Associations Can Provide a Wealth of Resources

MCS Influencer Mark Standifer says associations like the Metal Construction Association offer many great resources to construction industry professionals.

Editor's note: The following is a conversation between Coffee Shops' COO, Karen Edwards, and Mark Standifer. You can watch the video or read the transcript below.

Karen Edwards: I'm Karen Edwards and I'm at the IRE, International Roofing Expo 2023, and I found Mark Standifer, one of our Metal Coffee Shop influencers. Welcome, Mark.

Mark Standifer: Thank you. Good morning.

Karen Edwards: We're so excited to see you.

Mark Standifer: It's good to be here.

Karen Edwards: So let's talk about March's topic, which is what industry associations should contractors belong to and be involved with?

Mark Standifer: The first one I'm going to say is you need to be involved with Metal Coffee Shop. Is that a shameless plug?

Karen Edwards: Yeah. I love that.

Mark Standifer: You need to be involved with this. There's some good influencers there. You'll pick up some good advice. The only organization I've ever been involved with was the Metal Construction Association. They have a periodical which I really enjoy. Once a year you'll see an article about fasteners that can be applied not just to metal roofing, but to single-ply.

You'll see articles in there about aluminum composite metal panels, sheet metal siding, metal roof jobs, a variety of different things. Yeah. Several years ago I got an award through their organization?

Karen Edwards: Did you? Tell me about that.

Mark Standifer: I was working for Mike Franklin, his company, Ramon Franklin, and we did a job, Legacy ER. We furnished and installed a PVC roof, but the reward we got was for all the standing zinc we installed on the job, perforated zinc. We had seven different profiles and there was not one 90 degree angle anywhere on the walls.

Karen Edwards: Wow.

Mark Standifer: Yeah. We got a Director's Design Excellence Award that year.

Karen Edwards: Congratulations.

Mark Standifer: Yeah. It was kind of cool. I didn't get to go to Vegas to pick it up, the boss did, but that's neither here nor there. But, yeah, I liked them. Timely articles is what I like. Then also you get to see what other people around the country are doing.

I wish I could remember the job or the contractor, but it's a university out in Arizona, Utah, somewhere out there. They did an addition to a building and they used all the ACM, but they had this sandstone color, so it's all these layers of really red and earth tones. It looks very cool.

Karen Edwards: Wow.

Mark Standifer: Yeah. Just great ideas, and you'll see how other people come across problems and fix them.

Karen Edwards: And the Metal Construction Association is a partner with Metal Coffee Shop, so they have a directory on our site, so just hop onboard there, visit their directory, you'll find out how you can sign up, how you can become a member, and learn about upcoming events and educational opportunities that they may be offering.

Mark Standifer: Yeah. Oh, and come by the booth. Get one of these red carpenter's pencils. You're going to love this when you're working on sheet metal.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, because this is actually red lead in there.

Mark Standifer: Yes. Yes. I got one, because I burned my up at the house.

Karen Edwards: Well, Mark, thank you for coming by to see us.

Mark Standifer: Hey, glad to be here.

Karen Edwards: It was great talking to you.

Mark Standifer: Glad to see you all.

Karen Edwards: Yeah.

Mark Standifer: Glad to see the camera person, Meghan, behind the camera, behind the phone.

Karen Edwards: All right.

Mark Standifer: Good to see you all.

Karen Edwards: Until next time.

Mark Standifer is currently semi-retired and consulting for metal roofing, walls and sheet metal shops. See his full bio here.