Report of the MCAA Membership Committee

Words: Donald McCauley

Membership Committee Goal Update and New Goal for the Convention

We recently held a group contest that challenged our committee to sign up 5 new members (total) in the MCAA prior to the start of this year’s Midyear meeting. The contest ran from approximately July 7th — September 13th. At the time of this report, our group successfully brought in the 5 new members required to reach our targeted goal. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on this! We’ve come up with our second incentive based program scheduled to run from September 14, 2009 — February 2, 2010. In this challenge, we’re looking for each committee member to bring in at least one new contractor member and one new supplier member (the two combined equal one unit). The prize awarded for successfully completing this challenge amounts to one $100 hotel spa/hotel casino credit (for each unit earned). In other words, it’s possible to earn several of these as one $100 credit will be awarded for each contractor and supplier tandem you’re able to sign up. There will also be a group prize awarded if we’re able to bring in a total 18 new members during that same time period (9 new contractor members and 9 new suppliers). For example, if each person on the nine member committee is able to bring in just one new contractor member and one new supplier member, the goal will be reached. The group prize is TBD.

Renewals

The MCAA is currently in our 2009-2010 renewal cycle. At the time of this report, the renewals were at $477,000. However, a couple of our larger chapters are still outstanding and will account for $82,900. We anticipate being able to count on at least 90% of those funds which puts us at about $551,610 for renewals. In addition, we have several large contractors & national suppliers (accounting for approx. $92,000) still out there to be collected. With the combined efforts coming from our committee and the MCAA office, we’re confident that we should be able to maintain at least 60% of these funds and get to (if not exceed) the $605,000 in dues which we budgeted for.

New Dues

At the time of this writing the MCAA had twelve new members plus one large block/brick producing company (Midwest Products Group Co.) We have budgeted for $72,000 in new dues for the year. The committee is confident that with all our efforts combined, we will at least match that budgeted amount.

PR Firm Plan

The MCAA is looking at two separate firms & comparing job details and costs in an effort to team up with one of them on a marketing campaign. This may include (but isn’t limited to) various email, direct mail, and telemarketing strategies in an effort to increase our national exposure. Similar to our last PR program, this one will also be reviewed mid-year to evaluate the firms overall effectiveness and to determine which programs are producing the best results. We plan on utilizing the Hanley Wood list in the above mentioned strategies.

Plans for the 2010 Convention

The MCAA is once again looking forward to the upcoming convention because it’s such a great opportunity for us to recruit new members. We plan to have our booth covered by volunteer committee members & officers during the 3 key exhibit days. We also plan on having our greeter back in the booth to help us slow down the traffic and bring in prospects for us to talk to. We’re looking to have some fun in the booth this year by placing a “jail cell” somewhere in our space & “locking up” a member and keeping them there until someone signs up to become a member. Once they’re able to get the new member to join, they can be “freed”. The MCAA is open to any new ideas or suggestions that you might have in order to make this our best convention yet!

Other Value Added Benefits

The MCAA is always looking to add new and useful products and/or services to our catalogue of benefits. As most of you know, we recently added the FedEx shipping & FedEx Office discount programs to our benefits package. The items below represent some of the programs being considered:
  • Partnering with a surety company to offer bonds for contractor jobs

  • Exxon Mobil fleet gas card

  • Wireless phone service (Nextel/Sprint)

  • On-site Document Destruction Services
The MCAA welcomes any feedback or suggestions you may have on any of these topics.
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