As many of you know, CRMCA was recognized last year with the NRMCA State Association of the Year Award for 2016. We at CRMCA were very honored and humbled, as there are many state and regional associations across the country, and I can personally tell you, they are accomplishing great things for their members. In fact, other groups are doing so many great things that I thought there is no sense in applying again this year, as NRMCA will not award the same group back to back.
I must thank the CRMCA staff for convincing me otherwise, as we did apply. To my surprise, NRMCA did, in fact, award this recognition to CRMCA again for 2017! That’s right, the first ever BACK to BACK winner of the NRMCA State Association of the Year Award. Strong competition indeed. In fact, here are the top 5 associations for 2017:
(1) Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association
(2) Tennessee Concrete Association
(3) Aggregate & Ready Mix Association of Minnesota
(4) Georgia Ready Mixed Concrete Association
(5) Pennsylvania Aggregates & Concrete Association
The application calls for participants to list and describe their top programs. The programs we listed align with the Strategic Initiatives in our By-Laws, allowing us to describe actions for each area. Therefore, the Initiatives and Programs highlighted were as follows:
Program #1. Concrete Promotion Program. CRMCA has crafted a strategic plan to align with NRMCA and promote Build with Strength through the three major areas; Advocacy, Business Development and Communications. The overall goals were to organize our association to align with NRMCA, explore the resources provided by NRMCA and educate our member companies on the BWS Campaign. Our three branches and leadership are illustrated below.
Program #2. Testing Adherence Program. The objective of the Concrete Testing Adherence Program is to minimize/eliminate the effects of false-negative & false-positive concrete tests on the concrete construction industry. New technology has been developed by CRMCA to help drive this process.
Program #3. Concrete Education and Certification. ACI, ASTM Standards and on-line training, Seminars and Tradeshows are a few of these items.
Program #4. Communications Outreach Program. Organized and scheduled Social Media, Blogs, E-news, Magazines and other unconventional outlets continuously inform others of the importance of our industry.
Program #5 . Governmental Affairs Program. A year round systematic program, maintaining a strong voice for the industry on legislative & regulatory matters, illustrated below.
Involvement with NRMCA. The final question is regarding each state association’s involvement with NRMCA, which in in our case, is strong. Our linkage with BWS, ongoing involvement with other NRMCA functions, and the fact we have two CRMCA officers (Rich Umbel and Abbott Lawrence) on the NRMCA Board of Director’s, creates strong linkage and information sharing.
None of the progress made on these programs would be possible without a group of Board of Directors that are open minded and progressive thinkers. It is their commitment to the industry that makes this recognition and success possible. Without this approach, we would be stagnant, and not the envelope pushing group we have become. So, in addition to thanking the staff for all their efforts, I want to recognize the Board, and the assistance of all our dedicated members! The entire concrete industry across Colorado should be proud of this national recognition. Thanks for everyone for making it happen BACK to BACK and let’s keep pushing the envelope!
Todd R. Ohlheiser
Executive Director
Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association
