SOCMA after Informex

There was plenty of buzz in the halls at the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association's annual Corporate Excellence Conference in Philadelphia earlier this month.

SOCMA's recent sale of its flagship Informex trade show to CMP Information, the British firm that runs the CPhI pharmaceutical chemical trade fair in Europe, had already raised questions about the association's future direction. Then came an announcement at the conference that SOCMA will drop the well-known Responsible Care program in favor of its own environment, health, and safety (EHS) and security initiative.

There was even a Hurricane Katrina angle to the discussion of changes at SOCMA. Informex had been poised to return in February to its traditional venue, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, following its two-year run in Las Vegas. With all events at the Morial Center canceled at least through March, CMP is currently seeking a new venue for Informex and advising SOCMA members to stand by for further information on dates and locale.

ALL OF THIS led to a general undercurrent of "what's next" at the meeting. SOCMA officials indicated that heightened efforts in regulatory advocacy and member services are on the agenda, and that the new ChemStewards EHS and security program is part of the picture.

SOCMA President Joseph G. Acker described ChemStewards as a three-tiered performance improvement scheme tailored to the needs of the small producers, batch manufacturers, and distribution companies that are much of the association's membership. Some details, including the method for third-party verification, are still being worked out, he said.

ChemStewards debuts amid heightened public concern over emergency preparedness in the aftermath of Katrina and within weeks of an expected U.S. Senate bill on chemical plant security. It also marks a break from the American Chemistry Council, the largest U.S. industry association and the arbiter of Responsible Care in the U.S. SOCMA has licensed Responsible Care, without a fee, from ACC since 1990.

The current two-year agreement between SOCMA and ACC expires this month. Acker said SOCMA had been told it would have to start paying to license the program in October, but he maintained that the fee was not a consideration in SOCMA's decision not to renew.

Melissa Hockstad, who headed SOCMA's Responsible Care efforts, will manage the new program. Hockstad said members can begin implementing ChemStewards now, and that work done to comply with Responsible Care will translate seamlessly. She said SOCMA is investigating a certification format similar to that used in the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 14000 environmental management protocol as a possible vehicle for third-party verification.

ACC characterized SOCMA's move as an unfortunate break from the "gold standard" set by the chemical industry in EHS and security management under Responsible Care. SOCMA leadership, however, said there is no fundamental change in the association's commitment to performance excellence. Some see the ChemStewards program as an option for companies that may not have pursued Responsible Care.

"I'm not sure there is a schism between SOCMA and ACC on this," said David W. Gleeson, president of Morflex, which specializes in organic esters and is the world's lead supplier of the insecticide active N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET). Gleeson, who is on SOCMA's board of directors, said Responsible Care and ChemStewards address similar safety and security issues, "and regulatory authorities are only concerned that you have such a program in place."

Morflex is a subsidiary of Reilly Industries, an ACC member company. According to SOCMA, about 10% of its members are also part of the larger association.

Robert D. McArver, director of government relations at SOCMA, said the ChemStewards program reflects an effort on the part of SOCMA to take a more proactive stance on regulatory and legislative advocacy and in providing compliance-related services to members. He notes that Matthew Barmasse, EHS director at Isochem in Lockport, N.Y., testified on behalf of the association at hearings of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the committee, has indicated that she plans to introduce a chemical site security bill later this year.

Despite the changes, conference attendees said they are not particularly anxious about SOCMA's future. They note that CMP has agreed to keep SOCMA's Informex committee in an advisory role and has committed to maintaining the SOCMA member discount arrangement for exhibit space at the exhibition.

Acker did acknowledge that the association, which was paid $24 million for Informex, will need to boost its membership, currently at 280, and continue to generate revenue from consulting and other services to make up for the lost Informex revenue. SOCMA had set a membership target of 400 by 2006.

Robert Dollinger, an account manager at Rhodia Pharma Solutions, said any change at SOCMA would likely involve a strengthening of its original purpose of regulatory advocacy and commercial development support for members. He notes that Informex started as a small, "tabletop" exhibition in hotel ballrooms in the 1980s, growing over the years to fill large convention halls. Last year's event drew more than 4,000, attendees with about 500 companies exhibiting.

Dollinger figures that with the shot of cash from the Informex sale, and without having to manage a large trade show, SOCMA can better concentrate on its core concerns of member service and regulatory advocacy. "SOCMA will continue to do what it has always done," he said. "Now it has the wherewithal to be the true service organization it is supposed to be."