We are the industry

Who is NRCA?" I get asked this question a lot, and most recently I was asked this by a prospective member. In response, I almost always ask this question: "Who do you think NRCA is?"

What I heard from this particular prospective member (and others) is NRCA is all about big commercial and industrial roofing contractors. Then, he said: "That's not bad; it's just who you have chosen to be."

When I responded only about 35 percent of NRCA contractor members do commercial roofing exclusively, he was dumbfounded and quite skeptical. He cited Professional Roofing, stating it only writes articles of interest to commercial roofing contractors. Now, I was the skeptical one! As an avid reader of the magazine, I knew this not to be true, and after perusing the February issue I found numerous articles perfectly suited to commercial and residential contractors. Are business-related articles not deemed suitable for both types of businesses? There were articles about diversity, employee fraud and theft, Roofing Day in D.C., silica dust regulations, and business operations for commercial and residential contractors. Pretty balanced stuff.

Balanced. That's a good word for describing who NRCA is. When it comes to roofing contractors, about 50 to 60 percent of NRCA members report doing both types of work. The remainder are generally split between operating as a commercial or residential contractor exclusively. NRCA has union contractors as members and those who operate open shops. NRCA also has members in just about every roofing stakeholder category you can imagine, including raw material suppliers, roofing materials and equipment manufacturers, roof consultants, engineers and architects. That's why NRCA likes to use the tag line: "We are the industry."

You might be surprised to know the typical NRCA roofing contractor member does residential and commercial roofing work; employs about 35-45 people; and reports revenue between $3 million and $5 million. But there are roofing contractors reporting revenues of less than $1 million and some who report revenues in excess of $500 million. Again, "balanced" is the best word to describe the association. In my mind, it's also an indicator of a broad view that comes from a diverse community. NRCA seeks daily to unify the entire industry around ideas and strategies to make it a better place to work, grow and be part of a family. Maybe that's another word for us: family.

Families support each other. Families care about each other. Families grow together. Sometimes, families even disagree amongst each other. NRCA is all these things.

You will notice I didn't say what NRCA does. It's all about who we are. We are you. We are the industry.

Reid Ribble is NRCA's CEO.
@NRCA_CEO

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