The boards of two U.S. window and door associations have announced that they have agreed to fully pursue a consolidation of the two organizations. The Window and Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA) and the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) each have a small group of member company leaders participating in a special, joint task group to work on this plan development.

According to a joint press release, this effort represents an opportunity for the industry to work in a more effective and efficient way in the development of industry standards, product certification and educational programs.

"A joining of the two associations can offer more service, speed and streamlined efficiencies to members and a whole host of benefits to all our specifier and user communities through simplified, single-source messages," said Chris Simpson, WDMA chairperson.

"A single, stronger window and door association is of high interest to AAMA members from both the residential and architectural markets," added Chris Fuldner, chairperson for AAMA. "Such a change would bring together the two organizations into a more powerful and unified voice as we face issues in standards and code development, increasing legislative opportunities and rapidly escalating legal challenges."

The special joint task force is developing and will recommend transitional and long-term organizational structure, governance, procedures and financial plans. The task force plans to present proposals on the new association to the respective memberships at the WDMA and AAMA meetings in the first quarter of 2005.