2021 The Year We Return To Normal

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I’m excited to be the chairman of ACCA and I’m looking forward to my year in office. I’m hoping 2021 is a little different than last year, with the COVID pandemic upending life as we know it. I’m hoping the vaccines will get us back to a somewhat normal work life, so we can resume normal contracting and not have to worry about the safety of our employees every day because of COVID. 

I’m also hoping to get back to in-person ACCA conferences and networking with each other. Zoom meetings are great, but I’m sure it’s getting tiring for everyone to not be meeting face-to-face with each other. Hopefully the vaccines will help us get back to where we used to be — being with each other, networking with other contractors and manufacturers at conferences. 

Save the date for these in-person events: the ACCA Fall Forum next November 1-3 in New Orleans, LA; and the ACCA 2022 Conference and Expo in March 28-30, 2022 in St. Louis, MO.

I would also like to see in-person ACCA MIX® Groups — that’s one of the great benefits of being an ACCA member.  

The ACCA Management Information Exchange (MIX®) Groups are comprised of non-competing ACCA contractor members, typically 8 to 10 companies within each group. When ACCA MIX® Groups meet, the goal is to help every company improve through honest and frank counsel from your non-competing peers.  

One of the best aspects of the ACCA MIX® Groups is being able to meet twice a year with other contractors in the group at their place of business, getting to know their employees and seeing how the business operates. But last year we were not able to do that effectively because of COVID. 

Hopefully with the vaccines, we will be able to get back to that and keep that a benefit for members and offer it to new contractors who have just joined ACCA. 

Some ACCA MIX® Groups consist of residential contractors only, others consist of only commercial contractors, and some are a mixture of both. Most often, ACCA MIX® Groups are comprised of contractors whose companies are about the same size, based on annual sales volume.   

ACCA does not place anyone in an ACCA MIX® Group — you are either invited into an existing group or you can start your own. For more information, contact Matt Grizzard, ACCA’s director of membership and advocacy, at matt.grizzard@acca.org or 703-824-8854. 

One initiative I will be working on as chairman is rebuilding relationships with ACCA’s Allied Contracting Organizations (ACOs) — our partners on the local and state levels. At one point ACCA was a federation with local and state chapters all belonging together with ACCA. The ACCA defederated some years back, but this year we’re looking to rebuild those relationships with these ACOs. 

ACCA’s ACOs include: Association of Air Conditioning Professionals, (Maryland, Virginia, DC); Air Conditioning Contractors of Ohio; Arkansas HVACR Association; Conditioned Air Association of Georgia; Florida Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association; Gateway Air Conditioning Contractors (Missouri); The Institute of Heating and Air Conditioning Industries Inc. (California); Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Contractors of Oklahoma; Michigan Air Conditioning Contractors Association; New Jersey Air Conditioning Contractors Association; Oregon Air Conditioning Contractors Association; Pennsylvania Air Conditioning Contractors Association; South Carolina Association of Licensed Trades; Southern Nevada Air Conditioning Refrigeration Service Contractors Association; Texas Air Conditioning Contractors Association; and Washington Air Conditioning Contractors Association. 

The ACOs are working hard on behalf of contractors every day. If you operate in any of the states mentioned above, we strongly encourage you to support the listed contracting association. Contractors must stand together if we are to succeed nationwide! 

It’s important that ACCA and the ACOs are working together on the same goals and helping each other grow our businesses and the industry. This is one of my initiatives as chairman, as well as building relationships with our corporate partners. 

I also look forward to working with the current ACCA board members and making this a successful year for ACCA. 

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Posted In: ACCA Now, Opinion