Masonry Magazine February 2002 Page. 10
Michael Adelizzi,
Executive Director
Mason Contractors
Association of America
A LESSON IN UNDERSTANDING
As the Executive Director of the Mason Contractors Association of America, I usually don't think it's worth wasting any ink responding to outlandish remarks made in our competitor's magazine. As former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley used to say, "Why mention my competitor and give them any free publicity?" However, Masonry Construction magazine editor Rick Yelton's January editorial needs a response from the industry for which he purports to speak. Rick, you just don't get it.
For those of you who haven't read his editorial, he accuses the MCAA's monthly magazine, MASONRY, of being the "home team" magazine. Rick argues that the association's magazine won't publish "pro" industry competitor articles like insulating concrete forms (ICF's), as they did in their January issue, because it is anti-masonry. He says that we will not try to get mason contractors to think about becoming ICF contractors because it is not traditional masonry. Hey Rick, you're right. We won't. What he seems to forget, our magazine is a masonry magazine. We are pro masonry. We are not owned and obligated to concrete. We are dedicated to the masonry industry and we will only promote masonry. Who exactly is Masonry Construction? In the old days, Masonry Construction was owned by Dan Anderson. No matter what you thought of him, Dan Anderson at least cared about the masonry industry and his magazine reflected that. Unfortunately, after Masonry Construction has now been sold twice and Dan Anderson and most of his staff are long gone, the once proud magazine has been reduced to accusing our magazine, the association's magazine, of being "too masonry." I've finally heard it all...
Now if that was all that Rick had to say in his January editorial, that would be ridiculous enough. However, he goes on to say that masons do not like laying concrete masonry units and instead we would rather spend our energies laying creative brick veneers. He seems to believe that we would throw out a vital part of our industry and either spend more time laying only brick or consider installing Insulating Concrete Forms and ultimately become concrete contractors. In fact he even encouraged mason contractors to check out ICF exhibits at the World of Concrete and he even listed them in a full page spread in their magazine. Clearly, Rick Yelton doesn't understand the masonry industry and more importantly, it doesn't appear that he cares much about masonry. Could it be that yet another Masonry Construction magazine editor has their roots in concrete?
What Rick and the proud owners of Masonry Construction magazine seem to have forgotten is that concrete masonry is a quality product, supported by hundreds of concrete masonry firms and thousands of professionals backed by one of the industry's strongest allied associations, the National Concrete Masonry Association. Construction projects built with CMU's win both national and local masonry awards almost on a monthly basis. Our customers such as Costco, Loew's, Target, and Fred Meyer stores, use concrete masonry because of its many attributes, and architects all across the country have a love of designing with concrete masonry. Even most local municipalities, schools and government centers use concrete masonry as an integral part of their construction. Oh, and masons and mason contractors like CMU's. In fact, I have spent days informally interviewing the country's most involved mason contractors and none of them dislike concrete masonry. In fact, they all have the same love of CMU's as our customers. And, one thing that they were all unanimous about... none of them would prefer to be ICF contractors.
From what I have been reading lately, I believe that the folks at Hanley Wood would be much better served to fold Masonry Construction and spend their efforts promoting concrete, because it just doesn't seem that they like promoting masonry.