Working together
A tri-party agreement signed Oct. 15 could
open the door to greater cooperation between the International
Fabricare Institute, its affiliate associations and Korean
drycleaning associations.
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“This agreement marks a significant
and historic turning point with our relationships with the
Korean drycleaning community,” said IFI CEO Bill Fisher.
“It is our hope that the agreement developed here will
serve as a model that could be used to ultimately unite the
industry across the country.”
IFI has affiliate arrangements with 15
state and regional associations in addition to MAC. Under those
arrangements, a cleaner who joins IFI also becomes a members of
the affiliate group in that area. Under the new agreement,
Korean cleaners in the MAC territory, which covers Maryland,
Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, DC, can join IFI and
MAC, paying the regular cost of IFI/affiliate membership and
will received benefits of membership in all three associations.
Each association will remain autonomous in
its governance, but association leaders hope the agreement will
improve communication, build professionalism and lead to
greater cooperation between the groups on issues of common
interest.
Jeff Ahn, president of the Korean
Drycleaners Association of Greater Washington, expects the new
partnership will bring about “a unified effort to help
fight regulatory/legislative issues that are unfair to
drycleaners.”
Gene Moorefield, president of the
MidAtlantic association, expressed similar hopes. “The
professional cleaning industry is one of, or perhaps the
largest group, of independent small businesses in the Untied
States,” he said. “Yet our inability to come
together and work together for the common good is daily
evidenced by our moniker as the most over-regulated small
business in America.
“Our industry repeatedly
demonstrates ourselves to be our own worst enemy,” he
added. “We think this has to end, and we are striving to
make that happen.”
David Norford, executive vice president of
MAC, sounded a similar theme. “Given the fragmented state
of the cleaning industry, we think greater professionalism
through cooperation is the key to coming together and will
ultimately produce a more united and effective industry,”
he said.
IFI president Don Fawcett, in a statement
read at the signing ceremony, said he hopes “this will
become the structure of a relationship that will spread across
the country.” IFI’s Fisher said a copy of the
agreement has been provided to Peter Blake, executive director
the North East Fabricare Association, and that the two
associations will discuss the possibility of implementing a
similar type of agreement in IFI’s District 1 which
covers the northeastern part of the United States.
Meanwhile, Korean cleaners in the
Washington area who are interested in membership under the new
program can call Sam Choi, IFI’s vice president of Asian
Affairs, (800) 635-2627, or the Korean-American Dry Cleaners
Association of Greater Washington, (703) 608-0149. KDAGW can
also be reached by e-mail at kdawus@hotmail.com.
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