Report of the MCAA Education Committee

Words: David HillThere are several areas of concentration for the Education Committee. The first is to provide a quality educational offering at the MCAA Annual Meeting. I believe that we have accomplished that task. This year's program is one of the best offerings of workshops and seminars that the association has assembled. We would like to extend our strong educational offerings throughout the country year round. The committee is developing an educational series that we will be offering in various locations around the country. In addition to offering our successful Foreman Coarse, Wall Bracing and Estimating, we are looking to offer additional programs as well such as Rough Terrain Forklift Safety and Scaffold Safety. We hope to have the topics and speakers lined-up by the end of this fiscal year and ready for implementation in the fall.

In addition to educational activities, the Education Committee is overseeing the development of a national Mason Certification Program. The Committee, with the assistance of MCAA members who volunteered to serve on a Certification Task Force discussed how the MCAA would develop and implement a national certification that would not compete, but instead, supplement, certification efforts already established by some of our local affiliate groups. We will be meeting with associations such as the America Institute of Architects and the American society of Civil Engineers to see what criteria they would like to see in a national mason certification program that would make it worth while for them to specify such as mason contractors.

In addition, the committee is looking at a program being developed by the Masonry Institute of Michigan targeted toward bricklayer and laborer education. We believe that a partnership in this emerging web-based training tool may offer benefits to the national association and our members.

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