Share, learn and grow with a group of senior leaders in continuous improvement.
The AME Champions Club is exclusively for the "Champions of Excellence" within a plant or facility. Membership in the Champions Club enables these agents of change to interact directly within a select group of individuals who share similar responsibilities to improve their company's competitiveness and who approach that challenge with an equally high level of enthusiasm and insight. Champions Club membership also enhances their company's commitment to the excellence process, while creating a broader alliance of companies with AME.
The principal benefit for a membership in the Champions Club is the unique opportunity to meet and network with your peers who have similar problems and responsibilities. Only members in the Champions Club and their guests are invited to the three to four meetings a year where specific topics are discussed and noted authorities are asked to present.
Members of AME Champions Club are senior executives from large and small companies and represent a large cross section of industries.
We seek and encourage membership from a diverse array of companies to provide each member with exposure that would be unattainable in other types of organizations and industry groups.
The objective of the Champions Club is to provide its members with state-of-the-art management techniques and skill development opportunities that will help them help their companies compete more effectively in a ever increasingly globally competitive marketplace.
Contact Sara O'Hara for details of upcoming Champions Club events or consult your monthly AME Champions Club newsletter.
If you are interested in learning more about the AME Champions Club, please contact championsclub@ame.org.
The program format and content are designed with input from the members of the AME Champions Club. Programs generally consist of:
- Roundtables which focus on topics that challenge and develop thinking at the member's level of responsibility
- Study missions and visits to companies exhibiting state-of-the-art processes which are generally not accessible to most people
- Case studies that focus our thought processes towards modern management techniques and practices
- Ample time is provided for peer to peer conversations where members are encouraged to pursue specific topics of interest
To learn about all of the benefits AME Champions Club members enjoy, download our AME Champions Club brochure!
The AME Champions Club seeks to provide senior managers of North American based manufacturing firms with informative insights and events in the following areas:
- Skill development events for their people
- Accessibility to state-of-the-art manufacturing plants, processes and people
- Learning what they need to be competitive
- Future of manufacturing processes and technology
- Business growth with profitability
- Developing and sustaining a competitive edge in the marketplace
- Designing and implementing programs and processes that add to stakeholder value
- Each year Champions create a top ten list of topics that is used to develop meetings for the next year
Join us at the 40th annual AME International Conference
CONNECT. EVOLVE. TRANSFORM.
October 28 - 31 2024
Annual dues for Champions Club membership are $4,000. The membership provides the following:
- Complimentary admission for the Champion to the AME Annual and Regional Conference (pre-conference workshops are an extra fee)
- Complimentary admission for the Champion to most AME workshops and seminars
- Complimentary admission for the Champion to Champions Roundtables to exchange and discuss new philosophies and techniques
- Admission as associate members (no $150 individual membership fees) to AME events for up to five people from the Champions company
- Private access to manufacturing leaders at the AME International Conference reception for Champions
- Access to Target Magazine archives
- Champions access to a forum of peers with whom to network and share issues
Contact at championsclub@ame.org to learn more.
"AME Champions Club is great. Everyone really commits to sharing and learning. Just one idea at these meetings can save us tens of thousands of dollars, and often I come back with many of these types of ideas. It’s a fantastic investment of my time because I get so much out of talking with peers.” - Bryan Goodman, vice president of operations and president of the manufacturing services division for Columbia Machine, Inc.
“I belong to AME Champions Club because of the camaraderie and fellowship between like-minded people. We have great tours and resources, but the focus is people-oriented. What this organization really emphasizes is giving the members information they can take back home and apply to their own businesses. To be effective enterprise-wide, you need a system and resources for solving problems. We come together and help one another. Everyone is so dedicated to helping each other...there is no other organization like this.” - Bob Bennett, president of Lean Consulting Associates, LLC
“With AME Champions Club, I have been able to visit some of the best plants in America. You get a chance to talk to those people and it’s so open and transparent. My company is on its lean journey, so having the chance to see the best-in-class is like gold. The transparency is amazing. The group itself is filled with amazing people, each with their own story. You can literally walk up to anyone in the room and they will share with you what they’ve done, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked. It’s a question of priorities, and if you are trying to grow and expand your own shop, you really must make the time to engage. Champions is the right group for investing your time to learn.” - Allan Coletta, senior director of engineering and facilities for Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics
“The best way to describe why I love being a part of AME Champions Club is to tell you a story. At one of our meetings, we got to meet Bob Chapman of Barry-Wehmiller in his home. That experience was life-changing. The Monday I got back, we held a meeting and immediately began putting some of the ideas I heard into action. I feel like I brought the emotion and inspiration I witnessed back to our company and it was transformational. My interactions with other AME Champions have shown me the power of trust and transparency in changing companies and lives.” - Eric DiMalanta, lean manager for Vitamix Corporation
"I met other Champions and got to participate in such a deep level of conversation, where the event was really focused on everybody helping everyone else. Seeing leaders try to learn and grow personally was really inspiring. At AME, it is always two-way conversations...I reach out to my AME network and always get new ideas and directions." - Jimmy Timm, business advisor at BMO Financial Group
