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Association & Industry News
Each year, leading industry trade publication Concrete Products interviews the incoming chairman of NRMCA's Board of Directors. This year, the interview with John Carew of Carew Concrete & Supply Co. of Appleton, WI, appeared in the magazine's August issue. You can read it here. NRMCA's 2020 Mixer Driver Recruitment and Retention Survey report is now available only through download on NRMCA’s website. Once there, you will find the Executive Summary reporting five-year trends on 20 of the 30 questions and the full 97-page report which includes comprehensive breakdowns for each question for just 2019 as well as its corresponding five-year trend; then delineated even further nationally, regionally and by company size (only NRMCA members have access to this report). For the first time, findings show a drop in mixer driver vacancies; fewer producers turning away orders because they did not have enough drivers to deliver product and more drivers quitting to work for a competitive ready mixed concrete company. Some 74% of drivers who left had at least one year of tenure. For the fifth year of the survey, higher pay elsewhere and inconsistent daily schedules remained the top two reasons mixer drivers quit. The industry hired approximately 27,000 mixer drivers last year, 36% of the job sector’s population. Finding drivers with ready mixed concrete experience remained the biggest hiring challenge. In response, more producers were willing to rehire former employees (65%), newly licensed commercial drivers (56%) and 18-21 year old drivers (51%), For more information, contact Eileen Dickson at edickson@nrmca.org. NRMCA is very pleased to announce that the first NRMCA Associate Member to join the revised Member2Member (M2M) program, Coast 2 Coast Chipping, has introduced its new M2M discount program exclusively for NRMCA members for 2020. Coast 2 Coast Chipping, a full-service concrete chipping company specializing in the removal of hardened concrete on the inside of mixer truck drums, central concrete mixers, concrete silos and precast concrete mixers, is offering $200 off of the final invoice to fellow NRMCA members. Check out Coast 2 Coast Chipping’s M2M offer by visiting the M2M webpage. Neither membership in the NRMCA nor participation in the M2M Benefits Program can be construed as an endorsement, explicit or implicit, of any company, product or service by the Association. NRMCA accepts no responsibility in any dispute between supplier and customer. The M2M Benefits Program is intended solely as an informational service. Participating companies are responsible for insuring all M2M Benefit information is correct and up to date. For more information, contact Jacques Jenkins at jjenkins@nrmca.org. 
Engineering
The following courses, typically offered in person, have been scheduled for online offerings:
Course content will typically be uploaded for registrants to access. The live session webinars will be recorded for registrants to access in case of a schedule conflict. The National Concrete Consortium (NCC) brings together several state highway agencies to discuss various aspects of concrete construction for transportation infrastructure. NCC typically meets twice annually. The Fall 2020 meeting will be held virtually with three webinars, each from 9 a.m. to noon Central time on Sept 1, 2 and 3. Topics include alkali silica reactions, lightweight cellular concrete, reports on the performance-engineered mixtures by several states, discussion on dowel and tie bars, and updates on the AASHTO NTPEP program. Click here to register. SEO
Registration for NRMCA’s Online Safety Course taking place October 19-23 is now open. This course teaches participants about OSHA safety compliance, beginning with why safety is so important and details the reasons why an effective safety program actually saves money through loss prevention and control. Participants learn about the new silica rule, electrical safety, machine guarding, fall protection, hazard communication, confined spaces, personal protective equipment, firefighting and evacuation, maintenance shop safety, chute handling, fleet safety, pre-trip inspections and much more. Click here to register. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. Registration is now open for this year’s Online Environmental Certification Course taking place November 16-20. Attendees will be educated on industry-specific environmental issues that affect ready mixed concrete production, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, Discharge Permits, Stormwater Management, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Solids Management, Hazardous Materials, Dust Control, Recycling, Spill Prevention Plans, Air Quality Management, Noise Management, Environmental Auditing and much more. Those who should attend include plant managers, environmental managers, compliance managers, executives or anyone with fiscal and/or environmental responsibilities that should know the details concerning a company’s responsibilities when it comes to EPA regulations, the Clean Water Act, Discharge Permits, Stormwater Management and numerous other critical environmental matters. Click here to register. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. 
NRMCA Member News
As part of its recent website redesign, NRMCA has updated its state affiliate programs page which lists each state affiliate with a direct link to its website. “We are seeing more of our state affiliate partners actively posting and sharing exciting information about our industry’s activities and it’s making a difference,” said Senior Director, Building Innovations, Doug O’Neill. “There is some great content being shared which promotes our industry and promotes the value and importance of what the concrete industry does on a daily basis.” Check out what state affiliates across the country are doing online, then Like and Share their posts. When an interesting project or subject comes up, post your own story and use hashtags to make your content more discoverable by LinkedIn members who follow or search for the hashtag you’ve used. Don’t use a hashtag where it may be better to @ mention. If you’re trying to tag a company or person, tagging them with the @ symbol followed by their name is a better way to get their attention. Confused yet? Not to worry! The NRMCA has put together a Social Media Task Force to help our industry get the most from our social media efforts. A few goals of the task force include increasing followers to our Build With Strength and Pave Ahead LinkedIn pages, developing key hashtags and providing members with a better understanding of how to get our message out and increase our online presence. If you are reading this and not already following @BuildWithStrength, @Pave Ahead, #buildwithstrength, #paveahead and #nrmca, log on to LinkedIn and make sure you are following the activity of the industry you represent. Need help? Both Gregg Lewis at glewis@nrmca.org and Doug O’Neill at doneill@nrmca.org are willing to help you get better connected, so contact them at your convenience. 
Government Affairs
Please join the NRMCA Government Affairs team for a live discussion with Representative Scott Perry (R-PA-10) on Monday, August 31, from 3 to 3:45 p.m. Eastern time, presented by NRMCA's Political Action Committee, CONCRETEPAC. Rep. Perry is a champion of the ready mixed concrete industry with a deep understanding and appreciation for the values embraced by our industry and the importance of supporting the business community and America’s ready mix producers; he serves as a co-chair of the Congressional Ready Mixed Concrete Caucus. This Town Hall will be an informal conversation to get the inside scoop on legislative issues affecting your bottom line as well as the political issues that will play out in November's election. Click here to register. For more information on how you can get involved with CONCRETEPAC, contact Taylor Drzewicki at tdrzewicki@nrmca.org. 
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Learning & Development
Concrete 101 (CCSP I) will be offered online over a two-week period in late October. This annual introduction to concrete fundamentals is for those who need a broad overview of technical and operations essentials. The curriculum is appropriate for sales reps, dispatchers, administrative/home office and mid-level staff as well as those in executive functions whose jobs do not relate to concrete per se, but should have knowledge about the industry. This class is NOT appropriate for technical ready mixed concrete personnel. For those working toward their NRMCA STEPS® CCPf certification in Sales and Marketing Track, this is a required class. For others working toward CCPf certification in other STEPS tracks, the class is the qualifying prerequisite or an elective. Click here for more information, including registration and staff contact. If there is anything to report about the Workforce Development Committee is that its members actively step up to the plate to improve the industry. In the past two weeks, all three new task groups not only held their first online meetings, but also set dates for their second, all before Labor Day! They also invite others to join them in their quest to raise the bar while offering amazing networking opportunities for HR, training, employment and workforce practitioners. The “Partnerships” task group welcomed its new chair, Julie Anderson Simboli, LafargeHolcim. The group will look for untapped resources in the form of third-party partnerships, i.e., systems, to tap into military and prison release programs to hire new CDL drivers. Its next go-to-meeting is Thursday, August 27. The “Practices” task group welcomed its new chair, Cassie Krause, Carew Concrete. The group will focus on HR best practices and trends, including HR-risk management. Additionally, this group will support NRMCA’s Financial Performance Improvement Group’s work on the annual compensation survey. It will meet online September 2, starting a discussion on separation best practices. The “Strategies” task group's new chair is Frank Gentry, Chandler Concrete. The task group kicked off with a robust discussion about supporting driver supervisors, who in turn keep the mixer driver fleet happily rolling along. Its big umbrella will focus on recruitment, retention and leadership skill development. Its next go-to-meeting is September 3. This committee’s outreach is inclusive, for big and little members, living north, south, east and west. Its vision is to make everyone the best-of-the best. Come, participate. It’s a win-win. Reach out to Eileen Dickson at edickson@nrmca.org. Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. September 2, Online Course September 9, Online Course September 15, Charlotte, NC Email: Jessica Palmer, 864-238-7839 October 5 - 6, Online Course October 5 - 9 October 7 - 8, Online October 19 - 23, Online Course October 21 - 23, 28 - 30, Online Course November 2 - 3, 5, 9 - 10, 13, Online Course November 16 - 20, Online Course November 16 - 17, Online Course December 11 - 18, Online Course December 14 - 18, Online Course 2021 January 26 - 29, Charlotte, NC February 10 - 12, Dallas March 23 - 26, Boston 
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