Women's Group Blossoming at NBMDA
By Denise Williams | Channel Connection
A new committee is taking root within NBMDA, one that will cater to women who work in the building materials distribution channel or for distributors’ supplier partners. While still a predominantly male space, there’s more female representation today than ever before. Women are already here and doing great things, so organizers didn’t necessarily see the need for a “we are women, hear us roar” agenda. What they did recognize was an opportunity to make the association an even better resource for this sub-group of members.
Planting the Seeds
Their ranks may be notably smaller, concedes GeorgeAnne Blackmon, but she says what the women lack in physical presence they more than make up for in professional excellence.
“They’re strong; they have a resilience about them,” observes the NBMDA Steering Committee Co-Chair and senior sales executive for Decospan, a supplier member of the association.
“When I first started going to NBMDA conferences, I wasn’t intimidated by the men,” Blackmon confesses. “I was intimidated by the women.”
Each is no doubt a force to be reckoned with in her own right — you kind of have to be when you’re the only girl in the sandbox, according to Blackmon — but their collective energy, knowledge, and experiences have unharnessed power. Carving out a central space for connecting with peers, she reasons, will provide a wider window to the value the organization provides while also promoting involvement and engagement on a higher level.
The seed for a women-focused group at NBMDA was planted after countless casual interactions between female members while crossing paths at the occasional industry event. These impromptu exchanges, Blackmon realized, cultivated a growing desire for a more structured and readily accessible outlet where females in distribution could cast their voices, be seen and heard by peers, and find support if and when needed.
Pollination Stage
After a couple of years of kicking the thought around, Blackmon was in Atlanta for IWF 2024 when she decided it was time to stop talking and actually pollinate the idea. She made a beeline for the NBMDA booth, where her pitch was well-received. Enlisting the help of Canusa Wood’s Dempsey Goedbloed, another champion for the establishment of a women’s group, she gathered a core ensemble of individuals who had expressed interest in and encouraged the idea. That was in August and, by late October, organizers were ready for a soft launch. At the NAFCD + NBMDA Annual Convention in New Orleans, they joined NAFCD’s women’s luncheon entitled “Ace the Game,” which was a huge hit with attendees. “I commend Dori [Blitzstein, NAFCD Immediate Past President], who said ‘absolutely’ to the proposal for a joint session,” says Blackmon. “She was like ‘we’ll do this together.’ And we did. And it was great.”
By the 2025 convention, scheduled for this November in Dallas, Women of NBMDA hopes to be ready to stage a program under its own banner. Naturally, female members of NAFCD would be welcome. And, just as with NAFCD’s working lunch last year, the invitation also would extend to male members of both associations.
Birds and Bees
That’s important to point out, Blackmon emphasizes. The group is obviously targeted to women but, she’s quick to note, that doesn’t mean men have nothing to contribute. In fact, there are men not only on the committee but on the board as well.
“The point is not to be exclusive, but to be inclusive,” Blackmon underscores. Logic dictates that if men are boxed out of the conversation, that defeats the whole purpose.
Which is what, again?
“It is about giving more people who are members of NBMDA the opportunity to become involved and find people — in this case, women — who are their peers,” Blackmon recaps. “It just opens up more opportunity for us to all come together as a group: what we can do for each other and how we can support each other.”