Andrew Christmas likes creating happy associations with his surname whenever he has the opportunity – and as the NAHAD volunteer rotates off from an impactful leadership role, members will also associate Christmas with a few valuable industry gifts from which many will benefit.

Helpful, humble, gregarious, and generous with time and talent, Christmas has served a term of four years on the Hose Safety Committee. An industry veteran, Christmas is business development manager at McGill Hose & Coupling in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Industrial Supply magazine caught up with the busy dad of three, asking him to reflect on the work and legacy he’s contributed to the industrial hose and fittings community.

Q. How did you get your start with NAHAD – and what volunteer roles have you held?

A. I started with McGill Hose & Coupling in 2008, and Harry McGill and Alex McGill have always been very involved with NAHAD. Alex was a past president and sat on all the seats of the board. It’s always been a big fixture in the McGill culture – they wanted to make sure we all went through the different certifications and knew how to use the fabrication guidelines. One of the best things for my career has been getting involved with NAHAD.

Early on, I volunteered to be on the PTFE Committee (polytetrafluoroethylene), and then somehow I got elected as the chair. Eventually, NAHAD President Jeff Scheininger from Flexline wanted to restructure the committee chairs, and he very nicely asked me to become head of the Standards Committee, taking over for Susanna Vandenberg from Flexaust. And I was like, “great!” Then I went down to Baltimore for my new board orientation, and they said, “Oh, we’re going to change the whole thing and we’re eliminating the Standards Committee. Instead, we’re going to call it the Hose Safety Institute – and you’re going to be the head of the Hose Safety Committee and execute this whole new process.” Naturally, I was very happy to be “voluntold” by Jeff to help implement these new committee structures. We wanted to make sure all four had purpose and relevance and that we were bringing things to the table that would help all NAHAD members.

We still laugh and joke about some of our chaos at the time, but it was really a great decision and it made the committees very, very valuable. It’s definitely been a fun four years.

Q. What was the vibe of that Standards Committee? Sounds like it could be grueling.

A. I remember the first guideline we were going to completely redo was on PTFE. I was very lucky to have Joanna Truitt on that committee! She was probably the first person I really got to know at NAHAD, and she and I worked closely together with Jeff, Jonathan Round, and Chris Geib. We all travelled down to Jeff’s business at Flexline to work on that PTFE fabrication guide, and we kept laughing every time Joanna tried to pronounce polytetrafluoroethylene – she just couldn’t get it out. I’ve told that story a thousand times and we still joke about her trying to type while Jeff was using bigger words than the average person! It was a great time, and we had a lot of fun.

Not only did we update all the standards, we also put everything online for the first time. Now, you can do all of the trainings and tests online. It was a very big undertaking, and again, Joanna did a large portion of that. We would come up with ideas, and she’d keep us on track.

Q. What does is mean when NAHAD says the HSI (Hose Safety Institute) has been ‘reimagined.’

A. The HSI used to be set up so that when you pay your NAHAD dues you’d also become a member of HSI when you paid those dues. What we’ve done now is actually put some teeth behind becoming an HSI member: So, 50% of your employees have to be either handbook or fabrication certified. Then you are able to promote that you are a Hose Safety Institute member. Every three years, their certification status must be re-validated.

There’s no more fee to be an HSI member; you just have to maintain your employees’ renewals. Being a NAHAD member no longer automatically makes you a member of HSI – it’s now completely merit-based.

Q. Where else would we see your fingerprints on the association while you’ve been serving on the safety committee?

A. My favorite thing that I’ve been a part of is developing the Hose Safety Awareness Week. For the entire second week of September, we as an industry spotlight and educate customers about the safe use of our products. It’s all about spreading the word of doing things the right way and putting things in the right place.

This is now our third year – and these days, we have members doing open houses and a tremendous amount of outreach all over the internet. If people remember me for anything, I hope it’s for Hose Safety Awareness Week. That would be pretty cool.

Q. Looks like you’ll have some free time now that your term is ending – what’s next on your bucket list?

A. Yeah, that would be helping my son win his go-kart championship!

But professionally speaking, I’m focused on helping the next generation. We’re growing at McGill Hose & Coupling – we’re hiring new employees and helping them get to their next level. That’s really what I want people to know me for – that I was able to help them find something, or I taught them something – or helped point them in the right direction so they could solve a problem on their own.

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The March/April issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about Industrial Supply Co. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dr. Bharani Nagarathnam and Frank Hurtte, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.