Just like all of the Major League Baseball teams are preparing for their season, late winter and early spring is also the perfect time for construction companies to begin the process of evaluating the skills, credentials, and safety training of their field employees.  With the busy construction season right around the corner, Master Builders of Iowa wants to remind you of our Training-on-Demand program which enables member firms to customize their training schedule to assure everyone is up to speed.  Whether you are looking for OSHA training, Qualified Rigger/Signal Person, Fall Protection, or other critical training topics, MBI is ready and just an email or phone call away.  Click here for a list of Training-on-Demand topics available through MBI.

For additional information, contact Tom Fulcher at tfulcher@mbionline.com or 515.657.4395.

Don't let it be "déjà vu all over again" for our efforts to reduce the statute of repose. The bill is set up just like last year in that we moved it out of the Iowa House, but face a difficult time in the Democratically-controlled Senate. We must not let the trial lawyers get the best of us on our efforts to reduce Iowa's statute of repose.

As you will recall, last week saw one of MBI's top policy priorities take a good step forward as HF 194 passed the Iowa House 60-39. The bill is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A subcommittee has been assigned to the bill. The Senate Judiciary Chair Steve Sodders (D-Marshalltown) has named himself as subcommittee chair. Others on the subcommittee include Senator Janet Petersen (D-Des Moines) and Senator Charles Schneider (R-West Des Moines).

In past years, leaders in the Iowa Senate have been unwilling to allow a hearing on the merits of a reduction in the statute of repose. We can win the policy debate, but the political one is hard to overcome. Overwhelming the Senate with contacts from constituents can serve as a great equalizer to the politics of the Iowa Bar Association, the Trial Lawyers (Iowa Association of Justice) and AFSCME (public sector employee union). Please take action today and encourage others in your firm to do the same.

To help in this Engage MBI effort, you are asked to do three things today:

1. Click on this link to generate a contact to your senator.

2. Forward this link to EVERYONE in your firm, asking them to do the same.

3. Forward this link to your other business associates - subs, suppliers, surety providers, insurance agents, design professionals, etc. to ask that they not only generate a contact, but forward to their business associates as well.