MCAA Regional Report, Region F

Arkansas
No State Chair.

Louisiana
The overall construction forecast for Louisiana remains good. The gulf coast markets are still very strong with the reconstruction from Hurricane Katrina. This will keep the southern portion of Louisiana going for many years in the future.

As for craft training, there is very little being done and the need for skilled operators, scaffold builders, mortar men and masons remains at an all time high. To help us with this shortage, we have found a large influx of Hispanic workers who for the most part are hard working, willing to learn and they make up a large part of the needed work force. The mason's we have found to be hard workers, fast and maintain a good quality work standard.

Oklahoma
The construction market for Oklahoma remains slow to moderate. Most construction remains in the institutional market for college and university work along with hospital and medical buildings. There has been very little office building construction and it looks to remain slow.

The need for all skilled construction trades is still not keeping up with the need even though our needs are not overwhelming.

Texas
Analysts are predicting a general slowing in most construction for 2008. Overall construction activity in Texas is expected to be down by as much as 2%. There are many factors which are keeping this number from dropping further. One is that construction of hospitals, K-12 schools, college and university construction remains very strong. There is very little office building construction activity at this time and for the foreseeable future. Our residential markets have been the hardest hit with a down turn of 17% in 2007. It is expected to continue in 2008 with an additional 8% loss in growth.

There are other factors that may help insulate Texas from the negative growth projections that will affect Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Texas is number 2 in the country when it comes to population growth rate. It is projected that Texas will continue to experience high growth rates over the next 20 years. With this growth construction rates should prove to give Texas a more positive outlook than the rest of our region.

The United Masonry Contractor Association which covers the Dallas/Ft. Worth area has the states strongest training program. At this time they have 58 apprentices in their 2nd and 4th semester of school. They also intend to have a blueprint reading class this semester which will allow 10 additional apprentices to complete this class this semester. In the fall UMCA conducted a Stone Setting School and 8 apprentices completed that class.

At this time the Associated Masonry Contractors of Houston in association with San Jacinto College have 10 apprentices enrolled in the bricklaying program. The San Antonio Masonry Association currently has 11 apprentices in their bricklaying program. Central and South Texas do not have any training at this time.

The Texas Masonry Council continues to provide education programs for architectural and engineering students at Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, University of Texas @ Arlington and University of Houston.

Membership
A new target member list was compiled in 2007 utilizing the existing prospective member list, the old members that did not renew list, the MCAA 2006 convention attendees list and the local Texas masonry association's membership lists from the Associated Masonry Contractors of Houston, the San Antonio Masonry Contractors Association and the United Masonry Contractors Association of DallaslFt. Worth. The new target member list had a total of ninety companies. All of these companies received an invitation to join letter from the State Chairman along with information on the MCAA and its associated benefits. Follow up telephone calls were made to selected member firms. While the membership initiative is ongoing, Texas has 35 contractor members, 1 national associate member and 6 chapter associate members.