MC Magazine

Association News

From Blecha to Barbour
NPCA Immediate Past Chairman Joan Blecha and current Chairman Dan Barbour come from different sides of the precast industry spectrum – one’s a corporate executive and the other runs a family-owned business – but where they differ in background they make up for it in their paralleled visions for the precast industry. So it was appropriate that the changing of the NPCA guard happened in the nation’s middle at the 41st Annual Convention in St. Louis Nov. 4.

The leaders spoke to a sold-out crowd of precasters and suppliers at the association’s Chairman’s Banquet. Blecha and Barbour said they envision NPCA members speaking with a unified, loud voice, communicating the message of precast beyond the borders of North America. Blecha recapped a successful 20-month tenure and Barbour looked ahead to international opportunities in 2007; both leaders left members with more to be proud of and plenty to look forward to.

Also joining the Board of Directors for three-year terms are Barry Fleck of A.L. Patterson Inc.; Lisa Gainey-Roache of Gainey’s Concrete Products Inc.; Dan Houk of Wilbert Precast Inc.; and Willard C. (Bill) Thorn of Thorn-Orwick (division of Oldcastle).

NPCAEF Grants Invest in Workforce Development
The National Precast Concrete Association Educational Foundation means business when it comes to education and workforce development. At the NPCA annual Convention in St. Louis in November, the Foundation voted to fund three grants totaling $135,000.

In its largest-ever grant, the Foundation will provide $100,000 over a period of four years to the Concrete Industry Management (CIM) Program.

“CIM sets up four-year programs to train college students in a construction management program with an emphasis on concrete,” said NPCAEF President Theodore W. Coons of Spillman Co., Columbus, Ohio. CIM, which resides at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and historically has raised funds for MTSU courses, recently expanded its program to three other universities: Arizona State University, New Jersey Institute of Technology and California State University at Chico.

The CIM program provides students the opportunity to enter a field that has an urgent need for professionals with the skills to meet the growing demands of a progressive, changing concrete industry. “The drivers behind CIM felt that they needed to add additional campuses so that concrete industry companies around the United States could benefit,” said Coons.

While the CIM grant focuses on the concrete industry as a whole, the Foundation also pledged $25,000 to help fund a training video that precast concrete manufacturers can use to attract people to the precast industry. “That money is to be used to underwrite the production, development and distribution of a workforce development training video,” said Coons. He explained that funding for the grant came from one donor, who specified that the entire amount be used for the video.

The Foundation will also help fund educational courses at MCPX (the Manufactured Concrete Products Exhibition) with a $10,000 grant. “The $10,000 grant is a challenge grant,” said Coons, “and I say challenge grant because the Foundation Board approves it with the proviso that the NPCA Board, through its Education Committee, continues to bring forth meaningful precast-specific educational programs.” The money could be used to help allay the costs of providing MCPX educational courses, but the specifics will be handled by the Education Committee.

“We want to clearly demonstrate to NPCA and the industry at large that we are in the business of funding workforce development programs,” said Coons.

MC Magazine Nabs Prize in Media Contest
MC Magazine won a Bronze Medal in a competitive nationwide media contest involving association publications. Association TRENDS, a national newspaper based in Bethesda, Md., serving association executives, sponsored the contest.

MC took the third spot in the contest’s largest category, Trade Association Magazines, and placed NPCA’s flagship publication among some very high-end magazines with much larger budgets and staffs.

Other contest categories included Professional Society Magazine and Scholarly/Technical/Scientific Journal.

Precaster Takes Marketing on the Road
Rolling along Interstate 40 in Tennessee between Knoxville and Nashville, you can’t help but notice this billboard (page 65). It’s the brainchild of Eric Barger, who came up with the idea and designed it on his computer. Barger, president of Barger & Sons Inc. of Harriman, Tenn., is becoming well-known for his marketing prowess.

“We get our name out to 50,000-plus vehicles a day,” said Barger, “and eventually they or someone they know will need a septic tank, and they will have product and brand name recognition associated with BargerAndSons.com via the billboard.”

It’s too early to tell what kind of effect the billboard may have on sales, but Barger saw a 25 percent increase of traffic on his Web page the day the billboard went up. “People from all over are calling in and talking about how the board stands out, and that leads to inquiries about our products,”
said Barger.

Barger explained that a recent market survey revealed that at least 75 percent of installers had never heard of Barger & Sons. “This was a bit shocking, considering we are the second-oldest producer of septic tanks in the area,” he said. And he always keeps an eye on those kinds of statistics. “We have tried several methods of marketing, and the billboard is one small step in a long action plan that will get our name out and make us synonymous with septic tanks, grease traps and other precast products.”

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