Dear ASA Members:
As my company has expanded and continues to grow, we face the same challenges that many of you face – a severe labor shortage. Solving the labor crisis in our industry will draw as many comments and ideas, and is beyond the scope of this issue of Contractor’s Compass. However, what is within this issue and our day-to-day control, is how we handle issues with our current work forces and the human resource challenges with the same. I hope you will find the articles in this issue as timely and helpful as I have. Additionally, through the ASAdvantage membership benefits that are yours as an ASA member, ASA offers complimentary Human Resources Services through our partner SESCO. As such, ASA members can get a free review of their employee handbooks as well as additional discounted HR services.
As one of the goals for my term as ASA President, I want to focus on education to make us each better Subcontractors. One of the focus points in being better subcontractors, is being better when we negotiate fair and balanced contracts with our prime contractors, and our lower tier subcontractors and suppliers. I hope that each of you will appreciate the education seminars on this topic that are presented by your local chapters and the support that your chapter attorneys, and the ASA Attorney-Counsel at large, can provide for you on this topic. Fairer contracts are the key to lower risk, high profitability, and management of customer expectations.
In addition to education, advocacy for our industry on both a national and state level is an area where ASA is uniquely powerful, and uniquely successful. Your ASA team tirelessly works in D.C. and reports every week in ASAToday. If you are not seeing ASAToday and would like to, please let us know. Our advocacy team, in connection with the ASA Attorney’s Council, takes their work far beyond the halls of Capitol Hill and into the appellate courts of the states where our members work. The Subcontractor’s Legal Defense Fund (SLDF) allows ASA to stay involved in how laws are interpreted. When courts rule favorably in cases that impact subcontractors, it is hugely beneficial at a state level, and those rulings often influence courts in other states.
As we continue into the Fall, I hope you will appreciate the value that ASA brings to your team, and how valuable each of you are to ASA as individual members. Everything this organization does, it does for the express purpose of making us more successful in our companies and better members of the construction industry. I know ASA has done that for me and my company.
Sincerely in your service,
Brian K. Carroll
ASA President 2021-2022
