Award-winning Masonry Magazine is Vital to MCAA's Strategy

President’s Message

By William McConnell

Over five years ago, the Board of the Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA) debated the future of Masonry magazine. At that time it was clear that the quality and usefulness of our Association's magazine was not very good.

Making matters worse, the publication, although only a bi-monthly magazine, was taxing the Association's resources. But instead of dropping Masonry, the MCAA decided to work hard to build our magazine into the premier industry publication. Two months ago, our hard work was recognized with winning a prestigious award from the Construction Writers Association.

Today, the MCAA Board continues to seek to expand the usefulness of Masonry magazine. We went from a bi-monthly publication with 3,000 readers roughly five years ago to a monthly publication with over 17,000 readers today. At a time when other magazines are cutting their monthly issues, we continue to expand our magazine to provide you and your employees a monthly source of education.

It isn't a secret that Masonry magazine is a vital piece of the Association's long range strategic plan. This is primarily because it is a critical communication link to our industry's mason contractors who are still only discovering the Internet.

One of the greatest communication needs for the MCAA is to educate our industry's mason contractors on the issues being debated in Washington, D.C.

One year ago this month, the MCAA and our members hired a full-time lobbyist in our nations capital ? a staff person who will work full-time for the members of the MCAA and our industry. In order for our lobbyist to be ultimately successful, all of our industry's contractors must become active in writing to your elected officials. Masonry magazine becomes that vital link between the MCAA and mason contractors, and ultimately your Senators and Representatives in Washington, D.C. If we can motivate you to write your elected officials, our lobbyist will be more successful in protecting the Masonry industry.

In addition to advocating a greater impact on Washington, Masonry will increasingly become a more important tool to educating mason contractors and expanding their capabilities as successful small business owners. If you become more successful, our industry becomes more successful and professional, and the MCAA ultimately will gain greater influence.

A little more than one year ago, the MCAA and Board of Directors took the next step in expanding the quality and usefulness of Masonry by outsourcing the publication of our Association's magazine to Lionheart Publishing. In less than a year's time, they have taken the quality of Masonry to an all time high for our Association, a fact that we only dreamt of five years ago. We get calls almost daily complimenting our magazine and the value that it has for mason contractors.

As President of the Mason Contractors Association of America, I am extremely proud of this publication. We invite you to join us in continuing to expand our magazine by reading each issue and sending our magazine to key people in your company. The more we share our information, the greater our industry will become.

Clearly, Masonry magazine will play an increasingly greater role in the long-term health of our industry – a role that no other publication can share. We hope you enjoy Masonry magazine as much as we enjoy publishing it.