PPAI Announces First Fully Chartered Regional Affiliate

The Houston Promotional Products Association (HPPA) has become the first fully chartered affiliate of PPAI, Irving, Texas. HPPA successfully completed the criteria for affiliation as part of the new Regional Affiliate Program developed by PPAI and the Regional Association Council (RAC).

“The Regional Affiliate Program establishes a formal alliance between participating regional associations and PPAI while ensuring that regional associations maintain their autonomy,” explained Kimberly Fischer, director or regional relations. “This partnership enables participating regional associations to speak with one industry voice, which carries a greater impact than many separate voices. The fact that HPPA met all the criteria for affiliation far ahead of schedule is a clear sign of the value HPPA places on this partnership. We congratulate HPPA on its significant accomplishment.”

As a PPAI regional affiliate, HPPA maintains its autonomy but is entitled to a variety of new and expanded services offered by PPAI. In addition, HPPA and PPAI will work closely together to deal with common issues, trends and challenges confronting the promotional products industry.

Some of the expanded services and benefits available to HPPA include a centralized membership database maintained by PPAI; free MAS/CAS accreditation of regional education programs; marketing support for shows and programs; trade show participation and sponsorship; promotion of regional association membership to PPAI members; assistance in educational programming and negotiation of speaker fees.

“This affiliation gives us the tools we need to increase our membership and better promote and market our association to our current and potential members,” said Ted Dennison, HPPA president and vice president of sales for Houston, Texas-based distributor, TMJ Enterprises. “We believe this connection between PPAI and regional associations will serve our industry well.”

There are 28 regional associations, each representing a geographic territory of the country. Since the Regional Affiliate Program was introduced last October, 26 of the associations have begun working toward chartered status.

For more information, call (972) 258-3041 or visit www.ppa.org.