21 Sep An important message from our President, Jeff Stratford
As we count down the weeks to our 2023 National Conference in Sydney, I thought I would provide you with an update on a few things that the Board – together with our CEO, Sarah Bachmann – have been doing.
NATIONAL PRECAST RELEASES REFRESHED 5 YEAR STRATEGY
Over the last 6 months, the Board has been reviewing the Association’s 5 year strategy. I’m pleased to share that after a number of months of listening to feedback, looking at trends and agreeing on what we believe the Association and industry should look like later this decade, we have now published both our 5 year Strategy and our 2023/2024 Priorities. You can download these here:
In line with our focus on ADVOCACY, GROWTH and EDUCATION, the Board has established a number of working groups which have been active across:
Advocacy – we have met with Construction Quality Australia (CQA) and AustralianApartment Advocacy (AAA) in an effort to collaborate for preferential treatment ofMaster Precasters in tendering.
Growth – this is about creating opportunities for our members and at this stage hasfocused on taking our Sydney National Conference to a new level – read morebelow.
Education – we commissioned a report investigating the viability of developingprecast factory floor worker training. This is additional to our existing and ever-growing educational webinars and online training modules that offer almostunlimited access to knowledge.
Governance – there are 2 working groups here – one focusing on Associationstrategy and the other on resourcing.
Membership growth & retention – again, 2 working groups, one which has beenreviewing fee categories and fees, and the other focusing on growing membership –read more below.
PRECASTER CATEGORY 6+ FEES ARE DOWN AND OVERALL MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS ARE UP
In line with our review of strategy, we have been taking steps to streamline and simplify the Association’s fee structure. These initial adjustments are targeted at attracting and retaining precasters who fall into the old categories of 6, 7 and 8. Growth in these categories disproportionately helps the Association build momentum towards delivering on its mission of being “the Australian peak industry body for prefabricated concrete, to enhance the industry and to create opportunities for our members”. For more information on the new fee structure, please click here. Stay tuned over the coming months for further membership fee simplification updates, with our ultimate goal of reducing fees for all precasters.
Since the start of our membership drive, and as you might have seen on the socials, we have had great success attracting new members across all membership categories. If you haven’t yet followed us on LinkedIn you can do so here. Welcome to all of our new members, it’s great to have you on board!
To assist us in demonstrating our strength to you – as someone who might consider membership – we have put together two new documents that visually share the depth and diversity of our membership on both the precaster and non-precaster side.
SAVE ON FEES BY REFERRING A NEW MEMBER
With our new fee structure it’s a great time to remind you of our ‘member-get-member’ referral program. This program offer 50% of any new members 1st year fee off your next year’s membership fee for any new member you introduce to NP who takes up membership. Please reach out to Sarah if you would like any further information on this exciting program. It’s a great way to save on your own fees.
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN (AND EVEN BETTER)
For those of you who have previously been involved, you might remember when the Association ran ‘group meetings’, where precasters of ‘like’ sectors could meet and discuss sector specific topics. Again, after many discussions with current and potential members, the Board and I would like to float the idea of kicking these off again in 2024. These working groups are a fantastic way to build relationships, share sector best practice and identify sector specific R&D projects on which the Association could focus. So… as per our new Precaster Members document that you clicked on above, the 4 starting sectors are:
Sewerage & Drainage
Civil Infrastructure
Building
Landscaping, agricultural and other.
The thinking at this stage is that as soon as we have a minimum of 5 members from a sector interested, we will start an online working group for that sector. The working group could then nominate a chair and determine how they would like to proceed… including how to identify R&D’s projects that the group could put forward to the Board for approval and funding.
Not only do these working groups allow you/your team to shape your industry, we believe that they are also a great way to demonstrate to government authorities and major procurement bodies that the Association is ahead of the curve on key precast issues and should be ‘at the table’ when any industry change is being considered.
If you are interested in participating in these groups, as a member, please drop Sarah a note.
SYDNEY IS CALLING…
We are now only 6 weeks away from our National Conference and I’d love to see you ALL there, whether you are a member or not! If you haven’t registered, make sure you do here, and start looking for a Hawaiian shirt you can wear to Monday night’s Welcome Reception & Trade Exhibition! And at the conference you’ll hear about:
1. How to terminate a contract
2. What puts you at risk of an unfair dismissal
3. A tough approach to contracts that works
4. The challenges of meeting a high end project
5. How we can ensure workers have a psychologically safe working environment
6. Why you’re at risk without an enterprise agreement.
AND MUCH MORE. PLUS there’ll be 15+ exhibitors dressed in Hawaiian, now THAT I’m looking forward to seeing.
SUPPORT THOSE WHO SUPPORT YOU
We have a fantastic diverse supplier membership base now and MANY of these wonderful supply partners will be exhibiting at our Sydney National Conference. Even though you aren’t yet a member, can I ask you to consider – when you are next reviewing a product line or looking for alternative supplier or solution – to please engage with our supply partners first, allow them the opportunity to present an alternative, demonstrate their value, and potentially, build a new relationship with you. We need our supply partners to be successful so they can continue to invest in and support our industry, and help all of us (precasters) to grow.
I look forward to seeing you and your team in Sydney in only 6 weeks. In the meantime, please reach out to me or Sarah if there is anything we can do to help you further leverage your membership and in turn, help strengthen the Association and the industry.
Kind regards,
Jeff Stratford, President