Trade associations and the services they provide

It is always useful at the beginning of any discourse to define the subject under discussion. I should therefore like to start by defining what a trade association is. This may seem a little superfluous but experience shows that there is considerable diversity of opinion not only on what a trade association is but also on what it does. This in itself is not surprising because associations differ in type, function and size, depending upon their history and the nature of the industry or business group whom they represent.