Let’s Get Together

By Scott Sardina, PE, CFPS, CFPECS.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

– Henry Ford

The International Fluid Power Society (IFPS) hosts an in-person meeting every spring and fall to discuss changes or improvements to the certifications, membership, education, and to talk about general business initiatives. As a member, you can join us at these meetings to voice your opinions and ideas to keep the organization moving forward. We have had very productive meetings this year, which included establishing our five-year vision. The purpose of the vision is to make sure we continue working together in a cohesive direction. This not only helps the business but is also intended to streamline the user experience (that’s you!). 

Our vision is to increase our global community with an added emphasis on the global part. There are some metrics in there as well, but I’ll spare you the numbers. This does not mean you HAVE to be a member to be a part of the IFPS community. We are just as happy if you find value in one of our webinars, just want to get certified, or obtain a training resource. We recognize that members of a community come in different forms. Ultimately, we intend on being there for you on your personal fluid power journey.

In my article at the beginning of this year, I encouraged everyone to keep their childlike curiosity and join the IFPS family. I am happy to report that we have grown together as a community and organization. There has been an increased interest in fluid power certification as well as education throughout 2023. We have heard the demand and have responded with increased services and more personalized training experiences including our first test in Spanish (más por venir). Being bilingual myself, I cannot express how happy I am to see some of our content translated into another language. Please explore some of these new tools and take advantage of the resources you get as a member of the IFPS family. 

If you are still with me at this point, thank you for being here. You might be asking yourself, “Why is this guy pushing so hard about coming together?”. Well, we live in a fast-paced world with our heads in our phones watching 10 second videos and often forget to work with the person right next to us. Now you might be asking yourself, “Who is this old guy?”. I won’t tell you how old I am, but I am younger than a boomer. There are only certain things that can be accomplished by people of different backgrounds coming together with a common passion. IFPS is proof of that.

It has been a complete honor being the 2023 president of IFPS. I would like to thank the IFPS staff for successfully keeping the organization running every day and executing new initiatives. I would also like to thank all the members of the board and those serving on committees for volunteering your time and ideas. We would not be able to do what we do without all of you. We have been heading in the right direction throughout 2023, and I am excited to see where we go from here. Looking forward to seeing you there.