Masonry Magazine March 2002 Page. 21
SERVING THE NEEDS
OF THE MEMBERSHIP
The number one goal of any association is to serve the needs of its membership and that of the industry. Serving the needs of our membership is indeed our number one goal because without our members, we would not be in business helping to build the masonry industry. Our primary service to the members is through communication. We accomplished an extremely large task this past year by increasing the publication of our Masonry magazine from a bi-monthly to a monthly publication and I am proud to say that the quality of your association's magazine rivals that of our competitor's. In fact, I have heard repeatedly that our magazine now exceeds the quality of our competitor's. As members, you can take pride in that fact. Another huge accomplishment this past year is the expansion of our website, which now includes a members-only section. This site now allows members to receive a full range of safety programs at no charge saving our individual firms thousands of dollars in safety training costs. The members-only site keeps members up-to-date on what's happening in both the association and the masonry industry as a whole. It even allows members to talk to each other through the use of forum discussion groups, chat rooms and question listings. I am extremely excited about our new members-only site, which I believe will rival any member benefit that the MCAA has to offer. I believe that the ability to easily discuss issues with fellow members will one day be worth more than the price of membership to our individual firms.
The MCAA not only served you through increased communication, but we have expanded many of our programs as well. The MCAA Resource Catalog was once again expanded to include many new offerings which members can purchase at substantial discounts. Our new Scaffold Safety Course and the new Masonry Wall Bracing Design Manual that was developed in cooperation with our good chapter and members of the Mason Contractors Association of Michigan will once again keep our members on the cutting edge of what's happening in our industry. We have come a very long way in such a very short time in our service to the membership.
For years, much of our focus has been toward developing our industry's workforce. However, in order for the MCAA to become a total service association for our members and to face the reality of the current economic situation, we have to become more involved in promoting the use of masonry products by our customers. I am proud to report that the MCAA has expanded its involvement in masonry promotion through not only the continued support of the Architects' Masonry Symposium, exhibiting at customer shows such as the Construction Specification Institute trade show and the ASCE Structures Congress and the Federal Officials Masonry Seminar, but we have become active in adver-