VOLUSIA COUNTY STORIES / AN APPRECIATION BY ROB URBAN
Volusia Manufacturers Association.
The work of
opening doors.
A plant tour. A first robot. A place to learn while earning.
Sometimes a region’s future begins with an invitation.
You cannot be curious
about work you
never get to see.
A manufacturer’s building can be part of your daily route for years without becoming part of your understanding of the place you live. You know the turn, the sign and the entrance. The work inside remains somebody else’s world.
The Volusia Manufacturers Association helps make that world more accessible. Its work connects manufacturers through education, events, employment resources and relationships across the region.
What draws me to VMA is the care involved in turning those broad purposes into an encounter: someone showing how a thing is made, a student trying a skill, an employer making room for a person who is still learning.
Factories do not run on machinery alone. Knowledge has to pass between people. So does the confidence to take a first step.
JANUARY 2026 / EVERGLADES BOATS
An invitation
with safety glasses.
There is something appealing about an event description that tells you what shoes to wear.
The listing for VMA’s January 2026 Everglades Boats tour offered a look inside the company’s West Campus operation. It described lamination, fabrication, finishing and assembly, and told visitors to expect the conditions of an active manufacturing environment. Safety glasses were part of the visit.
Those details make the invitation feel substantial. The subject is a place where people are doing the work, with the tools, materials and practical considerations that come with it.
I admire the willingness behind opening a workplace to other people’s questions. A process that is familiar to its practitioners can be fascinating to a visitor. Explaining it asks the host to slow down, choose a starting point and notice what another person has not yet learned.
A good introduction can change what we see the next time we pass the building.
A spectator can
become a builder.
That possibility comes through beautifully in Suzanne McCarthy’s reporting on the 2025 VMA Robot Brawl for the Observer. Seventy-six student-built robots competed at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that October, in three weight classes.
One of the youngest competitors had attended the previous year as a spectator. A year later, with coaching, the kindergartner won the one-pound division.
I like the distance between those two visits. First there was something interesting to watch. Then there was a reason to learn how to participate.
An event can give curiosity a practical next step: a machine to build, a problem to solve, somebody to ask. The pleasure of making something work becomes its own invitation to keep learning.
That is an encouraging role for a manufacturers association to play in a young person’s life.
FLORIDA FAME SUNSHINE CHAPTER
Someone has to
bring the partners together.
The local FAME program offers a more sustained connection between learning and work. FAME stands for the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education.
In its September 2021 account of the chapter’s beginnings, FAME USA described a joint effort involving manufacturers, VMA, Daytona State College and CareerSource Flagler Volusia. VMA leaders had spent the preceding year helping organize the Sunshine Chapter.
The account also credits Daytona State’s Frank Mercer with introducing VMA to the model. Jayne Fifer, identified in that historical report as VMA’s president and CEO, explained the appeal of a program shaped by manufacturers’ actual skill needs.
I appreciate seeing that connective work named. A partnership needs people who will carry an idea from one organization to another and keep working on the details until it becomes possible to join.
The classroom, the employer and the student each bring something essential. Making them part of one arrangement is an achievement worth recognizing.
2 days
in the classroom
3 days
at a participating company
The weekly model described by Daytona State for its 2024 cohort.
Learning belongs
in the working week.
Daytona State’s July 2024 announcement of the fourth cohort described a five-semester program combining two classroom days with three days of paid work each week. Nine students signed with sponsoring companies that year.
The participating employers included ABB, Alleima, B. Braun, By Light, Germfree, Sparton, Teledyne and Thompson Pump. The college connected the program with its Engineering Technology associate degree and a FAME Advanced Manufacturing Technician certificate.
That weekly arrangement is the detail I find most meaningful. Study and practical experience can inform each other while the student earns money for the work.
It takes commitment to welcome somebody who is developing a skill. A workplace has to make room for questions as well as production. The willingness to do that helps give a newcomer a place to begin.
A region gets to know
what its people can do.
Volusia County has many ways to introduce itself. The work happening inside its manufacturing businesses deserves a place in that introduction.
The people who make, test, repair and improve things carry a particular knowledge of the world. They understand how an idea behaves when it meets material, equipment and the need to make it work again tomorrow.
I admire VMA for helping that knowledge travel. The association gives employers reasons to meet, creates occasions for others to see their work and helps connect education with the people who can put it to use.
There is a human generosity in that. Someone already inside a field takes the time to make it more understandable to someone outside it.
The invitation may be small: come on the tour, ask your question, see what you can build. It can become the beginning of a much larger story.
Rob Urban
Useful details.
What does the Volusia Manufacturers Association do?
VMA connects manufacturers through events, education, employment resources and regional industry relationships. This appreciation looks at its plant tours, student robotics event and role in the local FAME partnership.
How is VMA connected to FAME?
FAME USA’s 2021 account identifies VMA as a partner in organizing the Florida FAME Sunshine Chapter, alongside local manufacturers, Daytona State College and CareerSource Flagler Volusia.
Where can I check current FAME requirements?
Daytona State College publishes the current academic requirements. Its FAME Advanced Manufacturing Technician certificate page identifies employer sponsorship and participation in the FAME cohort as part of the program.
Where can I find upcoming VMA events?
Check VMA’s official website for current events, registration and participation requirements. The plant tour, Robot Brawl and cohort examples in this article are dated historical examples.
Sources and further reading
Independent appreciation researched September 29, 2026. Sources include VMA’s overview, the January 2026 plant-tour listing, Observer reporting on the 2025 Robot Brawl, FAME USA’s 2021 chapter history and Daytona State’s 2024 cohort announcement. Current college requirements are linked separately. Dates distinguish historical examples from current opportunities.