Join us for another informative virtual meeting on Thursday, March 4, 2020. As with our previous virtual meetings, we hope to provide you with an educational lunch break at noon!

In this meeting, Angel Marschik, Supervisory Lender Relations Specialist at the SBA Pittsburgh District Office and Steve McCarron, Vice President and Senior Commercial Relationship Officer at Community Bank, will present details about the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans available for local businesses as well as PPP loan forgiveness. Steve and Angel will also talk about the application process for the SBA’s Western PA 2021 Online Emerging Leaders Training Program and how it can help with the growth of your business. This is a great meeting to attend if your company is participating in or could benefit from this program or if you just want to find out more about what is being done to help businesses during the current pandemic crisis.

Grab yourself a bite to eat and join us for this informative meeting on Thursday, October 15 from 12:00-1:00. this meeting will take place via Zoom, which you can use on your PC, tablet or phone! RSVP below and we will send you the link to join the meeting!

Date: Thursday, March 6, 2020
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: Online via Zoom.

RSVP Here

Dear Members,

Although we are really missing our monthly meetings, we are still operating under guidelines for control of the COVID-19 Pandemic. We are continuing to look for “virtual” opportunities to get together and will keep you updated on virtual meetings and tours until we are able to meet in person again.

We will be sending out membership invoices in the coming months and we will be working on plans for re-engagement in Washington County manufacturing, starting in the fall with our annual WCMA Golf Outing.

We hope that you will continue to support and be a part of WCMA in the coming year, so that we can continue to be a thought-leading organization and go-to organization for manufacturing learning, interest and education in Washington County.

If you have questions about your WCMA membership or have an idea for hosting a virtual meeting, please call Ron Davis at 724-746-4300,.

Sincerely,

Ron Davis

President WCMA

Join us for our first-ever virtual tour of Schroeder Industries on Thursday, October 15, 2020. As with our previous virtual meeting, we hope to provide you with an educational lunch break at noon!

As an ISO 9001:2015 certified company, Schroeder Industries in Leetsdale has been designing, manufacturing, and marketing a complete range of Advanced Fluid Conditioning Solutions® for over 73 years.

Schroeder was one of the first to identify the need for fine micronic filtration in hydraulic systems and was a pioneer in the development of many filtration concepts and products. Before the idea of fine micronic filtration was even mentioned in many engineering textbooks, Schroeder had set performance standards for this kind of contamination control in many markets such as mining, mobile equipment, and automotive manufacturing. In fact, the HF4 automotive standard was written with the Schroeder K-Size element in mind.

For more than half a century, Schroeder Industries’ innovative efforts to develop value-engineered products have been recognized with over 33 patent awards. Schroeder remains at the forefront in the fields of fluid conditioning, diagnostics, and specialized energy products.

Schroeder Industries’ corporate headquarters is located in Leetsdale, PA, with manufacturing facilities at the Leetsdale location, as well as in Cumberland, MD.
Grab yourself a bite to eat and join us for this informative meeting on Thursday, October 15 from 12:00-1:00. this meeting will take place via Zoom, which you can use on your PC, tablet or phone! RSVP below and we will send you the link to join the meeting! This meeting will be via Zoom Webinars, which means that you will be able to see the tour, but not the cameras of everyone else attending. you will be able to type in questions using the Q&A button.

Date: Thursday, October 15, 2020
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: Online via Zoom.

Register Here

Join us for our next virtual WCMA meeting on Thursday September 10, 2020. As with our previous virtual meeting, we hope to provide you with an educaitonal lunch break at noon!

Cost Reduction for Manufacturing Companies 

In this webinar,  Marc Schwalb of Schooley Mitchell will discuss why expense management is critical to the bottom line. The different processes for expense management will be reviewed, including discussion as to what the pros and cons are of each approach. We’ll take a look at the barriers to the adoption of expense reduction initiatives. Finally, you’ll get to see actual case study results of manufacturing companies helped in the Western Pennsylvania area. With the information learned in this webinar, you should develop a better understanding of ways to approach expense management for your company.
 
About the Presenter 
Marc Schwalb is a Strategic-Partner with Schooley Mitchell. He opened his Pittsburgh based office 4 ½ years ago, specializing in cost reduction for businesses with an emphasis on waste expense management, telecom, credit card processing, and small package shipping amongst other categories. To date, he has helped over 100 companies – located mostly in Western Pennsylvania but also spanning 16 states – collectively saving these businesses over $1 million. Specializing in manufacturing expense reduction, Marc is well versed in the industry’s specific needs and has used that knowledge to execute on those opportunities for savings. He has been a member of the Washington County Manufacturer’s Association for the past 3 ½ years.  He has published in the National Tooling and Machining Association newsletter. He also has a partnership with Catalyst Connection whereby he gives back to help training and educational programs for the local manufacturing community.  Prior to joining Schooley Mitchell as an expense reduction consultant, Marc worked in education, serving as a Regional Vice President where he managed a staff of 300 employees and was responsible for business decisions related to finance, operations, and training and development. He has a degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Drexel University.

Grab yourself a bite to eat and join us for this informative meeting on Thursday September 10 from 12:00-1:00. this meeting will take place via Zoom, which you can use on your PC, tablet or phone! RSVP below and we will send you the link to join the meeting!

Date: Thursday, September 10, 2020
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: Online via Zoom.

RSVP Here

We are very excited to invite you to our first ever virtual WCMA meeting! With the world turned upside-down, not only are we having a meeting in July, but we are having it the LAST Thursday in July! We missed you all so much since March that we thought it would be great to get together.

Technology challenges in manufacturing are constantly moving targets. The challenges we encountered in 2020 certainly did not make solving them easier. Please join Seth Fosmire from Ceeva and Adam Zaccari from SecureSky as they share technology tips that are pertinent to the Manufacturing industry right now. Over the course of 45 minutes, they’ll share 14 rapid-fire, relevant tech tips.

Topics include:

• How automation can cut costs
• Compliance related to Department of Defense contracts
• Artificial intelligence (improve customer experience and streamline business processes)
• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
• Utilize the cloud
• IoT (Internet of Things)

Grab yourself a bite to eat and join us for WCMA Lunchtime Tech Tips on 7/30/2020 from 12:00-1:00. You don’t need Microsoft Teams to attend. RSVP below and we will send you the link to join the meeting!

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2020
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: Online via Microsoft Teams.

RSVP Here

Due to uncertainty about what guidelines and rules will look like for golf outings in September, we have decided to cancel the WCMA Annual Golf Outing for 2020. While we are disappointed to not have this long-standing tradition to look forward to, we feel that it is important to maintain the quality of this event. We also do not want to put undue pressure on our generous sponsors at this already stressful time. We are already looking to secure dates for 2021 and looking forward to restriction-free times once again!

We do have some great news for all of you golfers, though. Nemacolin is offering the chance to let all of you enjoy a round of golf, while still contributing to the WCMA Scholarship fund! You can purchase a round of golf at Nemacolin for $100 per golfer through WCMA, redeemable anytime in 2020 (based on tee time availability).

Simply fill out this form to reserve your ticket, send in a check and we will email your ticket to you!

Due to the COVID-19 safety measures and restrictions, will not be meeting in May. We will keep you posted about future meetings as circumstances develop.

Everyone stay safe and healthy and we hope to see you soon!

We’ve just been made aware of the PA Department of Community and Economic Development’s COVID-19 Working Capital Access (CWCA) Program. 

Small businesses (retail and service enterprise) with 100 or fewer full time employees may be eligible to receive an interest-free loan up to $100K. The loans provide critical working capital financing to small businesses located

within the Commonwealth that are adversely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Please see the information below for details of the CWCA program:

Our very own Larry Butka was interviewed for this article about the impact of the COVID-19 virus on local manufacturing.

Area manufacturers ‘producing, delivering, shipping’ – but watching supply chain

Manufacturing is one of the major industries in the state that hasn’t been mandated to shut down because of coronavirus public health concerns.

Cambria County manufacturing companies said business is consistent, but they will have an eye on the pandemic’s impact on supply chain conditions for months ahead.

Cambria’s manufacturing industry employs more than 4,100 people and makes up more than 8% of employment countywide, according to January 2020 statistics from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

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