Report of the MCAA Membership Committee

New Member Recruitment
A very strong focus will be placed on new member recruitment this year. We will be attacking this effort from all angles, and we are still working on creative and effective ideas to increase our membership roster.

Melissa is managing all the new member leads that come into the headquarters, from magazine inquiries, referrals, etc. She sends these companies a "prospect kit" and then follows up with them on the phone. To date, she has enrolled 7 new members through this system, and she has almost 100 others pending. She is also working to enroll National and Chapter Associate members by contacting those non-member suppliers who are listed in our Buyers Guide online, advertise in our magazine, or exhibit at Masonry Showcase.

Later this fall we will be undertaking an initiative with Masonry magazine to recruit many of our non-members who may not "know" that they are not MCAA members. We have learned that some contractors believe that if they get the magazine, or if they are a member of their local chapter, then they are automatically MCAA members. We will be issuing the magazine to our non-members with a "tipped-on" cover stating that they are not members of MCAA and encouraging them to join. We will be able to contact over 12,000 mason contractor non-members for under $1,000 through this effort.

We are working to enroll the members of many chapters across the countries, and potentially convert them into Affiliate Chapters. Alan Griffin and Melissa presented a proposal to the MCA of Chattanooga, Tennessee, asking them to become an affiliate chapter, enrolling their almost 30 members (decision is pending their next meeting). We are also awaiting a response from the Masonry Affiliates Southeast (over 45 members) and the Blue Ridge Masonry Association. In November, MCAA is hosting an event in New York City to discuss the formation of a state chapter. To date, 15 area contractors have committed to attending. Finally, a massive mailing effort was done in July to solicit the nearly 100 members of the North Carolina Mason Contractors Association who are not members of MCAA. Letters were sent to these contractors from Alan Griffin, Calvin Brodie, Doug Burton, Danks Burton, and Gary Joyner asking their fellow NCMCA members to join MCAA.

It is important that our current members also help with the recruitment effort, since this is the most effective way to bring in new companies. In July, all MCAA state chairmen received a list of the companies in their state that are not members of MCAA. They were asked to contact any of the companies on this list that they were familiar with or that "should" be members. We will continue to turn to our members for support and participation in recruiting.

To make our newest MCAA members feel welcome into the Association, the committee has suggested a few ways to honor them. Each month we will feature a list of new members in Masonry magazine. This is also a good way to keep our members informed of who has joined the Association, and it may act as a recruiting tool. Prior to Masonry Showcase, we plan to have each new member personally invited by an area member or officer. At Masonry Showcase, new members will be wearing a "new member" ribbon below their badge, so we can identify them and members can make an effort to introduce themselves. We would also like to have them introduced as new members at the Annual Meeting.

Updated Materials
Each month MCAA runs ads in Masonry magazine to attract the attention of non-members and encourage them to join. We have re-evaluated those ads and made some changes to keep them current. We will continue to run these ads once a month. We have also been given the opportunity to run a half-page ad in both Grout Hog and SPEC-MIX's monthly newsletters. These newsletters may reach contractors that our magazine does not, and give us a wider range of coverage of potential new members.

Along with all of these changes, we also redesigned some of our promotional materials. We have a new membership application that is now more user-friendly. We also re-did much of the membership content on our website, and now the current accomplishments of the Association and the benefits of membership are very clearly outlined. In the next few months, we will be redesigning our membership dues invoice, and publishing a new "Who's Who in Masonry" membership directory.

We have added a feature to the website, "Find a Contractor," that lists detailed information about our members- business profiles, contact information, annual sales volume, and areas of operation. This feature should be an added benefit to recruit new members, since we get 5.4 million visits to the site annually, and having a listing on this database could send customers directly to them.

Member Renewals
As of the end of August, Third Notices for 2004-2005 Membership Renewal Dues were issued. We are still receiving dues payments. To date, we have $420,208 in dues paid, out of $494,000 budgeted (85%).