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FrontlineCo To Take Over STAFDA Admin and Office functions as of Jan. 1

The future of the Specialty Tool & Fasteners Distributors Association (STAFDA) was at the forefront of discussion during the association’s 49^th Annual Convention and Trade  Show November 9-11 in Phoenix.

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CEO Georgia Foley unveiled the future administrative plans for STAFDA at the 2025 convention.

Starting January 1, 2026, FrontlineCo, a woman-owned, accredited association management company headquartered in Springfield, Illinois, will take over administration and back-office support functions for STAFDA. Most operational changes will happen behind the scenes to avoid disruptions to member services or programs.

The aim is to deliver a stable transition, bringing in additional support and expertise while maintaining the association’s unique culture, service and leadership continuity.

As presented during the general session at 2025 STAFDA Convention and Trade Show, the transition plan for STAFDA to the association management company, includes several coordinated steps.

Among the changes will be the eventual departure of Georgia Foley, STAFDA’s current CEO and executive director, who has served in those roles for the past 25 years.

Her journey with the organization dates to its origins in 1977, when she was just 13 years old.

Outside of her own father, Morrie Halvorsen, STAFDA’s first CEO, by all other appearances, she was in essence the organization’s first employee.

Having attended the first STAFDA Convention and Trade Show at Doral Country Club in 1977 in Miami, Florida, she continued helping through junior high, high school and college.

After college, Foley managed an association for people in the trade show industry, companies who build custom trade show exhibits, show contractors like Freeman and other exhibit related firms.

Foley worked in that role for seven years before her dad started putting together a succession plan and brought her into STAFDA in 1994 as member services director.

“STAFDA’s succession plan was in full force in 1997, and I was vetted against other candidates, but I got the nod,” Foley said.

She was given the title of associate executive director, taking over for her dad when he stepped down at the end of 1999.

“It’s been a true honor and privilege to continue his legacy,” Foley said. “I’ve been gifted with a career beyond my wildest dreams to serve STAFDA members who are so near and dear to my heart.”

However, she noted that her tenure was very different from her father’s.

The formative years of STAFDA from 1977 to 1999 during which he was leading, versus 2000 to present, paints two very different pictures.

“STAFDA was on a rocket ship during the booming 1980s and 1990s, inflation was down and business was on a hot streak,” she said.

With no construction-related channel buying groups, STAFDA was it for the distribution channel.

Comparatively, since 2000, it has been relatively stormy, as the organization has weathered the dot com bubble, 9/11, the financial crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession before hitting a decade of growth until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Prior to taking over from her father, he once asked her how long she planned to work at STAFDA.

“I’d been there for the first convention, and I wanted to see it to its 50th year,” Foley recalled telling him. “I thought that was a milestone and I said after 50 years of Halversons, that’s plenty.”

Behind the scenes, the wheels of those plans were starting to turn.

However, her succession plans were accelerated in June 2024 after she spent two days in the hospital with double pneumonia, strep throat, and borderline sepsis upon returning from a STAFDA board meeting in Nashville.

She said her medical team informed her that she had been about a day from being in a coma.

“It was all very baffling for the doctors to see these symptoms in a healthy woman with a very active and sport-based lifestyle,” she said, noting that since being released there have been no lingering effects and she’s been feeling 100%.

However, while sitting in that hospital room, she was more cognizant of STAFDA’s predicament.

“It’s just Cathy and me in the office, and I was experiencing firsthand what happens when one of us goes down,” Foley said.

Over the years, STAFDA had prided itself on being lean while working with great, outsourced partners.

“I knew last June, we were in a dangerous situation, and something had to change,” she said.

While in the hospital, she took note of how well orchestrated the medical team that assisted her was.

“Everyone had a specific task, came in at a specific time and did what they needed to do,” she said. “No one stepped on each other’s toes. It was a fluid and harmonious process with a singular goal to get me healthy and send me home.”

Following the medical incident, Foley recognized that it was time to move forward with a succession plan as the perfect storm of events was playing itself out.

She will be 62 in June, 2026 marks STAFDA’s 50th anniversary, the association’s office lease expires in February, and more support staff is needed.

The STAFDA board approved the option of having the association managed by an association management company and FrontlineCo was brought forward.

From the start of negotiations in early 2025, Kim Robinson, founder and president of FrontlineCo, said it was clear that STAFDA had established itself as a cornerstone of the construction and industrial supply chain channel.

Kim Robinson

“The organization has benefited from a stable, committed and knowledgeable staff team that has worked in partnership with dedicated leaders to make STAFDA a premier resource in this industry,” she said, citing the association’s unique history.

Robinson explained that FrontlineCo offer a team of experts in governance, leadership, meetings, planning, financial management, education, marketing, data, technology and efficacy.

In addition, the company serves as a full-service marketing and communications firm that focuses on associations.

“Just like that medical team in the hospital, where each member had their assigned duty, STAFDA will now have its own team of medics to take care of each aspect of our organization,” Foley said.

“All the back-office support we so desperately need will be transitioned over to FrontlineCo, and I’ll be working with Kim and her team to make sure it all goes well.”

She emphasized that FrontlineCo will be able to bring fresh perspectives, new programs and overall, new energy vitality to STAFDA.

In addition, she noted that under FrontlineCo’s leadership, STAFDA will have the ability to capitalize on programs and services that work well for their other clients, that STAFDA might not have thought of or even known about.

“STAFDA members can bring their own experience to the table, and their current clients might learn from us and in today’s world, when collectively associations are faced with shrinking membership, fewer prospects and changing demographics, it’ll be nice to pull our forces together for possible joint programs and meetings,” Foley said.

Acknowledging the rather daunting news, she is excited for STAFDA’s future.

“Change can oftentimes cause fear in people, but change can also be a very good and positive thing,” Foley said. “There might be a few hiccups along the way as we shift over to FrontlineCo, but it will get STAFDA in a far safer place than it is right now, with only a staff of two.”

At least temporarily, Foley and Catherine Usher, STAFDA membership services manager, will continue to maintain a small office in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, to assist in the transition. Both will receive training on FrontlineCo’s systems and processes to ensure continuity and knowledge transfer.

For her own role, Foley will reduce her hours to 30 per week, while assisting in the transition and actively leading the recruitment and selection process for her successor.

Usher will remain with STAFDA and now FrontlineCo.

“She will be the glue as I slowly fade out and the new CEO steps forward,” Foley said, noting that she is excited about STAFDA’s future.

Going forward, Robinson will serve as the main liaison between STAFDA leadership and FrontlineCo’s support staff, while overseeing the transfer of the back-office functions such as accounting, meeting planning, mail/office services, and other shared functions.

“I know STAFDA will be in good hands, and I know we’re going to be able to accomplish some great things together,” Robinson said.