ABC-SEMI Issue 1 2018

2 Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. PRESIDENT ' S LETTER President’s Letter Dear Friends, It’s been a good year in construction for most. The question on the minds of many company owners is whether the pent up demand for new development has been met or whether we will continue to see robust growth in the near term. Is this a time to invest in growing market share or to play it conservatively? We are at a similar crossroads with our school, the Southeast Michigan Construction Academy (SEMCA). A couple of years ago, we saw a need for skilled trades workers and we took advantage. We nearly doubled our student enrollment in two years. We’re smart people. We found the low hanging fruit in the electrical and carpentry fields, and started there. Now, we’ve slowly begun the more difficult task of diversifying our geographic reach, launching new satellite schools in Lapeer, Monroe, and in January, Adrian. We are considering another satellite school in the western suburbs for next year. Our future growth opportunities are in expanding training to other construction areas. We’ve been considering new classes in welding, plumbing, concrete finishing, heavy equipment operation and others. If you have a need in employee training or recruitment of new skilled workers in certain areas, let us know. There may be a way we can partner together. Because we are a Department of Labor registered program with access to comprehensive NCCER curriculum in over 70 crafts, it’s much easier for us to get training off the ground than it would be for individual companies to do so. Here at your ABC chapter, our focus right now is in a few key areas. We are working to become a much more active membership. We had an impressive turnout of over 200 guests for our Christmas open house, we’ve launched an emerging leaders program for future owners and those in senior management, and we’ve had a series of well-attended events like our clay shoot and Detroit Tigers baseball game. If you’ve not made it to one of our events, try it out. I suspect you’ll be surprised at everything that is going on at ABC. Finally, in addition to important networking opportunities, we are working hard to enhance our safety programs. We hosted a silica training course on the new federal OSHA standards in December. We are launching a new committee of industry safety professionals and owners. We have been promoting ABC’s national STEP program, which is a free self-evaluation tool that helps companies become significantly safer. As you can see, we’ve got a lot of exciting things happening at ABC. Come join us. Sincerely, Keith Ledbetter President and CEO Associated Builders and Contractors — Southeastern Michigan Chapter KEITH LEDBETTER ABC SEMI President