President’s Letter – March 2025

Dear ASA Members and Friends of ASA,

As busy as life always seems to be, March is no different. Is that what they mean by “March Madness”? For those of you that are college basketball fans, myself included, it is a great time of year. Hopefully your teams do well and “madness” can turn to “gladness” and hopefully not “sadness”, if they don’t do as well as you hope.

Construction can be the same kind of craziness with those roller coaster highs and lows. Tariffs – or potential tariffs – and their implications on your mind too?  We must find ways to use the tools available to us that will help us come out on top, with each job we undertake. As you know, ASA has a wealth of those tools that can help you obtain success in your businesses. I encourage you to take advantage of ALL that ASA has to offer – such as contract language and contract templates in InfoHub to help you navigate potential tariffs (members – you’ll have to log in).

In the month of March, we celebrate women in the construction industry, as they bring diverse perspectives, innovative problem-solving skills and enhanced collaboration to the project team. Trends show more women pursuing roles in leadership, project management, and skilled trade, helping to address the industry’s labor shortage. As the industry evolves, companies that embrace gender diversity are seeing improvements in productivity, safety, and workplace culture. Let’s continue to grow the industry stronger.

This month’s edition of the Contractor Compass, has many GREAT articles. One that you want to make sure you read is the one perspective from small business owner, Adrienne Smoot-Edwards from DC, explaining how her life is a constant “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, and how “Pay if Paid” needs some serious revamping. This particular article hits close to home for many companies, mine included.

A few events to add to your busy calendars….

• Attorney’s Council Meeting in Park City, Utah on March 28-30.
• FASA Leadership Retreat in Scottsdale, AZ on April 3-5. Discover new ways of achieving what you desire and how to process your reactive emotions to bring the actual emotional intelligence to your daily lives. This is the only way to finally get desired sustainable outcomes with peace and fulfillment.
• ASA’s Annual Legislative Fly-In on Capitol Hill on June 10 and 11. Join us in Washington DC for our face-to-face meetings with legislators/lawmakers in which we discuss the issues and policies that matter most to our businesses.  Mike Oscar and his staff do an incredible job in setting this up. It is an event that will make you come back year after year.
• SUBExcel, ASA’s outstanding convention, will take place this year in Oklahoma City, OK on September 16-18 at the Okana Resort and Waterpark. Registration is now open and this is the annual event that features amazing Education, Networking, Peer to Peer Collaboration, the Annual Awards Banquet & Celebration, all mixed in with a little fun as well. I’ve attended 8 of these and all it took was the first one to get me back year after year. Special thanks to Libby Hardy, our Oklahoma Executive Director, for creating the website!

We just held our Annual Business Meeting, virtually, on March 19th. Tony Vermaas gave us the Financial Report, Richard Bright gave us his CEO Report, Mike Oscar gave us the Government Relations Report, William Burke gave the FASA Report, Gia Espinoza gave the Executive Director’s Report, and I was able to announce the Election Results for the year 2025-2026, which begins July 1, 2025.

So as you can see, there is a lot going on. I hope you all can juggle the many balls you have in the air. My advice to you is don’t juggle eggs, as those are very pricey these days. Take time to recharge your batteries. Enjoy your friends and families. Do some Spring cleaning just to break up the pace a little. Watch some college hoops and enjoy March Madness.

As always, I appreciate your commitments to ASA. As I enter into the last quarter of my presidential term, I am amazed at how fast time has flown by this year. I am humbled and honored to serve as YOUR president and we still have a few things to accomplish before my term is over. God bless you all and embrace kindness. It keeps us human.

Ray Moya
President, ASA, 2024-2025
asapresident@asa-hq.com