Report of the MCAA Education Committee

Foreman Development
The Masonry Foreman Development Course was thoroughly revised this year. Melissa Polivka and Dan Hiltebeitel, the course instructor, completed a curriculum review of the materials, including the video, and student and instructor manuals. Many problems in the course were resolved, and missing pages and documents were supplied. Dan is now very confident in the quality of the two-day course. This year we have 28 attendees at the course in Chicago, and the course has attracted many of our new members. For next fiscal year, we plan to market and arrange courses in various locations in addition to the annual one at Masonry Showcase. We are also planning on training additional instructors for the course.

Estimating Seminar (Basic/Advanced)
The Basic Estimating Seminar has been previously held both at the annual Showcase and a traveling program was tested in 2003 in Chicago. At the 2004 show we had a total of 16 attendees who participated in the seminar. A favorable response has been given by all attendees who have attended this seminar. Numerous requests have been made by attendees of the Basic Estimating course that an advanced level course was needed to further review both in-the-field and hands-on subject matter.

An Advanced Masonry Estimating Seminar is being offered for the first time at this year's Showcase. This new program has already brought in $8500 (less expenses) with 18 pre-registered attendees. Steve Saucerman and Colin Faul put together an all new curriculum for this course. Included in the program will be estimating software demonstrations by Tradesman's Software and Tut Software, two of the largest masonry estimating & accounting programs.

The next stage, open to discussion, is the combination of the Basic & Advanced level courses to create a 2-day seminar offered at both the 2006 Showcase and a possible traveling seminar. Other options may include surveying our members to determine the feasibility and interest level of holding these two individual courses, or a combined course, and then work with those members to provide training locations. Steve Saucerman is open to teaching a traveling seminar.

MQI
Discussion about updating the Masonry Quality Institute, last offered in 1997, as part of the seminar series has been discussed for the past three years. Recent work was done for Davenport Masonry in regards to the Quality Training program. This may also be something to look into forming some sort of partnership with Davenport or another contractor on this project.

Initial proposals to totally revamp this seminar reached $15,000. Further discussions with Al Roach on this project came back with a proposal of $5,000 to update the previous MQI program and postponing the Team Building and Problem Solving course preparation.

Resource Catalog
The MCAA Resource Catalog is to be updated in the 2005-2006 budget year. With the growth of the Internet and the popularity of the MCAA website growing with leaps and bounds, we would like to propose to the committee a scaled back version of the paper MCAA Resource Catalog and direct efforts to our Online Catalog. Colin Faul will focus on removing resource materials that are out of date or slow in sales as well as research new offerings to add to our complete resources.

The scaled down paper Resource Catalog will consist of a 4 page catalog including our top selling resources and new offerings. The catalog will be mailed to all MCAA, NCMA and BIA members. It will also be printed in Masonry Magazine, in 2-4 issues a year, reaching non-members and other industry contractors.

Projected time frame for distribution is scheduled to be first mailed in July and to be included in the August issue of Masonry Magazine.

Online Book Sales
Since the addition of the numerous online resources on the MCAA website, we have experienced an increase of book sales via the web. Along with the updated Resource Catalog we will also direct our efforts to promote our Online Resource Catalog. Outdated materials will be removed and new offerings will be added. More of our efforts will be to promote the Online Resource Catalog, further increasing visitors to the MCAA website.

Below is a listing of our top selling resource materials:

Construct America Workshop Program
CSI and TFM have and MCAA have joined efforts for educational offerings at the 2005 show. Attendees registering for education at any of the shows are able to attend education sessions at the other conferences at no cost. Educational programs offerings for 2006 Show need to be discussed. Some additional workshops topics are: Website Development Workshop for contractors, Industry Software Programs, Installation programs of various Masonry offerings.

The 2005 show has a number of suppliers hosting workshops to help further industry awareness and education. The next step for the committee is to look at the future focus of program content and total offerings to attendees. Currently 4 concurrent tracks are run during 4 timeslots outside of exhibit hours. Attendees can attend up to 4 total presentations and are not able to attend all topics. The committee will need to discuss the possibility of opening up more opportunities to attend session topics through additional timeslots or possibly repeating certain track topics.