experience, I wasn't a
machinist.
I'd never been in a machineshop.
I also was a big internationaltraveler and international
business, so I had really nolocal network in Kansas City.
So NTMA has been instrumental inmeeting so many of my peers
(32:02):
within an industry I had neverbeen in and really establishing
friendships and learning justlearning from folks whose
parents had started the companyand then the kids were running,
and just decades and decades offamily-run businesses that are
in this industry and seeing someof the, some of their shops and
(32:24):
and really walking into anindustry that welcomed me with
open arms and was, you know,invited to so many shops to take
tours and talk.
I mean, there's a shop out nearwhere I live, cnr.
Time's gotten away from me butI was going out there like once
a quarter and having coffee inthe morning with the owner and
(32:45):
his daughter and just sittingaround and shooting the breeze
and having a coffee and talkingabout business and opportunities
like that that the NTMApresented me have just propelled
my career into an entirelydifferent space that I'd never
imagined.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, that is great, fred.
I really appreciate you sharingthat.
And again, I would just appealif you are thinking about being
a part of the NTMA, if yourcompany is going to be on the
market in the next five to 10years because you're looking at
getting out or whatever the casemay be, this is actually a good
investment to prepare thenetwork of relationships for
your organization to make you agreater value, your company, a
(33:22):
greater value to a potentialbuyer, because there's an
established network for whoevercomes into it.
So just wanted to share thatpart of it.
Let's shift gears here a littlebit.
I want to get back to ourdirectors of the local
association and I want to talkabout something that I didn't
understand until recently, aboutthe financial structure of the
(33:42):
organization.
When I pay to become a memberof MTMA, I'm actually buying
into the national associationand the local chapter, but a
good portion of my resourcesactually go to the National
Association, and so sometimespeople might be like man,
where's that money going to thatI'm paying?
(34:04):
Well, it's not going intoShelly and Catherine's pocket.
It's actually going into someof the other expenses.
But that's part of the reasonthat there's a number of events
that are fundraiser events orwhen you go to a luncheon,
you're paying for that luncheonbecause that your advocacy,
you're essentially yourmembership is paying for the
(34:25):
advocacy and it's paying for thestaffing just to keep the ball
moving.
Catherine Shelley, I'd love foryou two to chime a little bit
about helping people understandwhere their money's going to.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
I think the first thing to understand is that
there are actually two types ofmembers.
So in our chapter we call thatregular members and associate
members.
So our regular members would beour metal manufacturers, our
tool and die makers, our machineshops, our metal fabricators.
Those are the individuals thatjoin at the national level and
the bulk of their dues do go tosupport the national efforts,
(34:59):
especially advocacy, as youshared, and then the several
national conferences that wereaddressed earlier.
Then associate members orindustry partners join directly
with us here locally.
So that is one way that we cangenerate revenue, and I know
every chapter has a differentapproach to how they balance out
the number of regular membersand associate members, but I
(35:19):
think that would be the firstthing I would note.
Shelly, do you want to take itfrom there?
Speaker 2 (35:24):
No, I think that's great.
We have actually three levelsof membership.
So we have our shop members andwe have associate members,
which are industry partners.
And then, like Catherine said,the shop shop members their
funds go mostly to national.
And then the associate membersindustry partners that funding
(35:44):
stays at the chapter level.
And then we also haveeducational members um, some of
our local colleges um do paydues to to be members as well.
But, yeah, we have two eventsthat are actually fundraisers,
that being our golf outing andour clay shooting competition.
Those two fun, those twofundraisers, form our workforce
(36:07):
development funds and the restof our events, if they're
charged, it's a very minimal feeand it's just to cover the cost
of that event, not a moneymaker.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Yes, we are all not-for-profit associations,
trade associations, and we arejust trying to break even.
So I think that sometimesthat's hard for people to
understand, like you pay to be apart of something and then you
pay to do events and then we mayask for a sponsorship.
We are not trying to ask, ask,ask.
We are not trying to be thatperson that is a pest that you
want to flick away.
We are just trying to do what'sbest for our members, provide
(36:40):
top quality events, bring ingreat speakers, secure wonderful
venues and experiences and notlose money in the process of
doing that.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, and I love that .
And, catherine, I know you andI have just recently talked
about this.
But for those who are vendors,who are associate members or
considering that, I know in theKansas City chapter there's a
ratio that you want to keep thatinto what advice do you have
for how that vendor shows up atevents?
Because we've all seen thatperson that just comes and tries
(37:11):
to sell everyone and getbusiness.
But we really have seeneffectiveness coming from the
relationship side.
Can you, can you encourageprospective vendors to wrap
their brain around how to goabout building these
relationships?
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Oh, absolutely.
You know, obviously, if you area vendor, you are there to sell
and you are there to benefityour personal career and to help
your business meet its goals.
That's, that's understood.
Everybody gets that.
But what they don't want is tobe constantly hounded when they
are at an event trying toparticipate, to enjoy a speaker
or to engage, to networkgenuinely.
(37:45):
So we really do have a prettystrict no solicit policy.
If it comes up organically inconversation, if a regular
member requests a business cardor another associate, however,
that's going to work out, that'sawesome.
Set your meet.
But we really discourage thedistribution of any type of
material or business cards atevents.
(38:05):
We encourage genuinerelationship building and you
know, I think one example thatkind of stands out to me is we
were at a shuffleboard event andone of our members came in
shorts and he was apologizing.
Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.
You know our air conditionerwent out and we don't know what
to do.
We can't find the right fit tocome and service this.
I'm like well, we happen tohave an associate here from MCOR
(38:26):
.
Why don't I introduce you?
You know, it just so naturallycame to be and they were there.
They both showed up and itworked for them, so they work
for them.
So that's the type of thingwe're looking for.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Very good, Shelly.
Do you have any encouragementfor your associate members or
vendors that might be partneringwith your organization?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Yeah, we have great associate members and we've not
had a lot of problems withsoliciting.
You know, kind of likeCatherine said, they're just
very respectful of the membersand it it's organic
conversations and andfriendships that build.
I think she's she was right onwith that we, we do, uh, limit
our associate membership to 50percent of our shop membership.
(39:07):
So we, we do limit it to thatand we try to spread it out to
where we only have one bank andone marketing company, and so
there are times we have morethan one, but it's usually very
minimal.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah, we do the same thing, and we allow only two
individuals from the same sectorif they are non-manufacturing
related.
So never at an event would wehave more than two banks, more
than two insurance companies.
We're pretty strict about thatalso.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Very good, hey, great stuff.
Let's move to that.
We've talked about national,we've talked about local.
Let's move to this excitingcollaboration effort.
Fred, I know you said this isone of your initiatives in
building relationships here.
I know everybody's been a partof this conversation.
But, fred, let's start with youtalking about what's the goal
here, and then I'm going to goover to Catherine and say what
(39:58):
is the event looking like, andthen, shelly and Jeff, I'm going
to have you guys talk about whySt Louis would come over for
this.
So let's start with Fred.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
Yeah so it's really simple Stop sending business
outside of our region.
The capabilities within ourregion far exceed what people
know.
People drive by my shop everyday and they have absolutely no
clue what we do here.
We have major OEMs withinKansas City that outsource work
(40:33):
on a regular basis and ship itto the coasts or to Chicago or
out of our, out of our region.
And so st Louis, kansas City,where we're all you know, we're
have large manufacturers.
We have phenomenal, talented,skilled machine shops that have
(40:54):
capacity.
Everybody wants to talk abouton-shoring.
I want to take it a stepfurther and let's in-community
it and keep it within ourcommunity.
And to the point ofcollaboration, where I may be
strong and others are weak, orvice versa, let's pull together
(41:15):
and learn about each other'scapabilities.
So I have shops within theKansas City market that want to
go after government contractwork, but the barrier of entry
is so high with cybersecuritycompliance and all of the other
red tape associated withgovernment contract work where
we're 95% defense related.
(41:35):
So so let's help you right.
If there's a project you wantto go after, let's bid it and
we'll sub it and we can worktogether and vice versa.
There are areas of expertise wedo not have.
I don't have lasers, I don'thave water jets, I don't have
press brakes, I don't have Swissmachines.
There are jobs that I want tobid that involve those types of
(41:59):
manufacturing processes.
So instead of having to turnthose down or only bid a portion
of it, let's partner withsomebody else so that I can get
that entire package.
And so St Louis is you know,it's three and a half, four
hours away.
Why would we not want topartner with organizations that
(42:22):
are just across the state linethat have the same approach that
we're taking?
And let's work together tobuild Kansas and Missouri
manufacturing and continue togrow it and share and work with
each other and learn shops.
I mean, there's a lot of timeswhere I've had to call and ask
(42:42):
you know if somebody has acertain capability.
So we will double ourcapabilities by adding a
collaboration with another MTMAchapter.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
And let's go back to relationship building and trust
building.
That's what this event is about, and you can be honest about
what your capabilities are.
When you trust another company,you can job share.
When you trust another companythat they are not going to try
to steal your customer, yourclient, and that you really can
partner and work together, is anopportunity to build those
(43:14):
relationships.
We do, obviously, have quite afew learning opportunities.
We have a great keynote speakercoming to address the economy,
specifically related to metalmanufacturing, talking about
tariffs, and then we have somegreat breakout sessions, some
shop tours, but we can have funtogether as well and I think
that's the best way to kick offa new relationship and we're
(43:36):
really excited to welcome our StLouis neighbors.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
And I'm going to say this.
I missed this comment earlier,but it seems appropriate here.
Jonathan says I always tellpeople to attend and be of
service, serve manufacturers andbusinesses naturally, and
business naturally happens.
I think that's going to be trueof this event as well that you
just learn about each other.
If you just invest inconversations with each other,
if you just learn what peoplehave to offer, you may discover
(44:03):
that there's businessopportunities around you.
You had no idea it could openup.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
And shout out to Dr Min they are going to be our
social sponsor, so we arelooking forward to a great night
on behalf of them and theirwillingness to serve our
industry.
So thank you, jonathan.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
All right, love that.
So, catherine, there's also theBots KC event on the backside
of this.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the logistics of what
people can expect at the event?
You've talked about thespeakers and that type of thing,
but what else is happening?
Speaker 4 (44:34):
Yeah, I feel like, I'll be honest, every part of
this event was playing with apurpose.
We wanted to connect with StLouis, we wanted to grow BotskC,
we want to expose the communityat large to manufacturing and
we want to expose ourmanufacturers to the students
who are interested inengineering, robotics and
metalworking careers.
So what was the best way to doit?
(44:55):
To bring everybody here aroundthe BOTS QC event.
So that's kind of where thisdate came from.
We'll have all of the St Louismembers here the day before the
BOTS competition kicks off andthen Friday the 25th, when
things get going, we're actuallywrapping up, and we're wrapping
up at Johnson County CommunityCollege right as the initial
rounds of BOTS QC competitionget going Community College
(45:17):
right as the initial rounds ofBotts KC competition get going.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
That's awesome, and so let me go to Shelly and Jeff.
You guys are coming from acrossthe state.
Why would you encourage yourmembers to consider being a part
of this collaborative event?
Speaker 3 (45:31):
You want me to start, Shelly?
Speaker 2 (45:33):
I don't care, I'll start.
I just want to echo what Fredand Catherine said.
We are so excited about thisevent and, like they said, that,
the networking that will happenat this event you know, like
Fred said, multiplying that intotwo chapters and being able to
(46:00):
reach those neighboring statesand keep our business local,
like that I think is going to begreat.
But Catherine has done aphenomenal job of putting
together all of the events andspeakers for the joint business
summit and we're just reallyexcited to see it come to life.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
And there are quite a few bots teams coming out of
your area.
So that's cool, you'll get tosee them as well.
So they're not just Kansas Cityteams.
These teams are traveling infor the event.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
I think.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
I need to tap my fruit fly, so I'm sorry, I got
all kinds.
I got the hands going on today,ryan.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
You're fired up.
You.
I got all kinds, I got thehands going on today.
Ryan, you're fired up.
You're ready to go?
All right, jeff, what would youwant to say as someone who has
your own business to run?
You've got a busy schedule Plusyou're on the board.
What do you want to say to thebusy shop leader who is
wrestling with whether or notthey should come?
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Well, I'd say this one, it's a short drive, ok, and
you can stay one night, twonights, you can just stay one
night, leave whatever.
I mean it's a easy, it's aneasy workaround.
So I mean it's a.
It's a pretty relativelyinexpensive thing for, you know,
for high value, for a lot ofnetworking and a lot of good
(47:12):
reconnections.
Just to give you a littlehistory, this, this event used
to be at the Lake of the Ozarksyears ago and it was very
popular and people would go outon boat rides and have a good
time and they were great funevents and that kind of just
(47:32):
died off.
Things ebb and flow.
But we thought and Kansas Citywith the spots was a great
opportunity to do it in theKansas City side this year, and
I think it's a great ideabecause it gives just another
reason for the St Louis membersto actually see our teams there,
(47:54):
you know, because we supportthose teams here as our St Louis
chapter does, and so it'd benice to get to see their efforts
.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
And hopefully this event just lays the foundation
for our October ManufacturingExpo.
We absolutely want the St Louisshops to show up and show out
there.
We'll have again MissouriAssociation of Manufacturers.
I'm sure some of those in theSt Louis area are members of
that association as well.
You know this is really layingthe foundation for us to come
together.
We talk about doing a lot ofthings and how we want to have a
(48:25):
bigger impact, and you know howwe.
We want to do more business, wewant to attract employees and,
bam, this year we are doing it.
So we are, we're talking thetalk and walking the walk with
these events.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
I love it.
Guys, this has been a lot offun for me.
We are going to wrap things uphere shortly and I'll just give
each of you kind of a teaserthat I'm just going to say hey,
what do you want to say to ourlisteners who are either
watching this live or maybelistening to it after the fact?
What would you want to say tothem about being a part of NTMA
and showing up at NTMA?
(48:56):
I'll let each of you just givea sentence or two about that
before we wrap up, but I want tothank everyone for being a part
of this panel and I want tothank our viewers for checking
this out or listening to it ifyou're listening to it on your
favorite podcast service andstuff.
But we are doing this becausewe want to help build the
network, and I'm just honored tobe a part of this.
(49:17):
I started this podcast earlierthis year 2025, in relationship
with NTMA, and it's really tohelp encourage and equip people
in production, and I couldn'thelp but think that telling
people more about the NTMAwouldn't be a part of that
solution.
So, with that being said, let'sgo ahead and run the circle
(49:37):
here I'm actually going to startwith.
Let's start with the KansasCity folks and then we'll wrap
it up with the St Louis folks.
Fred, do you mind kicking itoff?
What do you want to tell peopleabout why they should be an
active part of this organization?
Oops and Fred, I think you'remuted.
Let me get you unmuted there,Yep there we go, Sorry.
Speaker 5 (49:59):
You know there's a lot of associations, a lot of
groups, a lot of organizations.
You can join the NTMA isrelatively low, cost your day,
that you should be in anindustry association, that one
on a national level fights foryour best interest in
manufacturing, small businessmanufacturing on Capitol Hill,
(50:23):
and two on a local level whereyou need to come and bring the
right mindset.
You only get out of it what youput in it and we have members
that have been belonged for avery long time and don't come to
events and it's networking andsocializing are not for
everybody.
And as leadership has changedover the years, so has the um,
(50:47):
the, the mission and the tacticsand the, the camaraderie.
You know we hear on occasion.
I belonged years ago and theystole our employees or people.
You, you know it's.
If you don't like it, then takean active part in trying to
change it.
But you know, I feel that overthe last few years our chapter
has taken such a differentapproach at networking within
(51:12):
our industry, respecting eachother, building relationships
and, like I said, somebodycoming into this newer in the
industry you don't gain theexperience, the exposure and the
knowledge that people arewilling to share without being a
member of an association likethis.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah, Fred, I appreciate that.
Catherine, what thoughts do youhave for people to encourage
them to be a part of NTMA?
Speaker 4 (51:37):
I know.
Earlier I spoke about NTMAConnect and I think Connect is
the greatest service that aschapter executive I can offer.
I don't necessarily have thetechnical knowledge or the very
skilled expertise thatmachinists or shop owners have,
but I feel like pretty sound inmy ability to connect you with
just about anybody, be it sales,be it a need that you have in
(52:00):
your shop.
You know, I think that I canfind you an answer through our
network and I think our networkwants to support one another and
they want to see other shopssucceed.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Love it.
Thank you for that, catherine.
Jeff, let's go over to you.
What would you want to say toprospective members or members
that are part of it but maybearen't active?
Speaker 3 (52:17):
yet All right, I've got two simple things.
At any NTMA event, you'llalways pull out and come back
with one gold nugget.
Ok, at least there's alwaysgoing to be something.
You got to look for that nuggetand you got to remember it and
you got to use it.
And other than that, if you'renot careful like my family they
(52:37):
make good friends for lifeYou'll end up having a lot of
friendships and maybe have alittle fun along the way, love
that, love that.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
Thank you, jeff and Shelly.
What would you like to say toour listeners?
Speaker 2 (52:51):
Really all I wanted to say is just get involved.
Once you get involved with NTMA, all of those things grow the
friendship, the networking.
It helps grow your business inso many ways as well.
But if you don't get involvedit's not as personal of a
benefit there.
So just involvement, I think,is great, is key.
Speaker 4 (53:14):
I think Shelly's saying y'all better get signed
up for the Joint ChapterBusiness Summit.
Shelly's fancy.
She does it through her website.
You can just send me an email.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
That looks good, she'll push them.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
All right Panel, thank you so much for being here
today.
You guys have done a great job.
I'm honored to be part of theMTMA community and I'm just
thankful for the leadership thatwe have, both here in Kansas
City and the leadership there inSt Louis.
Let's continue to build theserelationships, not only for this
year but for years and decadesto come, because good things are
(53:46):
happening in the Midwest andmanufacturing, and it's an
exciting time to be a part ofthis space.
So, with that being said, I'mgoing to ask the panel just to
stay on.
After I end the stream, I'lljust share a couple more things
with you all, but to ouraudience, thank you so much for
being here and listening.
We will look forward tocontinuing to connect with you,
and hopefully in person inKansas City in April.
(54:07):
Take care.
Speaker 3 (54:10):
Thanks Ryan, all right guys.
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