The 2021 Midyear Meeting: Memphis, TN Recap

Words and Photos: MASONRY Magazine 

The annual Midyear Meeting had record attendance at the historic Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN, September 12-16, 2021. 

The Historic Peabody Hotel

The Peabody Memphis is a living legend: a hotel that since its inception in 1869 has been infused with genuine Southern hospitality and uncommon elegance. The AAA Four-Diamond, Forbes Four-Star hotel offers an elite level of luxury and service to rank as one of the world’s finest hotels. A member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Historic Hotels of America, The Peabody Memphis has consistently earned Meetings and Conventions’ Gold Key Award, Successful Meetings’ Pinnacle Award, and Convention South Readers’ Choice Award, and was named among the “Top Business Hotels” in America by Travel & Leisure. In 2018, The Peabody Memphis was named “Best Historic Hotel” by USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

The most famous residents, The Peabody Ducks, have gained celebrity status with television appearances (along with their Duckmaster) on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Sesame Street, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and have also appeared in People magazine. Every day at 11:00 a.m., the Peabody Ducks are escorted from their penthouse home, on the Plantation Roof, to the lobby via elevator. Accompanied by the King Cotton March by John Phillip Sousa, the ducks then proceed across a red carpet to the hotel fountain, made of a solid block of Italian travertine marble. The ducks are then ceremoniously led back to their penthouse at 5:00 p.m.

The Masonry Foundation Meeting 

The Masonry Foundation Board met and voted on grant requests, outlined in an upcoming article on MCAA/MASONRY channels.

MCAA’s Speed Dating

Speed Dating is a popular, rapid series of concise meetings between mason contractors and suppliers to discuss business needs and innovations for the masonry industry. Small groups of contractors make their way through supplier suites for the short meetings, and when time is up, they move on to the next supplier’s room. 

MCAA’s Speed Dating sold out earlier than ever this year, and there were 13 presenting companies and a Golden Breakfast Sponsor. We’d like to thank EZ Scaffold, our Golden Breakfast Sponsor, and all of our contractors and our supplier companies for making the event a smash. 

The companies who participated in this year’s Speed Dating are:

• Amerimix (amerimix.com)
• CrewTracks (crewtracks.com)
• EZG Manufacturing (ezgmfg.com)
• EZ Scaffold (ezscaffold.com)
• FRACO (fraco.com)
• Masonry Cosmetics (masonrycosmetics.com)
• Non-Stop Scaffolding (nonstopscaffolding.com)
• Norton Clipper (nortonabrasives.com) 
• PROSOCO (prosoco.com)
• SOLA (sola.at/en-us) 
• SPEC MIX (specmix.com)
• STABILA  (stabila.com/en-US)
• Xtreme Manufacturing (xmfg.com)

MAC PEC Golf Tournament

On Tuesday, September 14th, attendees hit the custom-built 330-acre Mirimichi Golf golf course. Midyear attendees had a great time, and there was a great turnout for golfing at this expansive golf complex. The MCAA would like to give a big thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible. 

We’re looking forward to seeing even more people coming out next year. 

Contractor Roundtable

The Contractor Round Table discussions are an event intended to allow company leaders to discuss challenges facing their respective businesses and the industry. The unique setting allows contractors from across the country to openly discuss ways to find solutions and improve masonry.

The topics discussed in the meeting will help us decide on some of the content we publish shortly, and we hope that the articles become useful to those trying to find solutions to the issues.

There were two main topics discussed: 

• COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) coming by OSHA 
• The masonry project life cycle 

Watch for future articles on both these topics coming soon. 

MCAA Safety Advantage Awards 

The MCAA Board Meeting played host to the MCAA Safety Advantage Awards, sponsored by Federated Insurance. These awards are based on the incident rates of a mason contractor’s company. Awards go to the lowest number of incidents in two categories: fewer than 100,000 hours worked by all employees and more than 100,000 hours worked by all employees. 

More than 100,000 hours worked:

First Place (Tie):

• Gates Construction Company, Mooresville, NC
• Corner Stone Construction of Janesville, Inc., Janesville, WI

Second Place:

• Superior Masonry Builders, Inc., Butler, WI  

Less Than 100,000 Hours Worked 

First Place (Tie): 

• Buckeye Construction & Restoration, LTD., Waterford, OH
• Cantarella & Son, Inc., Pittsfield, MA
• Troianiello Masonry, Inc., Scranton, PA

Masonry Hall of Fame Presented By SOLA Awards And Closing Dinner

The MCAA hosted our annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony presented by SOLA at this year’s Midyear Meeting. New inductees Eugene Johnson, Jim O’Connor, Paul Odom, and Teddy Jenkins were honored and received their respective plaques. Each inductee was able to deliver their speeches during this historic evening. 

Next Year’s Midyear Meeting 

Keep checking the MCAA website, email newsletters, and MASONRY Magazine for updates on our to-be-determined location for the 2022 MCAA Midyear Meeting.