Masonry Magazine April 1999 Page. 8
Career Day
One of the most beneficial programs for recruiting our industry's future workforce has been the MCAA's national masonry day. Career day has focused the entire industry toward getting into the nations schools to promote careers in masonry. Career Day was never established to be a quick fix but instead its goal was to build a long-term focus on recruiting. We have continued to learn from past Career Days and have developed better materials and approaches toward conducting successful days.
Job Shadow Day
Simply going into our nations schools is not enough to convince America's young people to choose careers in masonry. We should work to bring interested students to the job site to get a first hand experience in the trade. Job Shadow Day, is an effort to have interested students spend a day with mason contractors and journey men to check-out what its really like to work in the masonry industry. The MCAA has become involved in Job Shadow day and we urge members to participate as well
MCAA'S MANUAL DE ALBAÑILERIA SERIES
The first year of MCAA's popular Masonry Training Series was converted into Spanish to aid in training Spanish-speaking apprentices
Spanish Edition
The MCAA responded to a call from the masonry industry to develop mason training materials in Spanish. This past year, we published volume one of our popular Mason Training Series in Spanish.
VICA
The Vocational Industrial Clubs of America has been an inspiration in our recruitment and training efforts. MCAA has expanded our support of VICA and we encourage our chapters to become active with establishing VICA efforts at the local level where none currently exist. VICA works in local high schools and not only gives students basic skills in masonry but the desire necessary to succeed in masonry. Each year, VICA holds their Skills Championship and last year 48 masonry students competed for the national championship. MCAA will continue to support the VICA program. I have asked our executive director Mike Adelizzi to serve on the Masonry VICA Technical Committee to help steer its continued improvement.
National Manpower Forum
Last year at our Annual Conference, the MCAA conducted a national manpower forum. The Forum brought industry leaders in training and recruitment together to discuss masonry's needs for recruiting and training and industry solutions to our manpower problems. MCAA will again conduct a manpower forum, which will be held at this Conference.
Industry Promotion
Promotion has always been strong in the masonry industry unfortunately our industry's promotion programs has always been unorganized and fragmented.
The Masonry Industry Council
The MCAA has been successful in getting the industry's factions together to form the Masonry Industry Council to address our common promotional needs. The MIC will meet in April to map out a unified industry long range vision and strategy.
Architect Symposium
The Architect Masonry Symposium was developed by the MCAA Marketing Committee to educate and expose our industry's customers to the benefits of masonry and its unique design capabilities. The Symposium is a two day event where architects attend educational and hands-on events designed to gain confidence for masonry in our customers. The first Symposium is being held at this 1999 MCAA Conference.
Trade Shows
The association has made plans to once again exhibit at trade shows where our customers attend. The Construction Specifiers Show and the Architects Show are just two shows where the MCAA will exhibit the benefits of masonry. Our unique booth displays will include hands on demonstrations where our customers can try their hand at laying masonry products. What better way to gain customer acceptance of our products than to put a trowel in their hands. We believe that this effort is vital in the long term growth of the industry. We will be displaying the industry with our industry partners such as the Brick Industry Association
International Excellence In Masonry
Highlighting the industry's best in masonry is the Excellence in Masonry Competition which will be held for the fourth year on Friday, February 19th