When I looked at the calendar the other day, I couldn’t believe it was already June. For those of you who bore the brunt of the brutal winter I heard so much about, your time may not have flown by quite as fast, but 2014 does seem to be disappearing in a hurry.
This means my year as chairman of the NPCA Board of Directors is past the halfway mark, so I thought I’d check in on some of the goals I laid out at our last Convention in Hot Springs, Virginia. We had some ambitious goals for what we could accomplish, and I think we have made some great progress on those goals to date.
The first item I talked about was certification leadership. I’m pleased to say we now have two additional states requiring NPCA Plant Certification, Arkansas and North Dakota. Also, we are close to having additional products and or overall certification required in two additional states. Our work to harmonize our certification program with PCI’s has proven to be a worthwhile endeavor that saves both association members’ time and money and strengthens both programs.
I also spoke about specifier outreach, which is an area where our efforts have continued to ramp up thanks to member and staff efforts. At the Spring Board Meeting, a specifier outreach task force was formed to further explore NPCA’s role. We have undertaken a number of activities through the marketing task force and this new task force will look for even more ways to educate and inform specifiers on the benefits of precast concrete.
And speaking of our marketing efforts, a two-year plan that will increase recognition of NPCA and our members as well as promote the benefit of precast concrete as a building material to strategic audiences is now underway. You will be hearing much more about the accomplishments of that plan in the future. The effort is being led by your fellow members and reaches specifiers in a number of ways. In addition, members continue to use the NPCA Marketing Toolkit to advance their companies and the industry as well. If you haven’t received or used the Toolkit yet, I encourage you to do so.
Lastly, I talked about aligning related industry associations. As I mentioned before, our work to combine efforts with PCI where it makes sense is ongoing and we are excited to welcome them as official partners for The Precast Show 2016, where they will join NPCA and ACPA in putting together the best trade show in the industry.
It’s been a real privilege serving as chairman these past seven months and I’m excited about what’s left to accomplish in the remaining five months. I look forward to seeing many of you at the NPCA 49th Annual Convention this fall in Montreal.
Brent Dezember, Chairman, National Precast Concrete Association
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