CLEAN 2021 has been postponed until July 2022 and we are exploring options for meetings this year. What are your plans and what drives your decision making? We want to hear from you and are offering a $50 Visa gift card to one individual completing this survey.

Your time is valuable and this short survey should require less than four minutes to complete.

Start 2021 right by learning new insights into the textile care industry! ALM has multiple on-demand options for learning, available on your time, from wherever you are.

Our article library features in-depth exploration of topics across the industry, and, if you hold an ALM certification, there are short quizzes included that provide continuing education credit towards your recertification requirement. Also, previously-recorded webinars are available to ALM members in the Resource Library. Please note, you must be signed it to access the quizzes and recorded webinars.

If your resolution is to demonstrate your expertise by adding some credentials to your toolkit, check out the online CLLM program! Viewed as a comprehensive overview of the issues impacting laundry operations, the Certified Laundry & Linen Manager (CLLM) is recognized in the industry as the minimal educational requirement for many government contracts and an excellent tool for managerial personnel entering the laundry industry, including textile care sales professionals.

Whether you want to earn certification or simply build your knowledge, you can also gain all the insights and knowledge from IMPACT on-demand recordings, now available in the ALM store! In the last Vital Threads, we highlighted the opening session. But that was only the beginning of over 20 hours of education packed into IMPACT.

Cara Walton, engagement manager at Harbour Results, Inc., a leading manufacturing consulting company focused on benchmarking and operational and strategy improvements, believes in the power of benchmarking to identify opportunities for improvement and to spur optimization. Walton encourages linen management companies to get into benchmarking. 

"Whether you’re the CEO or the janitor, you don’t know what you don’t know," Walton said, "Benchmarking gives you the opportunity to understand what’s happening outside of your business that you spend every single day working to improve. The ultimate goal is to be more efficient and more competitive. We’re looking to improve that bottom line, and the best way to do that is by understanding how what you are doing compares to what the best-in-class [companies] are doing and then identifying the key areas where you can get better.

"If you say that you’ve met every single metric you’ve ever set for yourself, then maybe we need to look at the metrics you’re setting, because there are still areas where you can improve even more," said Walton. "I’ve yet to meet a business that doesn’t need to improve in any area at all, including our own. That goes for all businesses."

In the Benchmarking: A Business Essential on-demand recording, Walton goes in-depth in case studies and anecdotes about companies who successfully acted on benchmarking data, outlines 10 reasons benchmarking is important, and more. Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn from a benchmarking expert to help your production and improve your bottom line. You may purchase access to bundles or individual sessions in the ALM store. (IMPACT attendees, you may still access the recordings through the IMPACT app.)

Never forget, ALM is here for YOU. If there are resources you need to be successful in your facility or business, contact us! We will find the information for you, saving you time and effort. 

Standard Textile, a global manufacturer of healthcare, hospitality and consumer products, and Cleveland Clinic will collaborate to produce a non-medical grade, reusable face mask that is designed for comfort and customization. Standard Textile is donating the majority of profit from face mask sales to support COVID-19 research at Cleveland Clinic.

Standard Textile's and Cleveland Clinic's respective innovation teams collaborated to design the non-medical face mask, which will bear the inspirational message "HOPE" after Hope Hospital, a temporary hospital in the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion on the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic. In April, Cleveland Clinic transitioned the Samson Pavilion to a temporary hospital to meet the potential needs of patients and the community in the event of a surge of patients with COVID-19. The building was converted back to the Health Education Campus for the fall semester.

Pauline Gamble, former ALM Director of Academic Affairs in the late 1990s, passed away on December 23, 2020, due to complications of COVID-19. Our sincere sympathies are extended to her family, colleagues and friends.

Pauline earned her bachelor's degree from Northeast Louisiana University (now University of Louisiana at Monroe) and her master's degree from Louisiana State University in Shreveport.

When she finished college, Pauline taught school in Houma, Louisiana, until accepting a position as a mathematician with Texaco in New Orleans. At the time, there were no female engineers in the oil and gas business and Pauline became one of the first women to work in that capacity. Pauline was at her happiest in South Louisiana: Mardi Gras, LSU football, the food, the music — she always felt that the larger-than-life spirit of that region fit her larger-than-life personality.

After retirement from Texaco, Pauline taught school in Louisiana and Texas and worked in institutional laundry management in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. If ever a place brought her as much joy as her beloved New Orleans, it was the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. She eventually returned to Louisiana, making her home in Grand Cane. Not one to sit idle, Pauline took a position teaching math at Central School, where she worked until her passing.

A1 American recently hired Steve Berg as Vice President of Healthcare National Accounts. Berg will help develop and support company-wide strategic sales and marketing plans for the healthcare market. Berg brings over 33 years of experience in the healthcare market, having developed skills in sales, customer satisfaction, sales management, executive leadership, innovative product development and logistics. 

UNX Industries, Inc., a leading innovator in commercial cleaning solutions, is embarking on a company-wide rebranding focused on simplifying product design and messaging. Elements of the redesign will include a refreshed web and social media presence, updated product and packaging labels, and the launch of an innovative new SimplePour bottle. The rebranding efforts will begin rolling out January 2021 across their extensive housekeeping product line, followed by additional product lines over the subsequent 18 months.

Krishna (Kris) Patel, Executive Vice President of Institutional Sales for the Venus Group, Foothill Ranch, California, recently announced his retirement from the company, effective December 31, 2020.

Patel, a 32-year veteran on the industry, has spent his entire textile career with Venus Group. Kris was instrumental in bringing Venus Group (formerly known as Venus Textiles) from a little-known supply company, that began selling towels to local car washes in 1972, to one of the largest textile manufacturing and distribution companies in our industry. Kris helped expand Venus’ geographic footprint from a local West Coast company to that with expansive nationwide presence.