Message From The President

by Gailen Vick, Reverse Logistics Association

Reverse Logistics Magazine, Edition 16

Reverse Logistics Association is starting its eighth year of serving RL professionals and companies around the world. We now serve industries from apparel, automotive, aviation, consumer electronics, data storage, wireless communications, food & beverage to medical & pharmaceutical. We have supporting focus committees in areas of corporate social responsibility, information technology solutions, spare parts management, standards, and sustainability & environmental management. We have enabled RLA Charters in regions like India, China, Brazil and EMEA where there are very active RL professionals. Our membership has continued to grow and last year alone we saw a 40 percent increase in participation in our conferences, workshops, seminars and membership.

From our meager beginnings in 2002, we have grown to over 10,000 active members that access our database of information on a regular basis. I am constantly amazed by the requests that we see from our members for new services or support that we would never thought about - thanks to everyone for these suggestions. These suggestions, when implemented continue to strengthen RLA!

This coming year we will showcase new events from Boston to Brazil, due to the down-turn in the economy. RL is growing at a remarkable pace and as a result RLA will have major expansion in our support services for the Reverse Logistics community around the world.

We hope that you will continue to support your association as you have done over the last seven years. If you are not sure what you can do to support the association, then here are just a few thoughts that might be helpful:

Serve on one of the many industry and focus committees
Upgrade your RLA Membership
Volunteer to present a case study at one of our events
Write an article for RL Magazine or the RLA Newsletter

I hope all of you will review the research, charts and figures in this edition of RL Magazine; it can make the difference in planning the launchof your reverse logistics processes to the right audience.

There isn't any choice during this economy but to outsource more RL processes, as companies no longer have the headcount to support their internal operations. The cost savings that a 3PSP can offer to the OEM or Retailer are tremendous. One 3PSP, Sykes Global Services, has hired over 3,100 people in the last six months because of the increased demand!

As a reminder, RLA is encouraging companies to hold their QBRs at our conference as in the past, pull in your upcoming QBRs for the next 2-3 quarters. RLA sets up private meeting rooms for scheduling QBRs between OEMs/Retailers and 3PSPs. We're expecting over 200 companies, with more OEMs and Retailers than ever before. Reduce your travel expenditures - come and meet together at the RLA Conference & Expo in Amsterdam.

Gailen Vick
President.
ReverseLogisticsAssociation.org
RLAShows.com