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NAILM Membership Renames Organization Association for Linen Management

LAS VEGAS — Members of the National Association of Institutional Linen Management (NAILM) voted Sunday to rename the organization the “Association for Linen Management,” known by the acronym ALM.
An ad hoc committee authorized by the association’s membership last year to study a possible name change “sifted through a vast number” of suggestions before sending two to the board of directors, according to Bart Carpenter, who chairs the association’s bylaws committee.
The board selected Association for Linen Management (ALM), which the bylaws committee recommended for approval. Members voted 126-14 in favor of the bylaws amendment during Sunday’s annual business meeting at the Paris Las Vegas hotel.
The other proposal – National and International Linen Managers, intended to retain the NAILM acronym — that was submitted by a longtime member who was not in attendance at the meeting was defeated 122-20.
The drive to study a name change grew from staff concerns that its institutional identification was limiting marketing opportunities and stagnating growth. The association hired a marketing professional to study target markets and learned the term “institutional” was indeed a stumbling block for some potential members that included hotels, commercial laundries, hospitals and nursing care centers.
Heywood Wiley founded the nonprofit professional organization in 1939 “to provide a network for the flow of information among its members leading toward their professional development and the advancement of the technologies they employ.”
Eric Frederick, who chaired the ad hoc “name change” committee, doesn’t believe the association is disrespecting its history by changing the name to increase marketability.
“The name is not what he dreamed of,” Frederick says of Wiley. “The mission is what he dreamed of. This is in keeping with his dream.”
ALM describes itself as “the premier educational source for people and organizations that purchase, process, distribute and manage the use of textiles.” It’s one of six industry associations that sponsor the Clean Show.
 

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