Overview
After working together for several years and discussing the futures of their associations, the NHSSA board voted to pursue a merger with NeSSA at their January 7, 2025 board meeting. NeSSA’s board members followed suit at their February 20, 2025 meeting. The Executive Committees of board boards will take point as representation for not only their associations, but also for both facility and vendor members within each group. The merged association would serve Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
Working Jointly Produces Positive Results
NHSSA and NeSSA currently collaborate annually on four webinars, and NHSSA has joined NeSSA’s annual Northeast Storage EXPO as a co-host for two years now, with the intent to continue in the future. Both the webinars and the EXPO have become more successful because of this collaboration and have added more benefits and opportunities to learn and network to our members. Working jointly, we’ve expanded our speaker base, built some interest in live event attendance, offered the webinars at no cost to our members, increased vendor relationships, and have become part of the largest storage event in our area at little to no cost to us.
Impact of Merger on our Members
We expect that a merger of the two associations will have a positive impact on you and your business. As one organization, we will have the same mission, governing documents, a single Board of Directors, working committees, and a united member base. Members will not lose any of their current member benefits and are likely to gain resources as the association can consolidate its efforts to host one website with a common-core section of best practices, plus provide access to state-specific laws. While NHSSA has a website with resources available, the site itself has become outdated exceedingly fast and a website rebuild is not financially viable. NeSSA’s upgraded website can hold even more types of resources, comes with user-friendly pages, and makes processes like event registration, membership renewal, and benefit access much more seamless.
Events will also look the same post-merger with NH participation in the annual EXPO and a one-day educational and/or social event happening in our state in the fall (currently the Fall Workshop).
For members with facilities in multiple states, this consolidation will result in one dues notice, one website login, one association office phone number and e-mail address, and one expanded membership roster. It is expected that the merged association will become larger than the combined membership of the existing associations resulting in increased revenue and participation at our events.
Our annual dues structure will change, and the way we proceed with this will be discussed and agreed upon by both boards with feedback taken into consideration from our members.
Our government relations efforts in the individual states will continue. This, we believe, is one of the most important things the associations do for our industry. The process and cost of pursuing legislation in each state is significantly different. Each group will bring to the merged association the money they have already accrued for the legislative efforts in their state and this money will be preserved for advocacy within that state. As additional funds are needed, the members within that state will support their state’s lobbying efforts. Each state will hire their own lobbyist when necessary and have their own Government Relations Committee. Since their formation in 2017, there has never been a legislative effort in any state that NeSSA has not supported financially and through grassroots efforts.
The Process of Merging
The Association Boards have renewed a relationship with the attorney who handled NeSSA’s original merger. Our work with the attorney so far has been phone calls and getting information and dates in order. The attorney will direct our activities and assist with the filing of state forms in both NH and MA (where NeSSA is registered) and with the IRS. Volunteers will develop our organizational documents, for example our bylaws, and all of our organizational documents will be reviewed by the attorney before they are enacted.
Later this year both boards will vote whether to approve the merger, then the membership will vote. Should everything go smoothly, we anticipate both votes and all of the merger paperwork with appropriate approvals will occur by year-end.
Your Input
We would like your feedback. What are your questions? What are your concerns? Note that your answers are confidential. If you would like someone to respond to your questions directly, you will need to add your contact information in the optional space provided on the form. Please try to complete this survey by Wednesday, June 11 at EOB so the board can review at their next meeting. You can also attend our virtual Cheers with Peers Happy Hour at 5:30 PM on June 4 to discuss.
Link to survey is here.
Summary
As we go through each step in the merger process, we will keep you informed of our progress. Our next communication will be to summarize the results of the survey and respond to any necessary feedback. You are invited to contact anyone on our Board of Directors or staff at any time during the process.