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Find-a-Contractor Masonry Buyer's Guide
February 2009

State of the Association

2009 Report of the President

By

2008 began with a quick start with the MCAA new partnership with Hanley Wood World of Concrete and World of Masonry. There was excitement and anticipation in the air.

Any questions about selling our MCAA trade show to Hanley Wood were quickly set aside and replaced with positive affirmations. The convention was kicked off with Henry Winkler delivering an endearing look at his life with dyslexia and how he overcame his disability. The convention also saw the creation of the very first contractor appreciation party held on Wednesday night in a large ballroom at Caesars hotel. The suppliers of the masonry industry sponsored the party and a staggering 1200 people were in attendance. The event far exceeded all of our expectations. The convention concluded with a farewell dinner and desert party for our outgoing President Frank Campitelli. Frank was roasted by his fellow officers, who along with a few jokes, shared their respect and admiration for his leadership.

The masonry industry had another very successful legislative conference held in Washington DC, in which members of both MCAA and NCMA met with over 60 members of congress and their staff and had numerous members and agency representatives address our group on issues of importance to us.

2009 Report of the President
2009 Report of the President

The MCAA held its annual mid-year meeting in beautiful Park City Utah and realized near record attendance. In addition to our regular social events and business meetings, the MCAA introduced small tabletops for sponsors of our event. In yet another first, the MCAA hosted two educational programs, one on how to keep your company safe from immigration raids and another on pitfalls of contracts. The entire group enjoyed both presentations and members can expect to see a return of education programs in San Diego later this fall.

The MCAA Certification program will take off in 2009.
The MCAA Certification program will take off in 2009.

The MCAA began to accept applications for certification in 2008 and held our first certification test on June 30 and certified the following three firms: A. Horn Masonry, Chicago, IL, Halloran Masonry, Atlanta, GA and Henley Concrete and Masonry out of Crestview, FL. The MCAA would go on to administer another test later in 2008 and certify Dee Brown, Inc. out of Dallas, TX. By the end of 2008 the MCAA had 47 companies registered and working towards their certification. We expect the certification program to take off in 2009.

As an answer to the many firms seeking certification, the MCAA has partnered to offer over 80 new on-line courses on a variety of topics including OSHA 10 hour courses in both English and Spanish. These new courses can be found on the MCAA web-site and are all acceptable forms of education for credit towards certification. In addition to these on-line courses, the MCAA has seen an increase in course offerings around the country on a variety of different topics.

Another change to the MCAA website late this year included the addition of a career center. Employees can place resumes and search job openings from across the country and employers can place job postings and search the database of employees. It is a specialized service that is specific to the masonry industry and only masonry related jobs can be placed and only employees interested in work in our industry can place their resumes. This will be an excellent tool for both employers and job seekers as our economy rebounds and job creation begins again in the months ahead.

Early on in 2008, the MCAA became a party to a suit filed in San Francisco federal court against the Homeland security agency of the US. Our case was successful in getting a stay for the no match rule that was issued by the agency. It is believed that the final resolution of this case will be made in early 2009 and the rule will most likely be pulled back by the agency.

Vision 2020 envisions the industry efforts to recapture lost market share of competing systems by the year 2020.
Vision 2020 envisions the industry efforts to recapture lost market share of competing systems by the year 2020.

The MCAA and NCMA Officers began a cooperative effort in 2008 to find areas of common interest that our two groups could work closer together on. The NCMA Officers attended our midyear meeting in Park City and the MCAA attended their meeting in Newport Beach this year. As a result of these two meetings, the idea behind Vision 2020 was born. Vision 2020 envisions the industry efforts to recapture lost market share of competing systems by the year 2020. This will be done by the development of sales teams to sell masonry as a system on the local level. It will be a grassroots initiative to bring together what has been a fragmented industry to work together to make our system easier to understand by the end user. Another segment of the program involves a grassroots effort to have these same teams work to have local municipalities adopt ordinances that would require masonry in their communities. There are current examples of municipalities that have these in place and tools and training to implement these teams will come from the national level. We are extremely excited about the potential of this program and will discuss the details more at our annual meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Masonry Design magazine was rolled out in 2008 and we saw the first 6 issues of this new publication created. The MCAA has supported the roll out of this magazine by giving Lionheart publishing (the owners of Masonry Design) seed money to start the magazine. The funds from this effort have come directly from the MCAA marketing fund which was developed utilizing the funds from a dues increase a few years back.

MasonrySystems.org is yet another endeavor supported by the MCAA. Funding for this important project was provided by our marketing committee with approval of $150,000 dollars from the marketing fund. MasonrySystems.org also obtained additional funding from other state and local groups and undertook a very large task to inventory and co-locate industry materials in one easy to find and use web-site. The site was rolled out and had a soft launch in late 2008. You can see demos of this site happening at the MCAA booth all week long. Later this year, there will be a major launch of the site to the design community.

While 2008 brought a significant downturn in our economy; your association is working hard to lessen the impact of that downturn by aggressively seeking to implement programs that will help grow our markets. The development of such things as Masonry Design, MasonrySystems.org and the introduction of Vision 2020, will poise our industry to take advantage of the opportunities that await us as the economy improves. I look forward to working with the MCAA leadership and our industry partners in meeting the challenges ahead. I want to thank all of you for your support and participation in the Mason Contractors Association of America and I will strive to make our industry and your businesses as successful as they can possibly be. We hope you have a great week and we thank you for being part of this important event.

Thank you very much!

Chairman’s Message Archive

The American Dream

August 2019
The American Dream

Doing Our Part

May 2019
Doing Our Part

Preparing for D.C.

April 2019
Preparing for D.C.

Recent Updates

September 2018
Recent Updates

Masonry’s Future

August 2018
Masonry’s Future

Worthwhile Work

June 2018
Worthwhile Work

A New Beginning

February 2018
A New Beginning

Givers Gain

January 2018
Givers Gain

Things to Remember

March 2017
Things to Remember

Looking Forward

February 2017
Looking Forward

A Fresh Start

January 2017
A Fresh Start

Who Moved My Cheese?

September 2016
Who Moved My Cheese?

Giving back

December 2015
Giving back

An exciting year ahead

February 2015
An exciting year ahead

Defining success

December 2014
Defining success

Staying busy for you

August 2014
Staying busy for you

Ready for action

February 2014
Ready for action

Thanks

January 2014
Thanks

Happy holidays

December 2013
Happy holidays

MCAA Midyear update

November 2013
MCAA Midyear update

The MCAA in D.C.

August 2013
The MCAA in D.C.

A Lot Happening

July 2013
A Lot Happening

Eye opening

June 2013
Eye opening

Positive movement

March 2013
Positive movement

Headed to Vegas

February 2013
Headed to Vegas

New beginning

January 2013
New beginning

It’s finally over

December 2012
It’s finally over

My trip to the Rockies

November 2012
My trip to the Rockies

The 2012 election

October 2012
The 2012 election

Stay involved

September 2012
Stay involved

Networking

August 2012
Networking

Summer time

July 2012
Summer time

Exciting time

June 2012
Exciting time

Working for you

May 2012
Working for you

New beginnings

March 2012
New beginnings

Farewell!

February 2012
Farewell!

One more to go!

January 2012
One more to go!

Join us in Vegas

November 2011
Join us in Vegas

As the world turns

August 2011
As the world turns

A Bright Future

May 2011
A Bright Future

Tidbits From MCAA

March 2011
Tidbits From MCAA

Time Flies By

February 2011
Time Flies By

The End of the Year

December 2010
The End of the Year

Busy Times!

November 2010
Busy Times!

South of 40

October 2010
South of 40

What Are We Doing?

August 2010
What Are We Doing?

Moving Forward

March 2010
Moving Forward

A Fond Farewell

February 2010
A Fond Farewell

A New Year

January 2010
A New Year

Start the Year Strong

December 2009
Start the Year Strong

MCAA in D.C.

September 2009
MCAA in D.C.

Brick Voids

August 2009
Brick Voids

Vision 2020

February 2009
Vision 2020

The Silver Lining

January 2009
The Silver Lining

Impact on the Hill

June 2008
Impact on the Hill

New Horizons

February 2008
New Horizons

Wrapping up Another Year

December 2007
Wrapping up Another Year

Greetings From Italy!

November 2007
Greetings From Italy!

We Need Your Help!

January 2005
We Need Your Help!

The Strength of Unity

November 2003
The Strength of Unity

Changing of the Guard

February 2002
Changing of the Guard

“The MCAA is critical to forwarding our cause.”

Danks Burton
Pinnacle Masonry, Inc.
MCAA member since 1997

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