Focus

June 1 marks the first day of NRCA's fiscal year, and the 2016-17 year will be one of change, opportunity and excitement.

First, the organization will transition to the leadership of Dennis Conway, principal of Commercial Roofers Inc., Las Vegas, NRCA's next chairman of the board. As with most chairmen, Conway has an aggressive agenda focused not only on increasing NRCA's membership but also tackling broad industry issues, such as worker training and recruitment. To read more about Conway's plans for the year, see "Leading with passion."

The start of the fiscal year also marks National Roofing Week, which will be held June 5-11. For the past three years, the celebrations held during the week have grown, and this year, NRCA has launched a more aggressive social media effort, which includes a Thunderclap campaign. Thunderclap is a crowdspeaking platform that allows people to Tweet or post a Facebook message on the same day—and at the same time—to achieve the maximum effect and rise above the noise on social media.

On June 5, those who participated in the Thunderclap campaign had the following message automatically posted at the same time to their followers on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr: "It's National Roofing Week! Share if you are thankful for the roof over your head!"

To see the full schedule of National Roofing Week events and learn more about how you can participate, go to www.nrca.net/National-Roofing-Week.

And in six months, NRCA will welcome new CEO Reid Ribble, currently a congressman from Wisconsin's eighth district and a former NRCA chairman of the board. Ribble will be only the third CEO NRCA has had in 50 years—a testament to the exemplary CEOs NRCA's leadership has chosen in the past. Current CEO Bill Good will continue in an advisory capacity through May 31, 2017.

Conway and NRCA's Executive Committee are committed to ensuring a smooth transition.

"Reid has proved he's an exceptional manager and leader. He's an effective communicator. Those are both traits we are looking for," says former NRCA Chairman of the Board Nelson Braddy, chairman of NRCA's Transition Committee and president and CEO of King of Texas Roofing Co. LP, Dallas. "But he also understands from his time as a volunteer leader how associations work, and he certainly has knowledge of and experience in the roofing industry."

The positive start to NRCA's new year is only the beginning of great things to come.

Ambika Puniani Bailey is editor of Professional Roofing and NRCA's vice president of communications and production.