Happy New Year! These three words always bring
on thoughts of new beginnings and new challenges. I like that the beginning of
the calendar year is the time when we look forward instead of back. It is the
time when we resolve to do new things or to do old things better.
The first column of this year had me looking
forward with an optimistic point of view. I must tell you that compared to some
other years my numbers have actually been off in 2010, but the outlook has
really worked for me. Not only with my business, but on a personal level as
well. I am not a born optimist so I have to work at it.
Whenever I think of things gone wrong on a
retrofit roofing project I remember that day in Miami when David and I visited
Art and his boys (and girl … she ran the kettle). I was there doing my job as
the roofing equipment pro, and David ran the branch of my distributor.
We have enough problems with our image in the
roofing industry. Now Georgia-based roofing contractor American Shingle’s
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filing is leaving a trail of homeowners, subcontractors,
and various other suppliers in the lurch over tens of millions of dollars worth
of insurance work that was never completed.
This column is commentary and contains some
opinions rather than complete details of the topic being covered. The topic is OSHA’s amended Part 1926 Subpart CC - Cranes and
Derricks in Construction.
I recently received a flurry of e-mails with news reports about a roofing contractor and his foreman in California being charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2008 death of one of their workers. These charges were announced by the San Francisco District Attorney in April 2010. Co-workers and associates expressed shock at the news.
Recently we bore witness to a couple of major events
in the supply-chain sector of the roofing industry. Beacon Roofing Supply, the
first consolidator of roofing distributors to go public, was called out by
NASDAQ (where their stock is traded under the symbol BECN) and recognized in a
bell-ringing ceremony.
Writing on the topic of worker safety in this column a few issues back I casually mentioned that cutting back on marketing efforts in tough times is a bit like tossing out the clock to save time. While I certainly cannot take credit for coming up with this bit of wisdom, I do buy into it.
During a time in which trade shows have been reporting declining attendance and less than stellar results for exhibitors, the 2010 International Roofing Expo (IRE) somewhat bucked the trend in that the trade-show attendance was basically flat from the prior year and seminar attendance was actually up.
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