Masonry Magazine April 2004 Page. 22
REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
As an industry and association, we continue to be bold!
Never before in the history of the Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA) have we reached for such bold heights of achievement. While the economy and country were tenuous, we set high goals and expectations. We set these high standards because we knew that, in order to achieve great change and high reward, it was no time to be meek or conservative. We strategized at our meetings on how we could create an industry and association that challenged our members to expand their vision and their commitment to change how things had always been done, and to build an industry that might yet be.
But who to lead them? Who would be so bold as to say, "We have the vision"? Our answer has been us: the MCAA. Our unique position in this industry, and the construction industry as a whole, make our Association the one true choice to lead our industry's mason contractors.
This past year, our vision brought us to a new permanent home for our Association. The bold vision of our Board and officers and hard work by our staff helped achieve what has eluded us for decades. Today, we can be extremely proud of the accomplishment of purchasing our first national headquarters. Located in Schaumburg, IIIl., our headquarters is a 9,000-sq.-ft. brick and block building that the MCAA and its members can be proud to call "home." Through generous contributions from many of our members, we purchased and significantly renovated our headquarters.
Today, the MCAA operates in two-thirds of the building, while renting out the rest of the space. This building will be home for decades to come and a pinnacle for masonry.
Legislative Advocacy
NO AREA CAN IMPACT our industry and our future faster than what happens in Washington, D.C. Two years ago, the MCAA membership responded with tremendous financial support, allowing us to hire a full-time Director of Government Affairs based in Washington, D.C. And in those short two years, we have impacted numerous issues.
One of our greatest battles is an ongoing fight to prevent OSHA's proposed silica standard. If passed, we believe this standard would cripple our industry. Had our Association not had the vision two years ago when we took a major step to expand our staff, today we would be struggling to comply with hundreds of burdensome new regulations coming from the silica standard. I am happy to report that we have been working hard to limit the impact of this standard.
Silica is only one - albeit major-issue that the MCAA has become very involved in passing legislation to assist our members. We have been a driving force to pass Association Health Plans that would help contractors provide affordable health insurance for their employees. We have also introduced legislation to provide contractors who train apprentices a tax credit to ease the burden of training. In addition, we have won several regulatory issues involving scaffold safety and beat back efforts to eliminate our long-standing exemption to overhand bricklaying.
While ergonomics remains one of our primary focuses, we continue to discover new federal initiatives that threaten our future as mason contractors. We will remain steadfast in protecting the interests of our members. To that end, I am happy to report that we have signed an alliance with protecting the interests of OSHA, which we believe will build on the cooperative relationship that we have forged with them over the past two years.
Simply working with Congress and agencies to protect our interest is not enough. We have become very active in helping to elect members of Congress that share our beliefs on issues and values. This year will be a pivotal election year, and our staff and the political action committee, MACPAC, will be very busy supporting the election of pro-masonry candidates.
Advocacy Workforce Development
OVER THE PAST YEAR, as the economy has slowed, the uproar for more masons has been tempered. But the demand for an expanded, quality workforce remains high. If our industry is going to compete for larger markets, then the need for greater