July 15, 2004 – The Council of Logistics Management’s (CLM) Executive Committee has voted to become the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), effective January 1, 2005.
"The decision to become CSCMP was made for one reason -- to meet the changing needs of our members and our profession," says Elijah Ray, 2003-04 president. "People in our profession now have an expanded and more critical role within our companies than we did ten or even five years ago. We interact with more people within and outside our organizations. Our roles have evolved, which is why CLM is changing to reflect what's happening in the supply chain. The organization will also become more inclusive to others that play important roles in the supply chain."
With a broader emphasis on the entire supply chain, CSCMP will provide its members with enhanced content that incorporates not only logistics, but also procurement, manufacturing operations, and sales/marketing functions. The new organization will expose members to more voices and different perspectives to help them increase their value to their companies while enhancing networking opportunities and professional growth.
The association's new web site address, as of January 1, 2005, will be www.cscmp.org.
"We took a very methodical approach to this process," explains Tom Speh, CLM past president and chair of the member committee charged with exploring the association's focus. "For a number of years, the CLM Executive Committee and staff has explored the idea of broadening our focus, but we took our time to make sure we were doing the right thing for our members and for our profession."
"Over the years, an increasing number of members asked us to provide more supply chain-based products and programming that truly reflected the changing nature of their positions," said Maria McIntyre, CLM executive vice president. "As a result, CLM first sought to establish an official definition of supply chain management, which it completed in 2003. From there, a committee of members representing the range of CLM membership was formed to explore the idea of refocusing the association, develop name ideas, and recommend programming changes. Ultimately, CLM's Executive Committee voted to adopt the new name and focus in 2004."
Effective associations evolve to reflect the changing nature of their membership. With CLM, many of its offerings have already evolved to include a broader supply chain focus, as have books and research reports, which allow for a logical transition to CSCMP.
"We've added procurement and manufacturing tracks to our Annual Conference in recent years because our members demanded it," says Speh. "And recent CLM seminars and research are directly targeting supply chain management. This trend will continue as CSCMP focuses its attention on the entire supply chain."
This is not the first time the organization has evolved. In 1985, the association underwent a similar evolution when the National Council of Physical Distribution Management (NCPDM), the name under which the association was founded in 1963, became the Council of Logistics Management. At that time, it was recognized that those involved in transportation and distribution were taking on greater responsibility, with the profession evolving into the larger field of logistics.
"The parallels between now and then are very similar," says McIntyre. "We see a similar expansion of importance and scope today as we did in the early 1980s when we became CLM."
Membership dues will not increase as a result of CLM becoming CSCMP. Member access to the new CSCMP web site will function as it currently does now and member ID numbers will remain the same.
The current CLM membership policy of accepting only individual memberships and not corporate memberships will be retained, as will the newly created anniversary date membership structure.
