Overview:The National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) strives to be one voice representing Christmas Tree Professionals and promoting the use of Real Christmas trees.
Associate membership? Yes, they have a membership for “related industry” and “associate” members which include forest service and library personnel. “B+”
Memberships made public? No, but they do list regional and state associations and some of them (like California) do provide limited information about members. “D”
National conference? Yes, its in February and they list a keynote speaker but not sponsors or exhibitors. One of their topics is about what to expect from the new administration in Washington. That topic will be included in all trade association annual meetings next year. “B-“
Subchapters? Yes, and they are very active and interconnected. Many of their conferences are listed on the national site. California has its own website and has an extensive library of articles regarding Christmas tree issues. “A-“
Industry information? Yes, they have a list of statistics covering states with the most farms, most popular types of trees, farm acres and the like. That also provide business to business information about insurance and transportation companies that cater to the Christmas tree industry. They also have a wealth of consumer information as well. They don’t make any of their publications available to the general public however. “B+”
Glossary? Yes: http://www.christmastree.org/glossary.cfm “B+”
Sense of the industry? The site does a good job of covering both consumer issues, while protecting membership information and also providing plenty of useful information about the industry. Their news section is particularly good and they have an entire section devoted to media outlets wishing to do stories about Christmas trees. While they do promote “real” trees and also have information about environmental issues, I was surprised there wasn’t more about public advocacy. “B+”
Overall: They definitely shield some membership information from public view; publications, member profiles but make much industry information available and have quite a bit of data both consumer and industry available for the public. “B+”
Tags: Christmas, Linkedin, National Christmas Tree Association, trade association
Reading Tea Leaves by Randy Wilson 
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