As we work our way into April I’m still very entrenched in March Madness. This upcoming weekend marks the “Final Four” where the remaining teams square off in hopes of reaching Monday night’s Championship Game. The teams left in it are Kentucky, Duke, Michigan State and Wisconsin. If you didn’t watch a single game all season, you could have picked this Final Four from a list of about ten perennial contenders. It seems every year’s Final Four includes at least one of these teams, if not two or three. How do these teams consistently reach the pinnacle of their sport? Recruitment. They are always looking for fresh young talent, year after year, which keeps them on top.
Over the past several years SBCA has allowed our recruitment to fall off a little, both on the national level and within our chapters. Obviously we can look to the “Great Downturn” as the culprit for why recruitment and involvement has dipped, but now that we’re safely on the other side and the outlook is bright, we need to focus on finding key individuals to lead our organization forward. Leading up to the March Open Quarterly Meeting (OQM) in Denver, the SBCA Executive Committee started working on an “Emerging Leader” initiative. The basis behind this effort is to identify and include younger(-ish) individuals in the activities of the Association, both on a national level and chapter level.
Over the next several months you’ll likely see various events and discussions regarding the "Emerging Leader” program at the OQMs and during BCMC. The plan is to develop a group of people interested in the Association that can get to know each other and network in a social environment to develop relationships that will make the work we do together in the future easier, more fun, and much more meaningful.
The “Emerging Leaders” events are a way for people who are new to our Association to ask questions among their peers about the truss industry and the workings of the SBCA Board and various committees. It’s our goal to rejuvenate and invigorate our committees and membership with new and returning individuals to interact with our current leaders who’ve brought us this far. I invite everyone reading this message to either get involved themselves, or reach out to someone who would benefit from working with SBCA.