The IdeasAmerica Association is a non-profit service organization composed of members from finance, commerce, industry and government, dedicated to the worth, contributions and benefits of employee ideas and innovation systems and other employee involvement processes. It renders to all members of the Association services which cannot be accomplished by individual members or companies, but only through the collective efforts of all concerned. The Association will support all methods of communication between employees and employer for the purpose of ideas expression and exchange.

IdeasAmerica (formerly EIA) History
Employee involvement is an old idea constantly being revitalized by organizations and new generations of practitioners throughout the world. In the United States the oldest documented system of formal employee involvement is Eastman Kodak company’s employee suggestion system, established in 1898.

During World War II, 35 suggestion system administrators met in the Chicago offices of United Airlines and founded the National Association of Suggestion Systems (NASS).  At our fiftieth anniversary celebration in Chicago in 1992, the name change to “Employee Involvement Association” was adopted to reflect our increasing acceptance of the perpetual and world-wide evolution of suggestion systems to involve employees in enterprises of all types.  At our recent 2010 annual conference the membership voted to adopt our current name of IdeasAmerica (IA).

Today, more than 6,000 formal employee involvement systems are known to have existed and continue to evolve in other countries throughout the world. IA’s international membership and outreach has facilitated opportunities for administrators from all nations to benefit from the experience and techniques being harvested world-wide.

The IdeasAmerica Association celebrated sixty years of service to employee involvement professionals at the 2002 Annual Networking and Training Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  The Association looks forward to celebrating it's seventy years of service in the year 2012.

IdeasAmerica Board of Directors