February 2009: President's Message

Vision 2020

Tom Daniel President, Mason Contractors Association of America

When you think of vision 2020, your mind goes straight to the thought of your eyesight and having perfect vision. In the next few years, the masonry industry is going to have a new understanding of vision 2020. Vision 2020 will not have anything to do with perfect eyesight, but rather, a vision created by both the MCAA and the NCMA boards. For the first time ever, we are melding our marketing forces together to focus grassroots sales teams recapturing lost market share and expanding into new markets. The vision will be to accomplish this no later than 2020 and have a measurable tool to evaluate the program's progress.

Some of you may be thinking, "Wow! That sounds like a very audacious goal. How will that ever be done?"

The plan is, quite simply, to develop teams of installers and producers around the country who are committed to working to change their respective local marketplaces. It will be the first effort that masonry will make to sell our system to our customers (something they have been craving for years). The implementation will involve the MCAA and the NCMA working with our local chapters (and, in the NCMA's case, their state and provincial groups) to inventory what our industry currently has in marketing, research and support material. The national associations will then work with the help and input of local groups to develop key tool kits for the sales teams. In addition to the kits, training programs will be developed to help train these teams to be effective in their respective areas.

The tool kits will range from "how to help your local municipalities adopt masonry ordinances," to "sustainability of masonry." The range of these kits is limitless. The goal for this year is to complete four of these tool kits and train a minimum of 10 teams throughout the country. I just attended a joint meeting of MCAA local chapters and NCMA state and provincial organization groups. I was astounded to learn just how much support material is already available in our industry to help us accomplish these goals. Several groups discussed their experiences with having local municipalities adopt building ordinances, which require the use of masonry in projects in their geographical boundaries. As we continue to work out the details of the program, you will be hearing and seeing more about Vision 2020 in the days and years to come.

Both the MCAA and the NCMA plan to introduce our memberships to these programs at our respective conventions this month. It will be an excellent opportunity to energize our respective memberships on the program. We are hopeful that Vision 2020 will see other industry producers and suppliers desire to be a part of the design teams that will implement our grassroots efforts. While the idea has begun with the MCAA and the NCMA, we welcome the participation of our entire industry in undertaking this transformation. By 2020, the masonry industry will no longer be viewed as a fragmented industry, but rather, an industry giant that took control of its future by working together to educate our customers on our systems. The next time you hear Vision 2020, I hope the first thing that comes to mind is the uniting of the masonry industry to take back our markets and gain additional market strength by the year 2020. What could be better then 2020 vision into your future?