The Quality Certification Alliance (QCA), the promotional product industry’s only independent organization dedicated to helping companies provide safe products, recently announced its official status as a nonprofit organization. QCA’s sole purpose is to certify the supplier processes involved in product quality, product safety, supply chain security, social accountability, and environmental stewardship. Tax-exempt status now officially acknowledges what a group of leading suppliers were able to accomplish and sets a high bar in the industry for product safety and compliance. Funded solely by dues and accreditation fees from its members, QCA continues to add suppliers dedicated to the same cause of making the promotional products industry supply chain as secure and socially compliant as possible for all.
An application by QCA for tax-exempt status under provision 501 (c) (6) of the Internal Revenue Code has been approved. The US Department of The Treasury designates for exemption under IRC 501 (c) (6) organizations including business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, and boards of trade, which are not organized for profit, and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
With the announcement of the tax-exempt status approval, QCA also announced changes to its board of directors. The changes are consistent with QCA’s transition from operating with an interim board of founding members to a permanent board of directors. The changes will take effect beginning in January 2015, and will roll out over the next several years to allow for a smooth transition. Focusing on the sustainability of the organization, the QCA board of directors is committed to having board members, and board committee members, who are significantly engaged and have a passion for proactively working together to provide products that consistently meet distributors and their customers’ compliance needs.
“The QCA board has made it clear that it wants to go forward with a balance between new member companies that bring fresh perspectives to the market issues, and the value of legacy knowledge and industry influence that comes from the founding member companies,” Jeff Jacobs, QCA’s executive director, said. “Before a new member company can be considered for the board, it must first have been active in one of the board committee roles,” continued Jacobs, “it is an excellent way to gain exposure to key initiatives of QCA.”
Beginning with January’s annual meeting, the QCA Board will be comprised of nine member companies. To meet the goal of a mix of both founding members and new members, members of the interim board will self-select, leaving the board for a few years, while maintaining their roles on the various QCA committees. To start the process, founding member MMI will give up their seat, and MMI principal Herb Nelson will remain on the finance committee.
“It is always hard to be the first,” QCA board president Jay Deutsch, said. “Herb and MMI have been part of QCA and engaged from the very beginning as a founding member. The board appreciates both his dedication, and continued service to QCA. MMI is a company that is a great supplier that walks the talk with product safety.”
QCA-accredited member BIC Graphic will join the board, with vice president and general counsel Joe Cade taking the board seat. This will be in addition to his duties on the QCA compliance committee.
“BIC Graphic is proud to have the opportunity to increase its involvement with QCA and support the values promoted by QCA,” Cade said. “The rising expectations of everyone’s customers compounded by the growing complexity of the compliance issues that we all face demonstrates that the work being done by QCA is more important than ever. BIC Graphic has always placed quality, safety and compliance as a top priority and we feel that QCA is an excellent vehicle to promote those same values throughout our industry.”
For more information, visit www.qcalliance.org.
