Report of the MCAA Education Committee

Words: Andy Sneed

Live Webinar Series

The MCAA’s Live Webinar Series continued to grow in 2014, building on the success from the 2012 and 2013 series. Hundreds of attendees attended more than sixty courses last year, the most ever offered by the MCAA. Topics ranged from increasing production and best practices to quality assurance and marketing for masons.

The 2015 season will kick off on Wednesday, March 4, 2015 with How to Prepare a Professional Masonry Submittal Package. Additional topics will include workers’ compensation, marketing for mason contractors, I-9s, and much more. Each webinar is geared to help mason contractors complete certification requirements.

At the conclusion of the 2015 Live Webinar Season, mason contractors and their supervisors will have been able to earn more than seventy credits to complete the Codes and Standards, Ethics and Business Practices, Bidding Practices and Masonry Products disciplines.

The Live Webinar Season Pass will be discounted in 2015. Instead, nearly every webinar will be offered at no charge to both MCAA members and non-members. Free webinars will allow the MCAA to collect vital information on which topics are important to mason contractors, and create custom marketing programs to target specific contractors about upcoming opportunities. Additionally, the MCAA will be able to obtain valuable contact information from non-members to promote membership to their companies.

Industry suppliers and manufacturers will be able to sponsor webinars throughout 2015. Sponsorship opportunities include:
  • $500 to sponsor one individual webinar
  • $1,500 to host one specialty webinar
  • $5,000 to sponsor five individual webinars, and host two specialty webinars
All sponsors will be thanked during the webinar and their logo will be displayed at the beginning of each session. Sponsors will also have access to the registered attendee list for webinars they host or sponsor.

Premium webinars will still be offered at a discount to MCAA members.

Visit www.masoncontractors.org/live to view a list of upcoming webinars for 2015.

New Programs

The Education Committee has been tasked with the goal of creating new education programs for mason contractors. The Committee will continue to focus on courses for employers taught by attorneys, CPAs and insurance executives; classes to sharpen and increase skills of project managers and estimators; and new courses taught by fellow mason contractors.

The Committee plans to continue round table discussion groups with general contractors, construction managers, design-build contractors, architects, and engineers. The round tables will be presented during the 2015 MCAA Convention.

Review of MQI

The Education Committee audited the Masonry Quality Institute (MQI) during the 2013 MCAA Convention. A group has been formed to rewrite and replace the MQI in the future. The course will feature eight, two hour segments taught by mason contractors. The segments will be able to taken at once during future MCAA Conventions and individually online as webinars. Two of the eight segments have been completed.

The Year Ahead

The Education Committee will continue to provide top quality education programs to mason contractors and work to develop new courses for the masonry industry.
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