The new year brings a natural opportunity to reassess how you’re performing your job and what you might change to improve the services you provide. The same holds true for Pumper, which celebrates 35 years of serving liquid waste haulers in June.

When Bob Kendall and Pete Lawonn started Midwest Pumper in 1979, they envisioned creating a trade journal that would become the marketplace for pumping professionals, a place for septic service contractors to sell equipment, shop for new products and exchange ideas. The magazine has proven to be all that and more, promoting greater industry professionalism and serving the community of pumpers with advertising, feature stories about successful contractors and countless business-building ideas.

Over the years, the magazine has been tweaked with many improvements to enhance the reader experience. Newsprint was replaced with glossy color magazine pages. Reader-submitted black and white photography has burst into colorful photo layouts produced by professional photographers. There is a new and exciting synergy between the print product – which readers continually tell me is a staple reading material in their offices – and the www.pumper.com website.

For 2014, we’re making a few changes in the way we share news about the many state and regional trade associations that serve the pumping and onsite installation industries. We’re moving away from the Association News format we’ve followed for many years and adding two new features to report in greater depth about issues facing the pumping community and to encourage more effective networking.

We saw a need to delve deeper into regional industry issues. So we’re adding a new State of the State feature, dedicating an entire column to the happenings in a state or Canadian province in every issue. This month we catch up with the Iowa Onsite Waste Water Association and its president, Steve Darrah, to learn about topics ranging from the group’s partnership with Habitat For Humanity to statewide industry certification efforts.

Writer Doug Day will interview a different industry association leader every month to explore the challenges they face and the initiatives they’re pursuing to meet rising expectations. The feature will give associations a valuable platform to share their ideas and goals for the industry. The idea is to reach out to every active trade association over time and involve them in our new feature. If you would like Doug to give you a call and turn the spotlight on your trade group, drop me a line at editor@pumper.com and let me know.

As a companion to State of the State, we’ll run a comprehensive list of industry associations with contact information so you can reach out to the folks who represent your interests on a regional basis. Take a look at the list as it appears in this issue, and if you don’t see your trade group represented, let me know and we’ll add it. The goal is to link pumpers with the associations that offer training opportunities, industry networking and lobbying regarding regulations.

While more and more trade associations now use email and electronic newsletters to stay in constant contact with their members, we continue to provide space for these organizations to promote their annual conferences or training opportunities. We offer a platform for announcing these events, either in the print magazine or through the Pumper online presence.

Readers eagerly anticipate the arrival of Pumper magazine in their mailboxes, and we think it covers the industry in great depth and breadth. However sometimes associations may have late-breaking news regarding a new government regulation or updates on important training sessions that we can’t respond to in the monthly magazine. The website is built for speed … and we can add your association news items as quickly as they could be reported on the nightly news. When you find you need to spread the word to your membership in a hurry, contact me and we’ll share the news at www.pumper.com.