First Coast Manufacturers Association

What it reported doing in 2024

2024 First Coast Manufacturers Association Accomplishments As the year seems to be rapidly moving to an end, we celebrate another exciting year for First Coast Manufacturers Association. This year began with uncertainty regarding inflation and an anticipated recession. The economy has slowed, and product demand has eased, but generally it has been a good year for our manufacturers. FCMA companies continue with some supply chain issues and delivery timelines seem to still be somewhat extended. Inflation has eased somewhat, making it somewhat easier to project operation costs by price stabilization further helping our companies. Our participation levels have returned to levels mirroring pre-covid providing great opportunities for our members to engage in networking and information gathering. Over the last two months we have sustained two major hurricane events. Fortunately, these storms had a minor impact to our regional manufacturers, other regional not as fortunate as we were. Now let's share some highlights from this year at FCMA. The third annual Roundtable provided information about the legal applications of AI, a new look at cyber security options and overviews of the state of the economy. Our lunchtime program helped us to connect members and gather information for the balance of the year. This year our Symposium provided a number of emerging issues for our members to explore and understand how to improve business decisions. The interactions in a digital age, the new workforce approach employment, Florida Economic outlook, topped with a panel discussion concerning the elections and how things are looking in terms of policy and issues impacting our manufacturers. Government policies continue to create opportunities and challenges. We had a great year working with our FloridaMakes team and regional associations across the state. Eight of our company members participated in our Legislative Days, traveling to Tallahassee to discuss taxes, policy and the impact on manufacturing on our state. We lobbied successfully to expand grant funding for training and advanced technical training for our industry. We continued our tradition of providing workshops and committee activities to identify changes in policies, mandates and legislation as a resource for managing these issues. Impacts of increased energy cost and power consumption remain topics we are watching, particularly as energy policies relate to carbon emissions. We anticipate energy and carbon emissions will continue to have key financial impacts to operational costs. This year we expanded our meeting platforms to include more in-person and virtual meetings, while remaining focused on in-person meetings to increase network opportunities. Our Leadership Academy courses were very active this year. We continued to be at class capacity months in advance of the start of a new class group. Our Professional Progress had another great mix of public and private sector workers. Professional Progress works with people to improve personal interaction skills and develop relationship skills. Plans are underway for next year's classes and courses. I hope you will plan to participate in these outstanding programs. Our annual golf outing was held in May and was near capacity. Plan to join us again in May 2025. Excellence in Manufacturing annual awards program to recognize our manufacturers, partners and employees was held on October 18. We hosted almost 350 participants and enjoyed recognizing our manufacturers' accomplishments throughout the year. Plans are already underway to make next year's event even bigger and better. FCMA has had discussions for several years on how to further engage women in manufacturing at all levels. In September, we hosted the first Women Leadership in Manufacturing. We had a packed chamber of 150 women. The program was a huge success, setting the stage for the next steps to engage women in our industry. Last year our Board of Directors decided it was time to exp

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: Limited
• Program expense ratio: Limited
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Limited
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 20.1%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.33; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.59; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 38.6%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: Limited
• Revenue growth: -1.6% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -1.3% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings