When the Work Gets Noticed: NFFS on the National Manufacturing Stage
NFFS Takes the Foundry Industry's Voice to the National Manufacturing Stage
Jerrod Weaver and Brianna Gianti represented NFFS at the 2026 CMA Summer Leadership Conference, where Jerrod also took the stage to share how NFFS is rethinking association value around real member needs.
Sometimes the best measure of whether you're doing meaningful work isn't what you say about yourself. It's when others notice.
This summer, leaders from across America's manufacturing association community gathered in Colorado Springs, CO to compare challenges, discuss what's ahead, and share ideas about how their organizations can better serve manufacturers.
Jerrod Weaver and Brianna Gianti were there representing the Non-Ferrous Founders' Society (NFFS) and the foundry industry at the 2026 Council of Manufacturing Associations (CMA) Summer Leadership Conference & Forum with State Manufacturing Leaders.
But NFFS wasn't there simply to attend.
Jerrod was also selected to take the stage during "Futuremakers in Action: Associations Reimagined," sharing with fellow manufacturing association leaders some of the unconventional ways NFFS has built its model around solving real problems inside member foundries. More importantly, it gave Jerrod and Brianna an opportunity to represent the needs of foundries in the larger manufacturing conversation, learn what other industry leaders are seeing on the horizon, and bring that intelligence home to NFFS members.
During the discussion Jerrod shared with leaders from across the manufacturing association community something our members already know: NFFS does not operate like a traditional trade association.
Over the past two decades, the foundry industry has experienced extraordinary consolidation, mergers, acquisitions, and facility closures. NFFS serves that industry with a relatively small staff. We cannot measure success by simply adding more events, creating more committees, putting more people in conference rooms, or continually asking members to pay more.
Rather than measuring value by how much programming we can sell to members, NFFS increasingly measures it by whether we can get closer to their businesses, understand the problem, and help create a solution.
The common thread is simple: Start with what the foundry actually needs.
What problem is keeping a foundry owner or leader up at night, and what can we actually do to help solve it?
Running a foundry is hard.
Doing it alone is even harder.
Solving Problems Instead of Simply Talking About Them
Jerrod highlighted several examples of how NFFS is rethinking the role of a trade association by getting closer to the challenges members face every day.
Turning Defense Demand Into Foundry Opportunity
Through ICON, participating manufacturers can identify federal contracting opportunities, research procurement history, manage quotations and contracts, and connect manufacturing capabilities with government demand.
Every capable domestic foundry that becomes better equipped to participate in defense procurement strengthens the U.S. defense industrial base.
Solving Workforce Problems Inside the Foundry
Through the Talent Pipeline Program, NFFS staff work directly with management teams inside member foundries to improve recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and retention.
Getting someone through the door matters. Building a workplace where they want to stay matters even more.
Finding Money Members May Not Know Is Available
Through the NFFS grants program, NFFS helps members identify government funding and other opportunities that can offset the cost of projects and investments.
The question is practical: What resources can we put directly into the hands of a foundry?
Representing Foundries Where the Bigger Conversations Happen
The significance of Jerrod and Brianna's participation in CMA goes beyond one conference. It means the foundry industry has a voice in conversations taking place across the broader manufacturing community.
Jerrod being selected to speak means something else: the work happening inside NFFS is being recognized as an example worth sharing with association leaders from across American manufacturing.
NFFS may represent a specialized segment of manufacturing and operate with a smaller team than many national organizations, but none of those things require us to think small.
Jerrod and Brianna went to Colorado Springs to listen, learn, represent our members, and bring the foundry industry's perspective into the national manufacturing conversation.
An association doesn't create value by being busy.
It creates value by being useful.
The Foundry Perspective Belongs in the Room
The CMA brings together 260 manufacturing trade associations, putting NFFS alongside association executives representing virtually every corner of American manufacturing. Those conversations provide an important early look at the forces likely to shape manufacturers' decisions in the months and years ahead.
For NFFS members, being represented in those conversations matters. Decisions made about energy, trade, defense procurement, workforce policy, taxes, and regulation eventually find their way onto the shop floor.
Our job is to make sure the foundry perspective finds its way into those conversations first.