The American Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA) is planning its 17th consecutive annual program for the International Cotton Institute (ICI) at the Fogelman Executive Center in Memphis, Tennessee.
The program will begin on June 1 and graduation ceremonies will be held on July 19. It is an intensive business program covering all aspects of the global cotton industry and has graduated around 700 participants from 62 countries in the 16 years the program has been conducted.
The association is expecting greater participation this year than in the past two years. Class size averaged about 40 participants until two years ago, when the Hi Ni flu virus broke out. The virus caused many companies to cancel travel plans in 2008, thus postponing participation by employees. Now that the virus has passed and immunization is available, participation is rising once again.
Due to the volatile global cotton markets of late, there’s renewed interest by the industry in better education. The institute is constantly updating the curriculum as the industry changes, with particular emphasis on New York ICE cotton futures and options. The participants learn how to trade futures and options on futures, as well as how to develop minimum and maximum price strategies using options on futures.
The program offers participants an opportunity to learn about the entire cotton industry and provides trips to cotton fields, gins, co-ops, warehouses, merchants and textile producers so they can see firsthand how the industry is tied together. And instead of a few instructors doing the teaching throughout the eight-week program, the institute invites about 40 people to come in as guest faculty and talk about what they do every day. That way the institute ensures it is always providing the latest information about the industry.
Keeping them on their toes
The institute also tests the participants. We have always been felt that if the program were conducted like a seminar, there would be no way of knowing how much knowledge participants were taking away with them. That’s why there is a series of written tests given periodically, and a final exam administered at the end of the curriculum. The institute also provides some experience in manual cotton classing–not to promote manual classing but to provide an opportunity to learn about the various characteristics of cotton fiber. Manual classing tests are also conducted and participants must make a passing average grade on all of the combined tests in order to obtain a certificate of satisfaction.
The program offers excellent opportunities for networking due to the large guest faculty, as well as several social events that are conducted during the duration of the program. Full information about the upcoming program can be found on the Institute’s website at http://cotton.memphis.edu/.