Masonry Magazine April 1985 Page. 15
Planning & Education
A DEVELOPING ROLE FOR MCAA
Report to the 1985 Conference of the Mason Contractors Association of America
March 7-12, 1985
Las Vegas Hilton Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada
By W.C. Dentinger, Jr.
President
A year ago when I took office as President of the Mason Contractors Association of America, the construction industry was coming out of a severe and extended recession and our members were looking forward, with hope and relief, to a period of relative prosperity. At the same time, we all tended to worry and wonder if the recovery we saw building up would continue?
The recovery has been sustained for the past 12 months. It has not been uniform in all respects. Some regions of the U.S. and Canada have benefited more than others, and some segments of our markets have been more dynamic than others. Nonetheless, we are presently enjoying an increase in business volume, and for that we can be grateful. We can also look forward, I believe, to continued growth in the economy through 1985 and perhaps even longer -if our two nations can avoid stepping into economic potholes such as a drastic rise in interest rates, a sudden resurgence of inflation, or both.
But our reflections on current conditions and future projections must go further. We need to learn as much as we can from what has happened to us in recent years, and we need to remember those lessons as we try to deal with the future.
I draw three major conclusions from this recent history-none of them new or surprising, but all important and all capable of being ignored if we are careless.
The first is that, just as we got into the recession of 1982-83 because of actions taken and decisions made outside the masonry and building industries, so we are recovering from the recession, not because of our own efforts, but because of developments and policies beyond our control. The lesson is clear: We are not yet able to control our economic destinies. Maybe we never will be. But I think it is possible, through unified action with other groups who depend on the building markets for their livelihoods, to begin to have some influence on our future. And I think we ought to find out how to do this, and begin to do it.
The second conclusion flows from the first, and it is that no matter how rosy our future prospects appear right now, none of us can afford to be complacent or to feel secure. What we can do, in addition to finding ways to have an impact on economic policies at the national levels in the U.S. and Canada, is make plans for our companies, and our Association, that are both realistic and flexible. We have to be able to survive under a very broad range of conditions.
The third conclusion is based on the obvious fact that despite the market recovery of the past year, we-as contractors, as the members who constitute this Association-still have a lot of problems to deal with. Prosperity doesn't automatically solve all our problems. True, it certainly eases a major one, that of having an adequate amount of business to compete for. But it doesn't assure us of getting that business, or of making a profit once we get it.
MASONRY-MARCH/APRIL, 1985 15