Inside AGC — March/April 2007

President's Message — Profit Through Participation

Making the most of your AGC membership

By AGC President Steve Massie

As I begin my year as AGC president, I bring with me the good fortune of having visited many AGC chapters and attended countless AGC events. My tenure as an officer has shed new light on the enormous benefits of AGC membership, which are as rich and diverse as the members themselves. But I have also come to realize that profiting from these riches takes participation.

I define “participation” in a multitude of ways—by participating in an AGC meeting, sending an employee from your company to an AGC meeting, becoming active at the national or chapter level or writing to your members of Congress in support of an issue that impacts your business—and I call on each and every one of you to profit through participation.

My own experience has taught me that participating at the national and chapter levels can bring another level of expertise to your organization. It enables interaction with contractors both regionally and nationally, enriching networking opportunities and offering lessons that a classroom cannot provide. My experience with AGC has given me a master’s and a Ph.D. in construction management. It has also allowed me the chance to skip the school of hard knocks in some critical areas of growth for my company.

I also tell members that participation is as easy as it is rewarding. You can start by taking part in an AGC audio conference or gleaning important industry information from AGC’s award-winning Web site. AGC’s vast resources, such as training and leadership programs and educational materials, reach a wide range of experience levels and interest groups, making them beneficial to employees from the company president to the safety manager. 

Last August, I used the LAC to send letters to my senators urging support for permanent reform of the Death Tax in a way that made sense for business owners, their employees and families. In 2006, on this issue alone, AGC members sent more than 1,200 letters to their members of Congress.

AGC can influence your business through your participation. But you can also begin to influence AGC’s goals and the national laws and regulations that impact your business every day.

I firmly believe the AGC experience will help you become a better contractor, which means you can improve the association and the industry. While it sounds like a never-ending cycle, I prefer to think of it as a flywheel that will spin off more profitable projects, a better regulatory environment and a better public image for the industry.