NAFA Opens Doors For Affiliate Chapter Leadership

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By Phillip E. Russo, CAE
NAFA Executive Director

The NAFA Board of Governors – fleet managers and service providers from across North America – recently voted to give Affiliates (service providers) greater ability to serve the association in general and local chapters specifically.

NAFA Affiliates are already among the most active supporters of the organization. They attend local chapter meetings, chair committees at the chapter level, and are represented as vice chairs on most of NAFA's national committees. They exhibit at I&E, sponsor events both nationally and locally, and help keep local chapters vibrant and healthy. Just as important, NAFA Affiliates are a key component of our educational efforts. They help create, organize, and deliver almost every aspect of NAFA education and in almost every venue offered.

Recognizing how difficult it is for some chapters to find enough volunteers to fill all of their mandatory officer positions, the NAFA Board voted to allow Affiliates to serve as Chapter Secretary or Chapter Treasurer. This move will allow NAFA to take advantage of the nearly 30 percent of the organization that are Affiliates, using their talents and resources to help keep our local chapters strong.

NAFA always has been, and always will be, an organization for fleet managers. As such, each chapter will decide if taking advantage of the Affiliate resource is in the best interest of their chapter.  It is completely optional for each chapter to choose to use Affiliates as Secretary or Treasurer and this option can only be considered if qualified fleet managers cannot be found to fill those seats.  This makes sense for a lot of reasons. However, when your local chapter needs help, they now have a resource available to them.