Feature Story

February 2019

NSPF, APSP Unite to Form Pool & Hot Tub Alliance

By Dave Ramont

Since 1965, the nonprofit National Swimming Pool Foundation (NSPF) has worked to keep pools open, make pools safer and help create swimmers. The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals (APSP) promotes the enjoyment and safety of pools and spas, and is dedicated to the growth and development of its members. Those members include swimming pool, hot tub and spa manufacturers, as well as distributors, designers, builders, installers, suppliers, retailers and service professionals.

Recently the NSPF and APSP announced that they will come together to form the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance. The boards of directors of both organizations approved the unification in January, and work is now being done to establish structure, operations and governance, with the goal of officially beginning operations on April 1. With the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance as the umbrella, the new organization looks to lead advocacy, promotions and alliances within the industry.

For legal and procedural purposes, trade and foundation services will be conducted separately by the Pool & Hot Tub Professionals Association and the Pool & Hot Tub Foundation, respectively. A single board of directors, made up of five members each from the boards of NSPF and APSP, will oversee all three groups.

A similar unification effort was scrapped in 2016, and Lawrence Caniglia, CEO of APSP, said they’re excited to see this potential now being realized. “Industry leaders and our members and stakeholders increasingly realized that as our industry has continued to evolve and grow, there was tremendous, uncaptured potential to maximize our collective investments and talents for the greater good.”

The NSPF and APSP believe that the new alliance will benefit communities by facilitating the expansion of swimming, water safety and related research and outreach efforts focused on making swimming environments safer, while also keeping pools open and introducing more people to swimming.

NSPF President Rob Butcher said the two organizations are seizing the opportunity to have a greater impact. “Under the new alliance, our combined resources will allow us to amplify and more effectively promote the fun and benefits of swimming, of being in the water, pools and hot tubs. We will be able to put more resources into water safety, and we will be able to better protect the interests of all our stakeholders and members.”

Under the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, the APSP and NSPF will combine infrastructures, resources, networks and affiliations, while eliminating duplication of programs. Members and stakeholders of the two founding organizations will benefit from the full array of training, education, certification, research, advocacy, promotion, grant-making and support services currently delivered separately by APSP and NSPF.

“This is a historic moment for all of us, as we are capitalizing on the considerable groundwork that was laid over the past few years to finally realize the enormous benefits of bringing together the two most established and effective organizations serving our industry,” said APSP Board Chairman Donna Williams.