Amid a projected slowing in related government spending, the primary trade group for the aerospace and defense industries recently reached the largest membership in its 92-year history.
The growth of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) undoubtedly is tied to member companies’ anxiety about future government business, observers said. The Pentagon for one is seeking $178 billion in funding cuts and shifts in the coming years.
David Mandell, vice president of membership services at Arlington, Va.-based AIA, credited the association’s growth to changes in its internal management and the “tough, challenging political and economic times for the industry.”
“When the times are tough, this is when as an industry we need to band together,” he said in an interview. “And it’s a place where our members can get closer to their customers, and their potential customers, and work together on the most pressing issues that are facing the industry.”
AIA reached its highest-ever total membership the first quarter of this year, after enrolling 10 new and 11 associate members. The new companies include The SI Organization, Inc., which provides systems engineering and integration services to government intelligence and defense customers, and Phillips Screw Company, which develops fastener drive systems for the aerospace industry. AIA overall has grown 44 percent since the beginning of last year and has not lost any full-time members during that time. It now has 146 full members and 192 associate member companies, which pay dues based on their revenues.
Mandell also credited AIA’s growth with the leadership of AIA President and Chief Executive Officer Marion Blakey, who came to the association in November 2007 after serving as administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Blakey, he said, has strengthened AIA’s advocacy through outreach to lawmakers, administration officials, and the press. She also, he said, improved the internal staff of the association and its management, implementing a strategic plan that ties association employees’ pay to performance. AIA also recently started polling the public on its perceptions about the industry.
Mandell also touted an increase in meeting attendance by member companies, which he said grew by more than 50 percent in 2010 over 2009 levels.
Defense consultant Loren Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., agreed the surge in AIA’s membership “is attributable to the growing role of government in all aerospace markets and fears about the future direction of federal spending.”
“Companies want an organization in Washington that can plead their collective interests and enlist the government in preventing market-distorting behavior by other countries,” he said,
Still, Thompson said the influx of new, mostly smaller companies “should not be confused with general satisfaction among longtime members.”
“The biggest companies that pay the largest dues sometimes are uncomfortable with actions AIA takes, like setting up a (political action committee) PAC or pursuing overseas members,” he said, adding: “In that sense, AIA is a tale of two cities, with smaller companies seeing the organization differently than the big companies do.”