It is important for any organisation to be in tune with the market or, in Sassda’s case, its members. We have regular interaction with our members whether it be at sports days, training events or the meetings of our various structures.
In 2021, we endeavoured to try and understand in more detail what members think of our products and their delivery. This information gathering process ultimately led to a strategic event during November 2021 where together with members, we reviewed our offering to date and considered what we can do to enhance the current offering.
As background, it is important to appreciate that we have changed our funding model during 2019 and with this, a new range of product mixes was designed for the individual tiers. We were able to give members a 30% discount during 2020 when most of our members were heavily impacted by the hard lockdown. Most of our products are now delivered live and online and we wanted to get an idea of whether this new concept is working for members and adding value.
The results of the members feedback were extremely positive and encouraging. Our “stone” membership tiers with mostly fabricating members, responded by telling us that Sassda is on target with delivery and product quality. Whilst our “metal” tiers (mills and distributors mainly) were also satisfied with our offering. Sassda is now aiming to focus on adding more value to these tiers of membership.
It was already decided by members at the 2021 AGM not to increase membership fees for 2022, but we are still driving the continuous improvement of what we do and how we do it. Membership benefits are broadly classified into four groups,
namely:
- General Benefits includes the use of the logo, access to information, statistics, and training videos, free access to all “60 Minutes in Stainless Steel” webinars, free technical assistance, and a free referral service through incoming technical enquiries.
- Training Benefits includes free access to some training courses and a 25% discount on Sassda courses not covered by the membership, free attendance to CPD webinars and presentations and the like. Many of our presentations are now fully CPD accredited.
- Networking and Marketing Benefits includes free listing products and services in Sassda’s “Find a Supplier” website tool, representation at the dtic trade shows and missions in Africa, free monthly report on Africa countries, free potential editorial in Stainless Steel magazine and press releases, and 15% discount on Stainless Steel magazine advertising rates and many more opportunities.
- Strategic Benefits gives all Sassda members the power to partake in guiding our industry by having a vote or a seat at our Main Committee or even at Board level.
These four pillars allow our members to be fully aware of the local and international stainless steel market. Trained as professional suppliers and users of stainless steel and empowered to guide the local industry, Sassda can boast that we do all these well! If you are not a current member, contact us to find out more and if you are a member, make sure you get the most out of it.