Report of the MCAA Membership Committee

Words: Donald McCauley

Renewals

The MCAA has just completed its renewal cycle. With just over $485,000 being brought in for 2010-2011 renewals, we surpassed our original goal of collecting the minimum budget amount of $475,000 that was targeted. We’ve kept memberships active for several contractor companies that have told us they will be paying their dues. They’ll account for an additional $2900 (bringing the total renewal amount to $488,000). We are confident that we will get all of these funds collected.

New Members

For the budget year 7/1/10 — 6/30/11, the MCAA has had 19 new members (YTD) join the association so far accounting for approx. $13,785. Our target goal for the year is to gain $70,000 in new member revenue and at present we are off pace of being able to reach our goal. The committee is confident, however, that with all our new efforts to reach out to local Masonry Organizations we will be able to get our message thru and continue to grow our membership at a pace that will far exceed our past efforts. We will continue to take a more active role in activating our base; by giving encouragement through incentives for existing members and new members that will encourage them to approach the suppliers and other mason contractors in their areas to get them to join. The Committee will also be working closely with Mackie and Jeff on how to get all of the local Masonry Organizations around the country to join under the umbrella of the MCAA and show our strength in numbers as an industry.

Group Challenge Update

Our one and only Group Challenge/New member contest of 2010 concluded at the end of July. It challenged our committee to sign up 15 new MCAA members (total) prior to the start of the Midyear meeting. The contest ran from approximately April 1st — July 27th. The group reward for bringing in the 15 new members was that the MCAA would treat the members of the committee to a Chicago experience (a fun outing or boat ride with lunch). We also had individual rewards built into this challenge as well. Any member who was able to sign up one new contractor member would get a $50 Visa/Amex gift card and any member that could sign up two regional or national suppliers would also earn a $50 Visa/Amex gift card. At the of the challenge, we fell a bit short of our goal as our group was able to successfully bring in 9 new members toward the group goal totaling $3,707 in new revenue. Additionally, there were several committee members who did earn individual rewards. They were: Alan Johnson, Don McCauley, and Dennis Withsosky. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on this!

Committee Growth and Participation

It was determined that, with the Presidents help, the MCAA needs to activate its member base by asking the State Chairman to join the Membership Committee and Regional Vice Presidents to step up and activate their local chapters. On April 19, 2010 Mackie Bounds sent a letter out to all of the State Chairs and Regional VP’s stating they would now be members of the Membership Committee and what our expectations where. On June 16, 2010 I sent a follow up letter to the State Chairs and Regional VP’s, since there was no responses. These letters received just one response (from Calvin Brodie, stating that he was in and ready to work). A copy of both letters are attached as part of this report, please review.

There was another attempt to schedule a group challenge to run from October till the Convention. The schedule for a conference call was set up for September 23, 2010 with an agenda for the meeting sent out on September 20, 2010. The conference call was attended by only 2 members on the committee Donald McCauley, Jr. and Alan Johnson. Jeff Buczkiewicz and Bob Birdsell attended from the MCAA. During the conference call both Alan and myself expressed frustration over participation of the Membership Committee and tapping out resources in our regions of the country, the down-turn in the economy and the local “Good Old Boy Networks” trying to spin the MCAA negatively to protect their interests instead of the industries. It is a must for our committee members to participate in all scheduled activities and give necessary feedback as requested. The MCAA is determined to protect our market share. In order to achieve this we need participation from all our members- not only volunteers, but those who are expected to be active through the position they have been entrusted.

Monthly Member Postcard Program & Working the Hanley Wood List

We’ve started a new postcard program for members. Each month we will advise members on different aspects and benefits relating to their membership. In addition, as new developments and current events arise, we’ll share that information by putting it into a postcard and send it out to everyone. The idea is to help make our members more aware of all the benefits and services they’re offered through membership.

Also, we’ve begun to utilize the Hanley Wood lists more heavily to get our message out to new member prospects. We’ve developed a separate postcard program for this with drop dates in place every 30-60 days. We provide them with the postcards. Then they will label and ship them out to over 2500 of their masonry contacts and customers. We’re allowed 2-3 paid mailings per year (according to our contract) so after that, we’ll pick up the remaining cost.

MCAA Membership Committee Mission Statement

To encourage the strength and development of our member association through a commitment of educating, advocating and promoting masonry on behalf of qualified industry contractors and suppliers nationwide.

Plans for the 2011 Convention

The MCAA is once again is excited about this years Convention as it represents our greatest opportunity to recruit new members at one time. Again, we will plan to have our booth covered by volunteer committee members, South of 40 members, and officers during the 3 main exhibit days. We also will be having a new greeter in the booth to help us slow down traffic in an effort to bring prospects over for us to talk to. We are looking forward to working out the details of the new direction our committee will be taking, getting ultimate participation from our members and firing up our base. I believe the MCAA is going to achieve great things going forward. We need to spread the word and show the industry we mean business. One of my favorite sayings is “Believe and Achieve”.
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