A group of more than 50 window film dealers convened recently on a public conference call intended to unite regional architectural installers on a national level in some sort of organized way.

Bill Valway of Absolute Perfection Window Tinting and Graphics of Sykesville, Md., is one of the dealers participating in the discussions.

It all started with a post by Tampa, Fla.-based Advanced Film Solutions owner and Window Film magazine columnist Mike Feldman in the popular architectural film installer networking group Residential/Commercial Flat Glass Dealers on Facebook. It read:

“Several dealers are considering establishing a network of commercial window film dealers for cooperative and joint marketing and film installations for national and regional commercial accounts in the USA.
If you are interested and install flat glass film in larger metro areas let me know if you would be interested in participating?”

On that post, more than 20 business owners from major metro areas—including Charlotte, Philadelphia and New Orleans—expressed interest and even more phoned into the conference call.

Feldman started things off with a question. “If I go to a chain store, headquartered in my area, and they want all their stores done, what do I do now?” he asked. “I’m going to do the ones in my area [but] I’m not going to go to Detroit or California.”

He also addressed why dealer control would be a must for the group. “I don’t think it’s reciprocated. I have never, in eight years, received a lead from a manufacturer asking me to do a chain store. I think they have people that they do use,” but Feldman explained that he’d prefer the referrals to be from one installer to the other, not installer to manufacturer to installer.

Discussions then turned to the start of an organized network.

“We can have an association—a group of grown up business guys—where we can share these leads, respect each other’s areas and have an immediate network where we work together,” he said. “We, ourselves, could be like a national dealer if we all trusted each other and dealt with each other as partners.”

While it’s unclear of what the group will look like and further discussions remain to be had, the heart behind the idea was summed up by Chris Robinson, owner of Woodstock, Ga.-based The Tint Guy.

“Every time we have a job out of state, we have to start calling dealers and find out which ones want to do it. If we had this group together, we know we have a family of guys have already said, ‘Yes, I will install your job.’ That’s really what I want more than anything,” he said.

In a post on the facebook group, Feldman mentioned what’s next. “The next step will be to set up a committee of motivated volunteers to determine feasibility,” the post reads. “A sub-group will be created to advance these discussions. Thank you.”

Window Film magazine will continue to follow this story.