Masonry Magazine December 2005 Page. 42
News
Local, State & Regional
# Georgia
The Masonry Association of Georgia (MAG) apprenticeship program took two apprentices-J.J. Barnes of Pyramid Masonry Contractors and Faustino Valencia of Bibler Masonry to the Brick Southeast Manpower Forum 2005 held in Destin, Fla., Oct. 7 and 8.
The apprentices took a written test the first day, followed by a hands-on competition the next morning that was graded by several judges from around the Southeast.
Both apprentices did very well in the competition, and scoring was close for all those that competed. Despite the heavy competition, Barnes earned third place in the Second Year division. Congratulations!
For more information on MAG, please visit www.masonryassocga.com.
# Michigan
The Michigan Mason Contractors Association, along with the Bricklayers Local #1 MI, hosted the Masonry Skills Challenge at the Local #1 facility in Warren, Mich., on Nov. 5. Apprentices from MCAA Region C were invited to participate in this event. Winners from each skill level will be invited to participate at the Masonry Showcase in Las Vegas in March.
For more information about future activities, please visit www.mmca-mi.com.
# North Carolina
Heath W. Drye is the champion of the 52nd Annual North Carolina Department of Labor State Fair Masonry Apprentice Contest held Oct. 17 in Raleigh, N.C.
Heath is an apprentice with C. M. Allmon Masonry of Mt. Pleasant. Prior to his two summers at Allmon, he took masonry for three years at Mt. Pleasant High School in Concord, N.C. as a student of instructor Doug Drye (no relation) the nation's most successful high school masonry instructor, with seven Skill-SUSA gold medals in masonry. In 2003, Heath placed second.
From left to right, champion Heath W. Drye, R.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Steven W. Troader, third-place finisher Travis Greenly of McGee Brothers Company, second place finisher Joshua Ferguson of Griffin Masonry, and K.C. Commissioner of Labor Cherie K. Borry.
Executive Director's Report
Michael Adelizzi, Executive Director
Your Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA) continues to make great strides toward increasing market share, making our time-tested training materials even better, increasing the mason contractor's voice with OSHA, and supporting the creation of a nationally recognized certification program.
# Total Masonry Construction Campaign
MCAA has been a very close, supportive partner of the Masonry Industry Executive Directors Council. The Council's initial project was to launch MasonrySystems.org and to conduct a $100,000 ad campaign directing architects, specifiers, school officials and public works officials to the "Systems" website. We have been successful in achieving our first goal, with daily hits averaging 3,000-5,000.
During our last Executive Council meeting, I challenged the Council to look beyond the initial success of the campaign and to the think about developing a major national campaign to market the website, an effort that would rival the promotions by the block, brick and stone industries.
A small group of the Council (Chairman Lynn Nash, Secretary Dave Gillick, Director Jim Jones, Ann Wolter and I) met with the Whole Wheat Creative ad agency in Houston to discuss developing a multi-million dollar campaign to sell total masonry systems. We will be working with Whole Wheat Creative and other Executive Council members to prepare a presentation that will be unveiled at the MCAA annual meeting in Las Vegas this March.
We hope that MCAA members and representatives of all contractor associations will be on hand (regardless of MCAA affiliation) to hear this far-reaching presentation.
# Revision of the MCAA Masonry Training Series
As many of you know, the MCAA Masonry Training Series has received very high marks as being one of the best training manuals in our industry. However, our manuals have not been reviewed or revised since they were published in 1996.
I have asked Melissa Polivka, MCAA director of workforce development, to conduct a Masonry Training Series review session with the assistance of the National Masonry Instructors Association (NMIA).
This review session was recently held with five members of the NMIA in Charlotte, N.C. Since the MCAA Workforce Committee indicated that they did not have the funds in the budget to do this review, the staff obtained sponsorship funding so we could conduct this very important session. Melis-