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Nineteen years ago we found ourselves in a similar spot. The week of September 11, 2001, I sat down to write my second message for SBC Magazine (then called WOODWORDS) in my first term as president of the association. It’s so hard to believe almost nineteen years have passed since that day but as I read what I wrote in that message, the memories and grief came flooding back. There was such a national sense of helplessness in that moment, not entirely unlike what we are experiencing as I write this in mid-April 2020.The parallels go much deeper though.

The following article appeared on the WPTV and SBC Magazine websites: Some workers without a degree are dealing with an uncertain job market — and that’s where apprenticeships are filling a need. There’s a growing number of apprenticeships offering pay, job security and career satisfaction amid a time of uncertainty.

The past several weeks have presented an extraordinary crisis for our nation, our companies, our employees, and our families. It feels like every day presents new challenges to navigate and a new playing field with regard to government policies, regulations, and red tape. We have a lot of smart people at our company but, if I’m being honest, trying to wade through it all alone would have yielded less than ideal results.

120 people can get a lot accomplished when they are all fully engaged in an activity. In my last message (March 2020) I shared how SBCA’s strategic plan was drafted based on the responses from twenty-three percent (105) of the member and eight percent (52) of the non-member component manufacturers (CMs) we surveyed. Based on that robust input, the SBCA executive committee and standing committee chairs and co-chairs developed four strategic goals for the trade association over the next five years (to learn more about the strategic plan go to sbcindustry.com/strategic-plan).

There is a real opportunity for our industry to expand and enhance its role in the sup-ply chain. This is due to all the attention being paid to the systemic labor shortage in the construction industry and how offsite industrial framing, like the roof trusses, wall panels and floor trusses our industry produces, can effectively solve that pain point.

My goal as president is a simple one: It’s to help everyone sell more components. Looking at recent market share data in the 2019 Annual Builder’s Practices Survey, roof trusses account for 63.8 percent of all roof framing (Figure 1). That is a solid percentage of the market. However, when you account for the fact that in states like mine (Florida), where the roof truss market share approaches ninety percent, there are is still a lot of opportunity for growth. The best example is Texas, where the roof truss market share is considerably less.

Recovering from a cybersecurity attack can be costly and time-consuming. An attack in 2018 cost A-1 Industries approximately $1.4 million and took the entire operation offline for eight days. “It’s affected A-1 for a lot longer,” Mike Ruede, EVP & COO of A-1 says. He estimates the long-term effects “lasted more like six or eight months” and indicated that A-1 still occasionally comes across something that’s missing or broken as a result of the attack more than a year ago.