A Word From AGCVA Chairman, Anthony Smith

Spring is here and I can’t believe March has already come and gone! AGCVA has been so busy advocating, growing and connecting that the time is simply flying. Spring also means the end of membership renewal season. Due to the website and data upgrades, the renewal process has been different than in years past. If your company has not yet renewed, contact any member of the AGCVA team right away. You don’t want to miss all the wonderful things AGCVA is doing to help your company grow and succeed. The final deadline for renewal is Thursday, March 31 at 5:00 p.m.

Virginia’s main legislative session is coming to a close and I want to thank the AGCVA legislative staff members, volunteer members of our legislative committee and our lobbyists of McGuire Woods for all of their very hard work on behalf of our members and industry. Although we had a lot of success, there is still work to do on important issues. I hope each of you take the time to sit in on our post-session webinar coming up on April 14, for a detailed review of the session and how it is going to affect your business going forward. It is free, so all it takes is your time. To register, please click here.

Even though the session ends that doesn’t mean our advocating efforts cease. In fact, the most effective time to meet with our legislators is during the offseason. In order to continue effectively advocating, we need to continue to build our PAC funding. Our donations are down from last year and we need to catch up. We are actually one of the lesser funded associations, yet still are considered a major voice in Richmond. Imagine what we could with a strongly funded PAC. Please consider donating today so that AGCVA can continue to serve as the leading voice of Virginia’s construction industry.

March is Women’s History Month and AGCVA took that time to celebrate Women in Construction Week March 7–11. AGCVA took to our social media to highlight just a few of our women leaders throughout our member organizations, created a video showcasing female Career and Technical Education (CTE) students, and successfully achieved media placement with a local news story highlighting women in construction through one of our member companies. Women are increasingly entering the construction workforce, yet still only make up a small portion of our industry. I challenge you to introduce a young woman in your community to our industry. What a great opportunity for growth, if we continue to encourage and support our future through this untapped workforce!

Finally, March was filled with opportunities to connect with our industry partners at the joint AEC Conference in Virginia Beach. AGCVA partnered with the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC Virginia)  and the American Institute of Architects (AIA Virginia) for this event, which was the first of its kind across the nation. AGCVA members and staff spent two days learning, growing and connecting with our colleagues from the architecture and engineering communities. It was an amazing opportunity to share our wealth of industry knowledge. The conference included mornings of insightful round table discussions, lunchtime speakers on political and economic outlooks, an afternoon panel discussion with leaders from higher education and various state localities. Even with all of this on the schedule, of course we found time for camaraderie and networking with our colleagues from the engineering and architectural worlds. If you missed this year’s event, I would strongly encourage you to attend next year — it will be well worth your time.

I encourage you to review the articles below and share with those on your teams. Don’t forget to check the calendar as well — AGCVA has a huge number of events planned in 2022 and I hope to see you many times as we advocate, grow and connect as members.