Masonry Magazine January 2006 Page. 51
Hardscape Expo
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For more information on attending, e-mail holly@hardscapeexpo.com, call (847) 277-0244, or visit www.hardscapeexpo.com
Maine
Reported by the Morning Sentinel, "Masonry school opens to fill gap in Avon, Sept. 7, 2005" In an effort to preserve the masonry trade, Stephen Mitchell of Phillips opened his own masonry school the Maine School of Masonry-on Sept. 7. A graduate of the Northern Maine Vocational Institute and once the owner of his own masonry contracting business, Mitchell founded the school in response to the industry's drastically decreasing number of masons entering the field each year.
Since May, Mitchell has devoted himself to renovating the former Lauri Toy Factory in Avon, the site for the school. The facility contains a traditional classroom, lab area, break room, office space, reception area and a storage garage to house various materials. In addition to the school's many amenities, the building also contains a bunkroom, with kitchen and bathing facilities.
The Maine School of Masonry offers a variety of courses, including brick, block and stonelaying, and chimney and fireplace construction. The courses are held over a 10-week period, two nights a week and on Saturdays. Each course consists of classroom instruction, a lab practice and a community project.
The plan's initial phase aims to keep the trade going by encouraging participation in the school's full-day program. Mitchell said that out of the 27 technical high schools in the state, only two of them have masonry programs. He visited those two schools, encouraging soon-to-be-graduates to participate in the day program to help further their skills and abilities.
Phase two of the program is geared toward educating the community. Mitchell will offer evening and Saturday programs for adults wishing to learn the skills to maintain their own properties, such as steps, chimneys and walls.
Finally, phase three of the program offers to teach church groups building skills for use on missionary work. This one-week course, which begins in February, provides groups of eight or less the opportunity to stay in the bunkhouse.
For more information on the Maine School of Masonry, call (207) 639-2392 or e-mail masonryschool@tds.net.
Michigan
The Michigan Mason Contractors' Association, along with Local #1, hosted the Masonry Skills Challenge at the Local #1 facility in Warren, Mich., on Nov. 5. Apprentices from each skill level competed for the opportunity to represent Region Cat the Mason Contractors Association of
Are You Having Trouble Getting People to Work for You?
# MASONRY NEWS CONTRACTOR TIP
Many contractors complain that they can't get good help to work for them these days. Maybe it's because, in reality, people don't work for you people work for themselves.
Think about when you first started your career. Did you go to work for a company to make the owner of the company a rich person? (1 know that wasn't my goal when I got hired on). People work for personal reasons. They go to work to make money for themselves and provide for their families. So, from the start, owners and employees have different expectations and motivations. The challenge is blending the two into a profitable outcome.
In the RACE seminars that I offer for mason contractors, I tell the story about the early days, when Lang Masonry Company (LMC) was laying basements and doing small commercial jobs. One day, we were building a little strip center for my cousin, which was a stretch for our organization in those days. My laborer walked right past a wheelbarrow full of mortar down the front of the strip center and asked me, "Do you need any mortar"? I said, "Yes." As he walked back down the path he had just taken, I saw the wheelbarrow where he had just left it. 120 feet on the other end of the work site. He had dropped it off there and walked all the way down just to ask me that question. The kicker was, we never needed mortar where the wheelbarrow was sitting. The only place that wheelbarrow needed to be was where the block was being laid. That puzzled me.
I began wondering: What are these guys thinking? What do they think about during the day? Probably things that benefit themselves, like who won the football game on Sunday or who's the best racecar driver?
I wanted to find a way to get them thinking about results so we could get the job done. So, I started studying what makes people tick.
As a result, I found that we could motivate people to think about results. We do this by setting up proper pay systems and incentive plans to encourage them to do what we need done without constant supervision. Guess what? It works for us. So, now I do seminars for mason contractors that show how Lang Masonry uses incentive plans to increase production on the job sites and in the office. These plans have led to higher income for both the company and our employees.
If you are having trouble getting people to work for you, look at your compensation system. The old days of people coming to work, being paid by the hour, and working their hearts out just because they love the work are over. As managers, we have to give them achievable goals that mean something to them personally. Today, people must see a connection or they won't produce good results.
I'd love to share with you what I've learned through years of experience, so if you are interested in coming to our seminar, contact Keri Huck, LMC-EZ Grout headquarters, at (800) 417-9272 for information.