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Committee Connection
SMI Membership Remains Important, and Even More So During a Pandemic
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s a trade association for the precision mechanical spring industry, SMI was formed in 1933 with 40 member companies. As an SMI charter member, the leaders of The Yost Superior Company in Springfield, Ohio understood early on the value of membership in an organization that promotes the interests of North American springmakers. Dave Deerwester has carried on that tradition, as the current president and owner of Yost Superior and as a member of the SMI board of directors. In that role, he serves as the chairman of the SMI membership committee. “We have seen the value of connecting with other SMI members and the value has definitely increased over the past year,” explained Deerwester. While he says the value of these connections has always been part of why people belong to SMI, Deerwester believes it
By Gary McCoy
“ The amount of collaboration where people work together to help each other is just incredible. I don’t know how often [it is], compared to other industries, that you have competitors willing to help each other out as you do among SMI members. It’s amazing that competitors will help each other buy and sell wire so they can get a job done.”
was heightened during 2020 and 2021 because of COVID and the material and supply issue challenge. “The amount of collaboration where people work together to help each other is just incredible,” related Deerwester. “I don’t know how often [it is], compared to other industries, that you have competitors willing to help each other out as you do among SMI members. It’s amazing that competitors will help each other buy and sell wire so they can get a job done.” Deerwester says there is also great value in being able to pick up the phone and talk to other SMI members about common problems they are experiencing and how they worked toward a solution.
Tangible Savings and Technology Solutions He says the value of SMI membership includes the new pooled employer 401(k) plan that SMI recently introduced. “It will be great to see how the program is received,” he said. “It appears that it’s a program that is going to save SMI member companies, both large and small, a lot of
money in the benefits they offer to their employees.” Deerwester says SMI also provides great value in the area of technology with the number of spring design classes available through the association and the ASD7 spring design software. “Springmakers are very hungry for technical resources, and SMI has made them available through its technical committee and its consultants Rick Gordon, Gary Van Buren and Dan Sebastian.” He says the spring design classes have filled a need for many springmakers, “and at our company, we’ve already taken several of our employees through the training and each of them found the training to be very helpful.” Deerwester also mentioned safety audits and training offered by SMI. “Every other year, we bring SMI’s regulatory compliance consultant, Laura Helmrich-Rhodes, to our plant to make sure we are keeping our employees safe. She provides our management team with suggestions for improvement, but more importantly she provides great value in
Dave Deerwester
SPRINGS / Fall 2021 / 63
