Looking Forward

Chairman’s Message

By Mike Sutter

I hope everyone had a great and productive time at World of Concrete/World of Masonry. Beginning with the Foreman Development program taught by Dave Jaykins on Sunday to the closing banquet on Thursday evening with the new inductees into the Masonry Hall of Fame. It was an action packed week to say the least.

With most of us going from very early in the morning with meetings and educational sessions to late in the evening at events and parties, we still managed to renew friendships with others in the Industry.

I am actually already looking forward to our Midyear meeting in Steamboat Springs, Colorado! Oops, I think I let the cat out of the bag as we haven’t officially announced it yet. Well, I guess I just did officially announce it. We don’t have a date nailed down yet but we will let you know very soon so we can all save the date and start planning. If you have never visited Steamboat Springs before, be ready to be stunned by the beauty of the mountains. While most people visit in the winter for their world class skiing, I prefer the summer for the many outdoor activities offered. We can hike to Fish Creek Falls, go golfing, take a gondola ride to the top of the mountain for lunch or dinner, soak in the Hot Springs, heard cattle at a Dude Ranch, learn to Fly Fish, have a hay ride to a remote cowboy cookout and of course shop in historic downtown. I have visited Steamboat many times as it is where my wife, Colleen was born and raised. I actually learned to ski there. Colleen was skiing since she was 4 years old and I had never skied before and she taught me some tough lessons on the slopes. Lots of stories about that I can share with you sometime.

We are receiving great reviews of the new Masonry magazine. So much so that some have wondered if the magazine staff will be able to keep wowing us with each publication. From the plans I have heard so far, I’m not worried about anyone being disappointed. We want you to be looking forward to receiving Masonry each month to see what we have in store for you. We want to keep you up to date on all the new innovations in our industry as well as the people in our industry. It’s important to introduce you to people around the country making our industry stronger by being leaders in their geographic areas.

Speaking of people in different areas around the country, we are making a push to have a State Chairman in every state by the end of this year. The Regional VPs and the Executive Officers are making contacts in states that we currently have members but do not have a State Chairman to recruit some people. It is important that we have someone in every state that we can count on not only for membership reasons but also to contact the legislators in your state when we need support on a particular bill in Congress. When we need help on a particular bill it is very important that a constituent contacts their legislator rather than someone from another state. If your state does not have a chairmen and you would like to volunteer or you know of someone that would be interested, please contact me or the MCAA office. You can go to our website, www.masoncontractors.org to see the list of duties expected for both Regional VPs and State Chairmen.

With our brand new class of first year apprentices starting last Saturday in Arizona, I had the opportunity to speak to them before they started their first class. As I looked at the classroom full of students I could see excitement, surprise and fear in their eyes as I spoke as they weren’t quite sure what to expect of the program. I told them they would each be receiving Masonry at their homes each month and every time they see me they need to tell me how great my article is so I felt I needed to mention them! For all the other MCAA chapters, be sure to include your apprentices on the mailing list to receive Masonry. Good luck to all the AZ apprentices as well as all the apprentices around the country just starting their careers.