2022 Life Jacket Association Annual Conference: Strategic Planning Overview, LJA Membership & Bylaws, Approval Process

1. The Life Jacket Association
Report to Membership:
Summary of Strategic Planning Kick-Off
2022

2. Agenda
• Introductions
• Overview of the LJA Strategic
Workshop - Winter ’22
• Opportunities for Focus
Identified
• Next Steps for the LJA
• Nominations to the Board
• By-Law Changes
• Working the Meeting

3. Life Jacket Association:
Who Are We?

4. Introduction
The Life Jacket Association is an industry
association dedicated to increasing lifejacket
wear in all appropriate activities: through
education, product innovation, standards
development, and enhancing communication
between members and stakeholders.
Our Mission - A Shared Vision

5. What is important to know about Life
Jacket Association?
• We have a strength of purpose from our
shared goal to increase life jacket wear rates;
“dedicated to increasing the number of
people who wear life jackets in the water”.
• We are a small organization in size, very
focused, with a big impact because we are
able to speak with the combined voice of
manufacturers and other parties interested in
increasing wear rate.

6. Who does LJA serve?
Approximately 50 member(s), organizations,
and stakeholders
• Boating public
• Boating Law Administrators
• US Coast Guard
• Transport Canada
• Producer community: Manufacturers and
developers, Marketing and media
• Recreational and commercial marine
community
• Swimming community/Recreational swimmers.
• North American focused; Global reach

7. • Development
• The LJA through its members work directly on the
development of life jacket standards.
• Using the LJA’s funds from the using Label Surcharge Fund
(LSF) to advance research and scientific development.
• Education
• Providing technical guidance to policymakers, educators,
retailers, public (i.e., give them the right information).
• Communication
• Convey standards’ changes and consequences to stakeholders
and the broader community.
• Fill regulatory information gaps and help keep everyone on
the same page.
• Government relations
• Work closely with USCG and Transport Canada on
communications and regulatory matters that impact industry.
What does LJA do?

8. How does LJA do
these things?
• Our Annual Conference
• The website and web resources
• Newsletter
• UL/STP (Board Member participation)
• NASBLA relationship and
management team
• Executive Board outreach

9. • To increase wear rates. We
want to get more people
wearing life jackets while
they are on or near the
water, to help save lives on
the water.
Why does LJA do these things?

10. The Life Jacket Association is an industry
association dedicated to increasing lifejacket
wear in all appropriate activities: through
education, product innovation, standards
development, and enhancing
communication between members and
stakeholders.
Are there Mission Gaps?
• For example, a need to improve our execution of the
communication component?
• Is advocacy missing as a concept?
• Can we simplify the mission statement and consider fewer
words?

11. Life Jacket Association:
Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results
SOAR
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

12. Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results
• Expertise
• Our Board is comprised of engaged and knowledgeable leadership, subject
matter experts able to make decisions and move policy forward.
• We bring an ability to recognize market hurdles and see opportunities for
innovation.
• We are an authoritative source of technical expertise.
• Funding
• Ability to raise funds within the industry outside of conference,
membership, and grant writing.
• Dedicated corporate support to the board.
• Communication
• Provides an open forum for discussion, sharing of information, and bringing
together a diversity of opinions resulting in a unified goal with different
perspectives.
• Enabling a unified voice for life jacket/safety manufacturers reaching out to
stakeholders.
• Shared Mission
• Competitors that share the mission and have worked together for more
than 30 years to refine the association and make the industry safer.
• It is an industry that cares deeply about saving lives and an association board
that is passionate about safety and innovation.
• LJA is like a Board of Governors for a sports league – they step back and ask,
“how do we make the sport better?”

13. Strengths, Opportunities,Aspirations, and Results
• Brand
• Create a larger brand presence in the marine/boating/user community.
• Market the LJA as “all things life jacket”.
• Educate
• Create an LJA certified Life Jacket technician and establish a “glossary of terms”.
• Develop a webinar to show the possible paths to approval for a new device.
• Develop a decision tree web tool to help consumers choose a life jacket.
• Advocate
• Help eliminate the hurdles to full adoption of industry accepted standards for life
jackets.
• Foster initiatives to responsibly bring inflatables to younger users.
• Engage
• Establish an action focus for the association (ideas into action).
• Align LJA around a small set of objectives and commit resources to accomplish those.
• Create a strategic plan, engage membership and Implement a long-term vision in a
phased approach.
• Improve our partnership with USCG, working to find areas of common ground to
advocate and help.
• Grow membership and diversity in LJA.
• Innovate
• Foster a more innovative marketplace by continuing to reduce restrictive regulation
within the approval process.
• We recognize we have a problem implementing sustainable raw materials, how do
we move forward?
• What does an industry-based approval look like, an LJA mark? What could it serve,
what would the liability look like?
• Fund research needs:
• Establish LJA funded research & performance testing.
• Apply for RBS grants for research & performance testing.

14. Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results
• Authority/Trust
• LJA to be preeminent communicator, educator, and
standards development body on life jackets for North
America.
• To be recognized as the authoritative source for life
jacket utilization, supported by members from all life
jacket communities and industries.
• Every life jacket label says, “LJA approved”.
• Innovation
• Create a Life Jacket Ambassador’s program.
• Life jackets the first practical cradle to grave product
group (re-purposable/reusable products).
• Develop pathways to accept new and unique devices
into the market space.
• Consumer Perception
• Change the way the world looks at wearing a life jacket
(ex. bike helmet).
• Life jackets become “want to wear/cool to wear”, so
cool they get stolen.
• Everyone can clearly understand the right life jacket
for them and their activity.
• Anytime you turn on the television or see any type of
water sports activity, folks are wearing fashionable
vests (some type of aid)
• Make life jackets so popular that there is a supply
chain shortage.

15. Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results
• Authority/Trust
• We know that we are not accomplishing everything we
want to. LJA, as the authoritative non-regulatory body,
has the power to change that by developing technical and
usage guidance that we market along with our expertise
on a public forum using label funds & grants.
• Innovation
• Approval - Mitigating the hurdles to innovation within
the current standard and certification process or
develop a standard that allows for innovation without
jeopardizing public safety.
• Communication – Leverage our existing tools and
partnerships to communicate regulatory and
certification news and events.
• Sustainability – develop and promote listings and use
cases for environmentally considerate components.
• Recyclable life jackets.
• Consumer Perception
• Create branding guidelines for marketing firms
interested in watersports imagery and video content
that fosters life jacket wear.
• Education through LJA Tech certifications.
• Overcome the “fear to inflate” through education and
training.

16. Life Jacket Association:
Next Steps

17. Immediate Next Steps
• Develop a conference presentation to
share with the membership.
• Evaluate work done. What
goals/actions/efforts are missing? Canvas
membership at conference for input.
• Apply for RBS grant to create an LJA
certified Life Jacket Technician.
• Revise By-Laws to enhance inclusivity of
the LJA.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

18. Longer Term Work
• Draft goal statements.
• Note: The SOAR method can continue to be used and goals can be written as aspirational
statements to achieve by the end of the three-year strategic plan.
• Draft a Vision Statement for Association.
• Create a list of all possible projects (goals) to work on and then evaluate and
prioritize those projects and align on move forward projects.
• Explore including some of these key goals or aspirations into NBSAC strategic plan.
• Have an intentional conversation about lessons learned from past PFDMA/LJA
efforts and how we might change our approach going forward.
• Develop phased long term strategic plan with benchmarks and timeline.

19. Steps to a Long-Term Strategic Plan
Identify objectives for each goal area.
(i.e., how to achieve the goals)
Set annual benchmarks based on those objectives.
Note: The SOAR method can continue to be used and benchmarks can be written as
desired measurable results for each goal by the end of the three-year strategic plan.
Create a polling platform to get feedback from
membership on the strategic plan

20. Nominations to the
Executive Board

21. LJA 2022/23 Slate of Nominees
Name Company/Agency Role 2023 2024 2025 2026
Gordon Colby Mustang Survival President Y Y
Troy Faletra Throwraft Vice-President Y Y
Steve Keller ITW Nexus Global Treasurer Y Y
Steve Rogier Halkey-Roberts Corp. MAL Y Y Y
Wayne Walters Kent Watersports MAL X Y Y Y
Rob Rippy Coleman Company MAL X X
Jason Leggatt Mustang Survival Past President
Candidate nominees:
Susan Balistreri Balistreri Consulting MAL Y Y
Chris Sime Takashina USA MAL Y Y Y
*Leadership serve single 2-year terms
**MAL serve 3-year terms

22. NOMINEE: Ms. Susan Balistreri
• Consultant to the PFD Industry since 1980
• Providing engineering, marketing, technical and business management services to over 350 clients.
• Founded the National PFD Manufacturers Association in 1987
• President of Balistreri Consulting, Inc.
• Principal investigator for the first ever PFD observational wear rate study conducted
through NASBLA under a Wallop-Breaux grant from the United States Coast Guard in April, 1998
• Assisted in the advancement of the "Twelve and Under" initiative
• A law which mandates the wearing of properly sized life vests on children age twelve years and under.
• University of South Florida graduate
• Received her BA degree in Speech / English Education [1972] and her MA degrees in Communications, Marketing and Business
[1983]
• Appointed to the National Boating Safety Advisory Council by President Clinton, 1994 and re-appointed in
1997.
• Served as the Vice-Chairman of the PFD/LSI subcommittee from its inception to completion along with serving as the Chairman of
Regulatory Review for Equipment statutes in 1997.
• Passionate about college football splitting her loyalties between the Florida State Seminoles and
Alabama’s Crimson Tide.

23. NOMINEE: Mr. Chris Sime
• Vice President at Takashina USA
• Has been with the Takashina organization for 13 years after spending the previous
2 years with Stearns Inc. in Minnesota
• Primary responsibilities are to the Sales and Marketing department at TKU
• Calling on such retailers as Bass Pro Shops, West Marine, Costco, Canadian Tire, and others.
• Has been leading brand development for Bluestorm® as well as development of all go-to-market strategies.
• Prior to his lifejacket career, Chris was an independent sales agent for 19 years
• Representing various outdoor and team sports manufactures
• Also served in sales management capacities for many of these same companies
• Enjoys fishing and golf in the summers, along with bowling and anything hockey in the winters

24. Bylaw Changes

25. Bylaw Changes
• BYLAW II: Membership
• Section 1 (c) - Expanded membership
• BYLAW IV: Governance & Management of the Association
• Section 1 (c) – Tenure of Office
• Terms of office for all members of the Executive Board
• BYLAW V: Nominations & Elections
• Section 2 (b) – Slate of Candidates
• Section 3 (d) – Election of the Officers
• Board shall elect the Officers from among its eligible, seated members
• Grammar edits

26. Bylaw Member
Changes

27. Bylaw Member Changes
• Eliminating the Associate Membership category
altogether;
• Broadening the Regular Membership category to
include ALL types of organizations
• Some of which currently are included in the Associate
category
• Expanding and clarifying the Individual
Membership category; and
• Most importantly - providing full membership
privileges
• Voting on association matters and being eligible to serve
as chairpersons of committees and to serve on the
Executive Board.

28. Goal of Change
Increase the number of
members who are not
necessarily manufacturers
or associated with a
corporation that can now
participate as voting
members.
These changes will allow
for the LJA to create a
bigger presence in the
marine / boating / user
community (all things
involved with keeping you
afloat)

29. Improve the Brand of the LJA with
New Members
• Market the LJA as “all things life jacket” and recruit members to
share in the mission
• Increase life jacket wear rates
• Engage Social Media Influencers
• Share their stories of when they needed a life jacket or when they had a
close call.
• Their influence in their particular area of expertise would expose more
people to the importance of life jacket wear.
• Examples:
• “Youth Influence” fishing shows: Hunter Bland Fishing, Blacktip Fishing,
Salt Strong, Landshark Fishing, Googan Squad, Flukemaster, Lunkers TV, Bill
Dance Fishing, BamaBass…
• The Goal: to get people to use the life jackets that are currently
available to them (on the boat)

30. The Path To
Approval

31. In some cases, life changing
events are the impetus and
the inspiration for new
innovative safety products
and brands to come to life.

32. When developing water safety
products, such as flotation
aids and life jackets, they
need to be built to the highest
of all global safety standards!
The goal is to obtain the United
States Coast Guard approval
placard attached to the safety
product.

33. This is no easy task and could
take time! Pack your patience
and be open minded to the
process.
There are a few steps to
consider when conquering this
monumental task.

34. • Do your own homework
and research first
• Find a manufacturer who
believes in your vision and
is willing to work with you
• Find a qualified safety
product testing facility
• Hire a professional PFD
consultant if needed

35. • Find existing standards
the proposed product will fit
into without having to rewrite or
add to
• Use already approved
materials and components
• Test the proposed product to the
existing testing standards
• Product testing may exceed
25 different tests
• Participation in Standards Technical
Panel and committee groups

36. For more information on the
approval process, please
contact me at any time.
Troy Faletra
Troy@throwraft.com
+1.954.366.8004