FESPA grants voting rights to non European members

The FESPA General Assembly has unanimously agreed to allow international Associate Members outside Europe full voting rights. This significant constitutional change falls on the 50th anniversary of the organisation.

This latest structural evolution in FESPA means that all national Member Associations which have served two years with the organisation can now vote on issues that will help shape FESPA’s future.

With immediate effect, nine of the ten global Associate Members will have a dynamic role to play in how FESPA decisions are made. Through FESPA’s Profit for Purpose programme, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand will have influence over the use of FESPA resources to advance the global printing community in accordance with FESPA’s organisational mission.

The Sri Lankan national association remains an Associate Member of FESPA and will become eligible to vote at the next General Assembly, when they will celebrate their second year within the FESPA community.

“FESPA was founded half a century ago to promote knowledge-sharing and best practice among screen printers in a small cluster of European countries. This was at a time before digital printing had even entered the marketplace, and when the degree of globalisation which we know today was still unimaginable. FESPA now has 27 European Member associations and a further ten across the world, engaging with a combined global community of over 200,000 print service providers. With new events in Brazil and Turkey, our global show in London in 2013, and a growing portfolio covering Europe, Asia and Mexico, it’s a very exciting time for FESPA at the moment. The strengthened constitutional position of our global Member Associations is an important part of our growth and development plan,” comments Nigel Steffens, FESPA CEO.

For printers, membership of their national FESPA Association automatically means full access to FESPA’s wealth of knowledge, best practice guidance, content and business intelligence. As FESPA continues to evolve and lead the industry, the organisation is committed to exploring new products and services that will offer members even greater value.

Huned Rangwala, Hon. President of SPAI and FESPA Member in India comments, “In the last 37 years, SPAI has worked hard to promote awareness of Screen Printing in India. Since joining FESPA in 2004, our Membership has helped us immensely in our efforts to further the exposure and knowledge of the Indian printing industry in this continent. Now, as full FESPA Members, we aim to take our new responsibilities very seriously and take SPAI and FESPA to even greater heights.”

Clem Johnson, Federal President of SGIAA in Australia comments, “SGIAA has been a part of FESPA since 2005 and we’re delighted to have now formalised our successful relationship. The Australian print community is always hungry for knowledge and we appreciate FESPA’s support in helping us to educate and promote the good work that print service provider’s do. We’re proud to now be in a position to help shape FESPA as an organisation. SGIAA will continue to deliver FESPA’s ideals to the global graphic imaging community.”