unitedsealcoat wrote on Jun 7, 2005:
Go to #5 After talking to several members, it seems that there is little benefit to joining (very few ref) its a shame that you find it necessary try to use this as a way of cornering hard working guys in need of a little break on insurance. all to collect your fee.
This is one of the most bizarre statements ever made about the association. How exactly is this "cornering" anyone? An example that comes to mind because of their TV advertising is that AARP offers discounted insurance to their members. Are they "cornering" people into joining the AARP or just providing a benefit to members that the member can choose to take advantage of if it benefits them? (And unlike the AARP our membership is open to anyone). The same would be true of the discounted insurance you see that is available only for veterans of the military or postal workers you may see advertised. Has your local BBB or Chamber of Commerce "cornered" you into joining? Those worthwhile organizations generally provide little benefit other than the opportunity to network with other members and the customer assurance that comes with being a member. We offer those same things too, yet our membership rates are lower than theirs for many people. Some manufacturers offer various discounts to our members (As an example PLP offers a 5% discount on stencils etc). Does that benefit "corner" anyone into joining? In fact we went a bit above and beyond what the other groups mentioned do and for over 30 contractors (most of whom participate here) who were not members but did help by providing their insurance data back when we asked, the opportunity to obtain quotes just like members was furnished to all of them as our way of saying thank you. We don't know who you are talking to, but by "ref" we presume you mean referrals from our search engine (another benefit). We received a call yesterday from a member of less than 1 month who was pleased to have completed his first job where the customer not only found him through our search but chose his bid even though he was not the low bidder. Something he attributed to being a member as opposed to his "competition". We do not know who you are but we have certainly done nothing to "corner" you into anything. It is very hard to be anything but proud, much less ashamed, that because of the support and efforts of our members through over 4 years of work this benefit is now available. We are just waiting to see how much benefit it actually comes to in dollars for those of our members who choose to inquire and get quotes since the program is brand new. However all of this is beside the point of the association. A point you obviously miss completely (and nothing personal, you're not alone in your misunderstanding. Such ideas are always beyond many people and while we have always made it perfectly clear it does not work that way for everyone, we have had a few members who thought the association was some "magic bullet" that they could join and magically jobs would just start piling up on their desk) The NPCA has always mainly been about 2 things. (1) Providing benefits such as marketing on a broad scope to help independent contractors remain competitive in today's environment of larger companies merging and the so-called "national providers" who market themselves as "national" companies but are in reality just large general contractors but who have the advantage of mass marketing to large accounts. (We saw them coming in 1999 but today they are far bigger and better organized than ever before and continue to grow, just as we predicted). (2) To improve the image of the pavement industry in general and provide members with an inherent trust factor from consumers who recognize the efforts of the association on their behalf and look to members to obtain work they feel more confident with. You may wish to see more at http://www.pavementpro.org/amessage.htm or from over 5 years ago when the association was formed here is a brief article from Pavement magazine that gives more insight (please note the NPCA received no outside money to start and still does not, only the support of member contractors). NPCA: Something Different This industry needs a contractor-focused association and maybe the recently formed National Pavement Contractors Association (NCPA) is the effort that's going to survive and give pavement maintenance and reconstruction contractors the help they need. As anyone who's been around more than a handful of years knows there have been numerous scenarios to get an industry association going. About 10 years ago for example, an effort was made to start the Pavement Maintenance Institute, with $10,000 seed money provided by this magazine. Over the years there have been numerous attempts to start some type of national striping association too. But the efforts have all come to naught. These and other efforts failed primarily for the same reason, and it's a "Catch-22" problem: Associations need members and member's dues to finance their management and services. But in order to give companies reason to join, the association has to offer definite benefits. But it can't offer benefits until it has resources-financial or numerical-to research, acquire, and provide them. And of course, it can't get the resources until it gets the numbers. So what inevitably happens is some die-hard contractors join, hoping their dues will be enough to get the ball rolling, while other contractors sit on the sidelines waiting for the fledgling association to be able to provide some more substantial benefits (this was the problem the Contract Sweepers Institute has worked so hard to overcome, successfully in recent years). But the NPCA (see article page 69) is starting a step ahead of other efforts by offering for a nominal membership fee, real marketing benefits via the Internet and promotion of members at various property management events. So while NPCA, like other association start-ups has some big and worthwhile plans, it's at least a little different. NCPA already has some help to offer. Copyright ©2000 Cygnus publishing.