President’s Message

Well, 2020 was certainly a difficult year with the cursed COVID-19 epidemic making person to person contacts and our normal exhibition and conference impossible. All of us have learned the intricacies of communicating via TEAMS or Zoom, how to turn on mute, put a hand up and importantly not being caught reading a paper while attending a meeting.

And, while the industry managed to continue to work as an essential service and a vital component of the overall economy, there has been an almost paradigm shift in how business is now being undertaken.

Many of us will not return to an office. Many meetings previously undertaken in person will not return. The carbon footprint of work has been considerably reduced, which we should all agree is a very good thing. Do we really want to go back to how we did things before? The Internet, for better or worse, saved us from a total collapse. Can you imagine how we would have managed by fax or phone?

OPCEA has held its last two annual general meetings online. Monthly board meetings have also been online. This makes it much easier to attend, but unfortunately it also reduces the opportunity for social interaction. As such, I wonder if we are missing out on important information that might improve the organization by not attending in person. The same holds true for business meetings in general in the age of COVID-19.

OPCEA managed to have a positive year in 2020 in that we did not suffer a financial loss. Membership declined because of the uncertainty created by COVID-19, but it has started to rebound. We are hopeful that it will return to pre-COVID-19 levels.

To attend the 2021 WEAO/OPCEA conference and tradeshow which is scheduled for November, and to be included in this directory, companies had to be members on or before June 1, 2021.

Membership for the year 2021-2022, which starts in July of this year, will enable attendance at next year’s exhibition at the WEAO/OPCEA conference and tradeshow, now scheduled for June 2022. Hopefully in 2023, we will be returning to a conference and exhibition in April, which is more in line with our membership year.

I do hope you have been able to get your vaccination shots. The sooner we all get one the better we are all going to be. Hopefully by October everyone will be vaccinated and the in-person WEAO/OPCEA conference and tradeshow in November will be well attended. I hope to see you there.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Linda Cooke-Weaver for her service as president last year, during what was likely the most difficult year in the life of OPCEA. I would also like to thank the members of the Board who have all helped to maintain and expand our activities. All of them did their part in supporting the association.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of the member companies that continued their support in these weird and uncertain times.

Best wishes,

Brian Gage

2021 – 2022 President brian.gage@aquatsi.com