The Gases and Welding Distributors Association (GAWDA) reports it has mutually agreed to discontinue its contract with the management firm that oversees its daily business operations, Fernley & Fernley.  GAWDA said the two sides disagreed on the terms of their management and administrative services arrangement for the future, and that the separation is “amicable.”

GAWDA is the national trade association representing distributors of industrial gases and related welding equipment and supplies.

The group’s current management contract with Fernley & Fernley will terminate on May 4, 2010. No new management firm has been named. In a letter to the GAWDA members, the group’s president Jenny McCall said GAWDA’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors are considering options for the future management of the association in the future.  She said GAWDA members will be notified as soon as the new plans are finalized.

Also, McCall emphasized that the GAWDA Spring Management Conference and Annual Convention, April 18-20, in Chicago, and all of the association’s programs and activities, will proceed as planned.

“On behalf of GAWDA’s members I would like to thank Fernley & Fernley for all of the hard work and dedicated service that they have provided to our association for these many years,” McCall wrote.

Fernley & Fernley oversees business for a variety of trade associations, including the American Flooring Alliance, American Medical Women's Assn., the Association Management Company Institute, the Association of Oncology Social Work, and the Aviation Distributors and Manufacturers Assn., among others.

A statement on the company’s website is attributed to former GAWDA president Robert Thornton Jr.:"Fernley & Fernley has skillfully managed our association for over 60 years, which by itself is a testament to the quality of their work. Year after year their Headquarters Team has consistently delivered services with professionalism and enthusiasm that shows through on every communication, meeting and project."