ALM Continues Looking Ahead for the Textile Care Industry

The Association for Linen Management (ALM) announced the next generation of Board leadership to continue the association’s efforts of providing essential education and resources for the industry. Long before the current pandemic demanded social distancing, ALM’s Board of Directors began working on providing virtual interactive learning opportunities, as well as immediate, online benchmarking data through the industry’s only source for laundry processing stats, LaundryMarks™.

Due to the postponement of the 2020 IMPACT Conference, the 2020 annual member business meeting was held virtually for the first time in ALM history. Prior to the virtual meeting, ALM members voted for the next president-elect, secretary and treasurer to the ALM Board of Directors, as well as amendments to the association’s bylaws.

James Mangini, RLLD, is the new president-elect. Mangini has 15 plus years of experience in the industry as the director of linen services for Maine’s largest medical center, Maine Medical Center Linen Services.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve as the president-elect of ALM,” said Mangini. “Our educational platform is second-to-none and has had a tremendous impact on my professional growth. I look forward to working with our great membership as we continue to promote the reusable textile industry.”

Nicole Grubich, RLLD, CLLM, will be the new secretary. Grubich has been an ALM member for 18 years and is a leader in the industry, as well as within her region of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the executive director of West Michigan Shared Hospital Laundry.

“As a member of ALM for almost twenty years, I am elated to serve the association as Board Secretary,” said Grubich. “I look forward to continuing the amazing work ALM has done over the years. I’m so grateful for this opportunity; thank you!”

Jason Hartsell was reelected as ALM Board treasurer and will continue his work in guiding the association’s financial planning. Hartsell is the director of operations for United Hospital Services in Indianapolis and a veteran who was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Combat Action Badge for his deployment to Afghanistan.

“I’m honored to be elected to serve as ALM’s Treasurer for an additional term and continuing to be a part of such an outstanding organization,” said Hartsell. “ALM continues to be a leader in providing information and training to laundry and linen operations across multiple markets. It’s been a privilege to be a part of so many new and exciting programs released recently, including benchmarking, new certificate and training programs, and an entire eLearning suite. All the while, ALM continues to serve as a resource the textile industry relies upon for information.”

Besides the elections, ALM members voted to remove the Practice Guidance Council from standing committees, due to the move from an ALM committee to the separate organization, the Textile Research Council. They also voted to add the Leadership & Advisory Council, which will create a diverse body of industry leaders attuned to changes in the industry across all service segments, and provide an incubator for the development of volunteer ALM leaders.

Cindy Molko, RLLD, CLLM, and Shane Woodson, CLLM, are exiting from the Board as past-president and secretary, respectively. ALM is pleased to announce that they will both be remaining within the ALM family through their work as subject matter experts for various ALM projects and programs.

“Cindy has been a tremendous value to ALM and to the industry at large. She brings a lot of talent to us and we’re so glad to keep her on in other capacities, including on the Textile Research Council. Much thanks to her,” said ALM Board President Judy Reino. “Shane has performed an amazing job keeping our records as we have gone through some changes, all for the better, and he has helped usher us through those changes and maintained needed documentation. We will miss them both from the Board, but are happy they will still be working with us regularly.”

Executive Director Linda Fairbanks also gave updates during the virtual meeting about the many programs and educational opportunities offered by ALM. As mentioned earlier, the 2020 IMPACT Conference has been rescheduled for November 2-5, and will still be held at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Additionally, both Laundry & Linen College tracks, Textile Care Services and Laundry Processing and Operations, will be held concurrently September 21-25, 2020, in Richmond, Kentucky.

Fairbanks made two important announcements that will impact all professionals in the industry. The first, that beginning in June 2020, the number of required questions for LaundryMarks data will decrease, thereby increasing how many participating laundries are able to pull full reports.

“We are, like most programs, evolving. When you first start on anything, you want everything, but after learning the extent of your constraints, you realize you have to scale it back.” said Fairbanks. “We are in the process of decreasing the data demanded in LaundryMarks. Laundries may still enter all the data points; however, by making fewer points required, many of the laundries will be able to move ahead with reports and comparisons.”

Currently, 93 laundries are registered within the LaundryMarks benchmarking platform, and fiscal year 2019 data entry opportunity will be available soon.

Fairbanks then moved on to talk about ALM’s TRAIN eLearning System, which offers self-paced, interactive instruction to engage learners. ALM announced their Certified Laundry and Linen Manager (CLLM) certification available through TRAIN during the 2019 Clean Show. During this virtual meeting, there was another exciting certification announced: Mastery of Healthcare Linen Management (MHLM).

“At last, linen managers will have credentials to highlight the value they bring to their organization,” said Christina Horsley, ALM Director of Events & Education. “Those who enroll in this new certification will learn about healthcare linen management practices, linen utilization, cost management, and so much more.”

Fairbanks said the first course of the Linen Mastery certification, Evaluate and Select Hospital Textiles, is available now, with the full certification available later this year. She concluded her presentation with an ALM fiscal update. The association remains strong, working with the hospitality industry to restore trust for travelers, and with the reusable textile industry to ensure the continued availability of needed linens and PPE. ALM event revenues and investments are down due to COVID-19, but the agility within ALM has made it possible to adjust events, including contingency plans to make those events virtual if a fall surge demands further travel restrictions.