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Dear SFNE Members, 
It is a great honor to have been chosen to serve as the SFNE president. I accept this position with enthusiasm and pride. I wish to thank my predecessor James McBrady for his hard work and accomplishments as well as those of present and past elected officers, board and committee members.
While many of you know that I have much to say on steel and trade related topics, I will keep this letter to a short and sweet introduction and welcome to 2014.
I realize that I am not always politically correct, and I can be somewhat blunt. However, I do not ever want to be offensive, so please bear with me as I layout my message.
As I write this letter one month into the new year, the Bruins are hot, the Patriots have lost, the President gave his State of the Union speech and David Ortiz is again holding the Red Sox hostage. Don't despair, the economy continues its long-term recovery, credit is freeing up and there appears to be some decent work to bid.
I am cautiously optimistic about what the future holds for our industry, but I am concerned about what it holds for our organization.
In December the SFNE Board participated in a strategic planning discussion. Together we generated a lot of great ideas and focused on what makes the SFNE important to our members.
It's not just our charitable efforts or golf tournaments, winter meetings, raffles, auctions or even the wonderful "half of a head of iceberg lettuce " and "chicken ala something dinner" and other niceties. The most important thing about the SFNE is what we are doing to help our members make more money.
I believe the answer to what is important is within our Mission Statement; ... "The mission of the SFNE is to promote the use of structural steel and miscellaneous metals in buildings, bridges and similar structures through education, legislative advocacy and networking activities."
We are all in business to make money and SFNE, a network of great people, fabricators, suppliers, vendors and service providers alike, can and should help make that happen.
We have a plain and simple mission statement, we have core values, we have all the key ingredients to make it work but that's not enough, we need the people to make it work. Yes, there are some refinements needed here and there, some tweaking on current programs, some realignments etc., but the key ingredient remains our members.
One thing is for certain, if we keep doing the same thing day in and day out, but yet expecting different results (the definition of insanity) then SFNE will not be able to offer anything different than we have experienced in the recent past. SFNE will continue to provide an inexpensive nice network that meets and socializes a few times a year.
We aim to make a difference in the value of your SFNE membership.
Our committees are already hard at work. The Golf Tournament Committee is not only looking for a better course with playable conditions, but one that actually has enough food to last. Plus they are working on ways to make the event more of a showcase to attract those prospects that need our products. I am hoping for great results.
Our Education Committee is focusing on topics that are more important to fabricators -- those that will add to our bottom lines.
So that takes care networking and education. Now comes the hard part, the legislative advocacy soon to be legislative and steel advocacy.
It's always going to be an endless uphill battle competing with our neighbors "north of the border" and while I do not believe in waging an "anti-neighbor" campaign, I am still convinced that it is far more important to maintain our "Buy American" theme. Our livelihoods and those of our employees, suppliers, subs and just about everyone we write checks to as well as local and regional economies depend upon it but it doesn't stop there!
We also face stiff competition from other building products such as wood and concrete. Currently, those industries are doing a better job promoting their products as we witness more and more low to mid-rise structures utilizing less and less steel.
What is our answer? We need to do what our competition is doing. We need to communicate and support our industry advocates like the AISC. We need to advocate and promote steel, and it might as well be steel that is fabricated right here in New England!
In short, as you can see there is much more to do and I am happy and proud to spearhead our efforts to protect our regional members and industry as a whole. Keep in mind; the handful of Board of Directors and myself can't do it alone.
It's going to be a busy year for the SFNE membership.
We need your support to continue the mission of the Steel Fabricators of New England.
Proudly serving as the SFNE President,
Stephen J. Capone
Capone Iron Corporation
SFNE President | 
Mike Fede
Bill Trubia