NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Barbara Higgens, executive director of the Plumbing Manufacturers Institute (PMI) and Ralph Suppa, president and general manager of the Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating (CIPH), signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at PMI’s spring meeting in Newport Beach, Calif. The document is intended to establish a framework for cooperation between the two not-for-profit trade groups, thus formalizing “an already productive 10-year relationship.”

Based in Toronto, CIPH includes manufacturers, wholesaler distributors, master distributors, manufacturers’ agents, and allied companies that manufacture and distribute plumbing, hydronic heating, industrial, waterworks, and other mechanical products.

“The MOU expresses our mutual commitment to create an organized and systematic approach for voluntarily exchanging information and materials on common educational, technical, scientific, legislative, and regulatory matters that affect the plumbing industry worldwide,” said Higgens. “We will do this through publications, reports, association conferences, and industry meetings.”

Higgens also noted that PMI and CIPH will continue to exchange invitations to their respective annual conferences, and bring together additional resources as required to facilitate communications between the two associations. Both associations expect to develop a work plan to identify specific events and activities to achieve the purposes of this MOU.

“The world marketplace has changed dramatically since the 1970s, when PMI emerged from the old Plumbing Brass Institute,” Higgens remarked. “That is why PMI revised its bylaws several years ago to attract non-U.S.-based companies to our ranks and to begin an ongoing dialogue with our counterparts around the globe.”

For more information, visit www.pmihome.org.

Publication date: 05/12/2008