Frank Stasiowski - Rebuilding Together After Natural Disasters - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with PSMJ & METALCON Founder and CEO Frank A. Stasiowski. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Intro: Hello, and welcome to another episode of MetalCast from MetalCoffeeShop.com. My name is Karen Edwards, and today we're going to have a really interesting conversation with Frank Stasiowski from PSMJ and METALCON to talk about the Disaster Rebuilding Fund and how the group is giving back helping people after natural disasters.
Frank, welcome. Thank you for being here.

Frank A. Stasiowski: Thanks, Karen. Love to be here.

Karen Edwards: Could you just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about who you are and about PSMJ and the relationship there with METALCON?

Frank A. Stasiowski: All right. We started PSMJ 50 years ago. I'm an architect and we started out helping design professionals and contractors around the world with the business side of their business. Starting in about 1979, we'll get into the trade show business, developed a large computer show for architects, engineers and contractors and that evolved into about nine other shows.

In 1991, we founded METALCON as a show for the metal construction industry, working with the Metal Construction Association and it's now in its 32nd year coming up to Las Vegas this fall in October, probably will be the biggest show we've ever had. We're getting unbelievable response right now.

So that's who we are. We've got about 130 people on the team and I'm the founder of it all. So my job is to do as little as I possibly can and get them all [inaudible 00:01:47].

Karen Edwards: Wow. Yeah, it certainly has grown. I've been going to METALCON probably for the last maybe seven or eight years, and every year it's just bigger than the last and the popularity of metal has just grown so much. I'm really looking forward to October and seeing the biggest show ever. It's really exciting.

So let's dive into the PSMJ Disaster Rebuilding Fund, and tell me a little bit about how that came out and what your goals are.

Frank A. Stasiowski: All right, sure. Well, Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 and myself and my wife were sitting down one day looking at all the films and all the videos of what was going on on August 29th, 2005 and it was a major disaster. It's the biggest storm to ever hit America, to ever perhaps even hit the world. At that point, we kind of came up with the idea, how can we marshal all the people in our mailing list to help out and do something different on the Gulf Coast? Our mailing list at that point was 165,000 firms and contacts and customers and exhibitors. And what we did is formed a 501C3, a not-for-profit charitable organization with a very succinct purpose and vision. Unlike most of the people that we met when we got on a plane and flew down to the Gulf Coast, we didn't want to just be another person providing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and band-aids.

Everybody was doing it, the Samaritans and the Red Cross, everybody was going to the Gulf Coast and helping individual people out in probably a lot better way than we could. So we had to pick a vision and a purpose that was a little different. So we started to look around and I remember running a community meeting in Bay St. Louis, which was the bullseye of the storm and we discovered we didn't have any place to run the meeting. Everything had been knocked down, everything was wiped out, the churches were down, the public buildings was down, town hall was gone. We ended up meeting almost in the back of a trailer, and we came up with the idea at that meeting that what we needed to do is help a community rebuild its public spaces, something that would benefit the community in a way long after the storm was forgotten, something nobody else was doing.

In Bay St. Louis, we got together and raised a few million dollars and ended up building the Bay St. Louis Community Center, which still stands today and has our names on it. It's a testament to how the whole community came together. We raised funds from the architects, engineers and contractors and built a building which is hurricane proof, so to speak, which can be used for community meetings, concerts, all kinds of things in the community of Bay St. Louis. Took us two years to do it, but it stands as a testament to the architects and engineers and what we could do to pull them all together.

And now given the disasters in both North Carolina, the hurricane and in California with the fires, we've reignited our efforts to raise funds and we're doing very well. Just the other day we got another check in for $10,000 from a company, engineering firm and we're doing small and large fundraising to put together a fund to help both of those communities.
In the case of North Carolina, it's in Asheville and we're helping a library. In the case of California, we haven't picked a project yet, but we're focusing on Altadena, which is a more poor community that was really wiped out. And we're going to seek a project there, which is like a community center or a library or recreation building to help rebuild. And what I would really like to personally do is engage the metal contractors to help out, because one of the biggest things with metal is that obviously if half the roofs in California were constructed of metal, the buildings would not have burned. So I really want to make a big push in what we do in California for the use of metal and engage a whole bunch of metal people in this.

Karen Edwards: So, I'm going to-

Frank A. Stasiowski: So that's what we do and that's how we're doing it. We've got a whole team of people right now out fundraising to try to collect a significant amount so we can build one or two buildings in these communities over the next couple of years.

Karen Edwards: Okay. That is really amazing that you guys saw a need. You leveraged the context that you had, you came in and you did something for the community. I think that everybody wants to help and we don't always know how we can do it and someone needs to take the lead. And that's really admirable that you guys did that.
And now like you said, with Asheville, with the damage and devastation there and with the fires in California, how do you find... Like you said, you haven't selected a project yet in Altadena. How do you find, who do you reach out to say, here's what we want to do, what should we do? How do you determine that project?

Frank A. Stasiowski: Well, we literally get on a plane and go. And in case of Bay St. Louis, myself and my wife flew to New Orleans. And New Orleans was our first target because remember a few days or a week and a half after the storm, New Orleans flooded and all the news media was going after New Orleans, but we got into New Orleans, we actually stayed at the Senesta on Bourbon Street and made many approaches to the mayor's office and didn't get a lot of results.

So, we hopped in a vehicle we had through the Corps of Engineers and we drove along the coast and ended up driving into a little community called Waveland, Mississippi and met with the mayor and met with the mayor's assistant and immediately helped them right there. They were doing a project to try to find their citizens because the storm had displaced everybody. Everybody was all over the country. Nobody knew how to connect with them. And what they wanted to do was mail a postcard, or kind of census to their citizens at their last known address, but they couldn't get any postage stamps.

The mailboxes and everything were gone. The post office was gone. So I hopped in my car, went back to New Orleans, went to the post office and bought 6,500 postage stamps and we ended up putting out the survey and found about 95% of their people within a couple of weeks.

So, we literally get on the ground and go and do it. In the case of Asheville, right now we're working with a public library in Asheville and one of our people is helping them collect books. So even on the small end of things, we have books all over our office because people are donating books that we're going to ship to this library to try to rebuild their collection and their books ranging from kids' books all the way up to every category of books you find in a bookstore.

Not only large donations from big engineering firms and contractors, but small donations help. And our plan in California is to wait a little while until we collect some money and until things settle down a little bit and then hop on a plane and go to Altadena and try to meet with the mayor or the people that are in charge of rebuilding. And with the power of our mailing list and our donations, we're able to connect with those people and we go right after them.

Karen Edwards: Yeah. Being in the industry and the building and construction engineering architecture industry for as long as you have, you certainly have the network and the reach. You are that mouthpiece for what the need is out to the industry. You're also a trusted name in the industry because unfortunately, there are those that aren't always up to do good when things like this happen. But I think people feel confident knowing that if they're making a donation to you and your efforts, that it's really going to go right there in the community and help them out.

Frank A. Stasiowski: Well, another part of what we do, Karen, is we try to partner with people. Let's say we find a project in Altadena and the project cost is going to be $50 million and we only have raised $10 million. Well, we need $40 million more. So what we try to do is find other organizations that are looking to partner and put them together in a coalition to try to get the project done.

So that's part of what we do. Based on our knowledge of how projects come together in every major project there are a lot of partners, finance partners and construction partners and suppliers and everybody else on the project. It's not just us doing things, but we try to take the lead role and get the project identified and then move forward. It could take a year, it could take two years, it could take three years, but our objective is to do stay with our mission of doing something for the community and building a project that will last for millennia that'll help that community.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, yeah. And so I'm curious about how when you do come together and you start the project, are people volunteering their time to design the building, to construct the building?

Frank A. Stasiowski: One of the questions I always get asked is, well, what kind of donations do you want? And they fall into four categories. And I'm going to tell you the four categories.

One, obviously, is money. Anybody that has a fund in their company that donates to charities, we'd love to have a check from them. And that's easy because you just write a check like the company last week did. And we put it in the account, give you the thank-yous and give you credit. Everybody that participates gets credit, they get their name on the plaques and they get their name and all the PR we do.

Number two, it's time. Design professionals help us. We had an architect in Bay St. Louis that helped us design the facility and at literally less than the cost of their time to do the design. And obviously their name will be on that facility forever. And they helped out an awful lot through donating time.

And then thirdly, it's materials. When I look at the metal construction industry, we've already had some suggested donations of metal studs, metal roofing, metal siding from some of our exhibitors that are moving well toward helping with whatever we build. Now, we don't know how we're going to use that material yet, but it's nice to get that kind of a donation in kind from companies who actually produce some of the materials.

And then the fourth, we have a board of directors and we're always looking to add to our board and board members in our organization, we require them to make an annual donation. It's a not-for-profit, and it's like working in a university board. You have to donate.

We are always looking for people who have the kind of heart that want to help out and also want to write a check. So if there are any potential board members out there that really want to play an active role on this, we love to talk with them. So those are four ways that people can donate.

Karen Edwards: I like it because no matter your skill level or your expertise level, having those multiple options, I'm not going to design a building, but I could certainly donate money. Or I'm not going to be constructing and putting things together, but I could volunteer in other ways. I just can't even imagine the organization that has to go into getting these projects done from start to finish. And is that you leading most of these efforts, Frank?

Frank A. Stasiowski: No, we have a team in our office of about eight people right now. And by the way, this is so good for a company. What I learned during the activities starting in 2005 was that it really is a morale booster for a team. People really do like to give and they do like to have a purpose in that giving. We have a team back at PSNJ right now that's really come together and they're helping to do all of this. We have one person that's collecting all the books and working with the library in North Carolina.

And by the way, it goes down as far as Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, I guess it's all called Scouts now who have senior projects. In Katrina, we had a Scout who had a senior project and they rented one of those moving pods. They went to the community they were in and collected about 5,000 tools from people that were in their basements and delivered a pod full of tools to the citizens of Bay St. Louis. And that was an amazing little part of the thing.

Small and large, people played different roles. Now what I try to do is, as the founder of this thing and everything else, is to be a coach and a guidance counselor to the team, but we have a project manager working on this one, Paige Saseko and she's right now putting the entire game plan together. We teach project management, so hopefully we know how to do that. And then once we get a project identified, it becomes a lot easier to put a schedule and a budget together and then bring in partners on that project.

Karen Edwards: Right. Wow. Okay. So the next question, it might seem obvious, but how does one get involved? How do you donate? How do you sign up? Where do I find this information?

Frank A. Stasiowski: Well, I say this because it's so easy. Our website, our PSMJ website has a link to PSMJ, Disaster Rebuilding Fund, it's www.PSMJ.com. And I always tell people, as my seven-year-old son did back a lot of years ago, PSMJ does not stand for Please Serve Me Jelly. But it's a good way to remember it, okay?

Karen Edwards: Yes, it is.

Frank A. Stasiowski: So, if you want to remember www.PSMJ.com, that's a way to remember. Our phone number is also a way to call Paige directly and ask how you can help. And that's (800) 537-7765. Now, those are the two primary contact ways. We're also, over the course of the next six months, going to be putting out messaging to both our METALCON attendees and exhibitors and to our PSMJ list. So there'll be hundreds of thousands of email and social media messages out there containing what we're doing. And we do that regularly. Every month there'll be a message going out somehow on our progress, and that helps to gather new donors.

Our job right now is donations. And the hardest job in not-for-profits, I'll share it with everybody out there who's thinking about this, is fundraising. It's a real hard job, and it is a job. You have to work at fundraising because nobody just takes money out of their pocket and throws it around. There has to be a purpose, there has to be a vision and there has to be a team that's trusted behind all of it. So we work on that every day to be a trusted team that people can donate to. If anybody has any questions, those two contact points, www.PSMJ.com or our 800 number, (800) 537-7765.

Karen Edwards: It's impressive that you've got just about a 20-year track record. It is with Katrina being in '05. I mean, that really instills a lot of confidence in people that you've been doing it this long and you've got those projects under your belt that people can see, wow, you really did do this and you made a difference. And that really helps.

And MetalCoffeeShop will be sharing all of these updates and information. We love to help and spread that word. So we'll be doing that as well. And METALCON, you can get information on METALCON's directory on our website and we'll be sure that that donation information is included there. And I know you guys always as part of METALCON, even give back to the community wherever the show is.

Frank A. Stasiowski: We sure do.

Karen Edwards: Yeah. And last year you were able to present to a veteran's organization, a fundraising check. Can you give us any hints as to what might be happening at this...

Frank A. Stasiowski: Now, the major point I want to make, let me go back to Bay St. Louis and let me go back to Altadena and North Carolina. One of the side benefits that everybody that gets involved in our rebuilding fund really gets, which is a very important side benefit. We still have friends in Bay St. Louis, my wife and I. They actually wanted us to buy property there and become residents.

Because you develop friendships when you're doing this kind of an activity. You get to meet people who you don't even know appreciate what you did. I remember we were out to dinner one time down in Waveland and Joan, my wife and I wanted to have a private dinner. So we kind of snuck away from the crowds and went to a little restaurant we hadn't been to. And as we're checking in, a lady from the back of the restaurant comes running up to the front and says: "You have to sit with us! You don't know what you did for me!"

Had no idea who she was, but they had a table of eight or 10 people. Come to find out, because of our little postage stamp exercise, they found their mother that they had been looking for two months and they couldn't find her and connect with her. Now, back in 2005, cell phones really didn't... They weren't as prolific as they are now. Everybody was counting on landlines and mail, and their mother had taken off and gone someplace. And that little postcard found their 88-year-old mother in a nursing home in North Carolina, and they were able to connect.

Karen Edwards: Wow.

Frank A. Stasiowski: So they wanted to buy us dinner, they wanted to take us out, they wanted to do all kinds of things for us and they were so appreciative. So you just don't know the community and the people relations you're going to make in human beings as a result of what you do.

One of the things we look forward to is both North Carolina and Altadena, getting to know some really core good people as a result of this activity. And everybody that participates is welcome to enjoy that activity, be part of it, be part of a building opening. We invite everybody that donates to come to the openings, and it's a real connecting time to connect with other people.

Karen Edwards: Well, that's exciting. We're going to have to check back in a year from now and see what kind of progress you've made and maybe get a peek at some of the work that's been done. That's fantastic.

Frank A. Stasiowski: That'd be awesome.

Karen Edwards: Yeah. Oh, well, Frank-

Frank A. Stasiowski: Don't wait a year. We'll follow up as we go.

Karen Edwards: Okay. Excellent.

Frank A. Stasiowski: We're working on it every day.

Outro: Excellent. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for being here and for sharing about the wonderful things that you're doing to give back to the community. And remember, it was please serve me jelly, PSMJ.com. And you can also find information on MetalCoffeeShop.com.

I want to thank you all for listening, and if you're so moved, please contribute, see how you can get involved and we hope to see you on a future episode of MetalCast. Bye-Bye.