If you are looking for ways to assure a more successful future for your company, plan to attend MCAA's 2014 Mid-Year Conference in Indianapolis, IN (June 23-25).  This highly interactive program will help you discover a wide variety of technologies, more efficient communications methods and more effective management strategies - all of which are aimed at making your company's projects and operations run more efficiently and productively. You will learn about: the latest communications techniques and devices that will help you be more productive in the office and in the field; the latest construction technologies and business practices that will give you an edge on your competition; how to make the most of fabrication to reduce project costs and increase productivity; and leveraging existing projects into future new business opportunities. Leading the conference sessions are our industry's top contractors, educators and specialty consultants who will help you discover and meet the challenges of our ever-changing market environment.  Don't miss this valuable business-building conference. Space is limited, so register today. Go to http://www.mcaa.org/education/mcaa/midyear for program details and to register online.

JOIN THE "WHAT IF...?" EXPERIENCE AT MSCA 2014  

Mike Rayburn will kick-off the Opening Celebration at the MSCA 2014 Educational Conference in Huntington Beach, CA, on September 28. A Hall of Fame international keynote speaker, author, comedian, and world-class guitarist, Rayburn will entertain and inspire you with his hilarious, musical and motivational presentation, The "What If...?" Experience. During this session, you will learn three simple but powerful tools needed to access unrealized potential, look at old things in a new way, and leap beyond perceived limitations. Your Endless Summer is closer than you think, so don't miss out! Be sure to register today for MSCA 2014, and lock in your Early Bird rate. Contact Sobeida Orantes (saorantes@mcaa.org) with questions about conference and hotel registrations. 

MCAA CONTINUES TO PUSH CONGRESS FOR ACTION ON MULTIEMPLOYER PENSION REFORM

MCAA and the NCCMP Retirement Income Security Coalition continue to press Congress for needed reform this year to sustain vital multiemployer defined benefit plans. If Congress fails to act this year, it will pose serious threats to the multiemployer system that include: looming Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation insolvency that would wipe out all insured benefits for insolvent multiemployer plans; deepening funding shortfalls for the small minority of multiemployer plans; and the continuing stress and uncertainty among the sponsoring employers about the future prospect of business sustainability with highly uncontrollable contingent pension underfunding liability. These dangers make it imperative for Congress to act on the Solutions Not Bailouts proposal this year. Yet, the penchant for traditional Congressional inaction in an election year makes solid progress difficult to judge and predict. MCAA and its UA partners in many areas are pressing key lawmakers hard to understand that the best way to preserve the multiemployer system for the future is to enact the measured changes proposed in Solutions Not Bailouts as soon as possible...definitely this year. MCAA's National Issues Conference, which featured an event at Bloomberg Government (A Conversation on Multiemployer Pension Reform), makes that case convincingly and shows the proponents of the Solutions Not Bailouts proposal rebutting its opponents in a highly credible open and public session. MCAA is engaged in an active grass roots campaign with lawmakers in their home districts to overcome Congressional inertia by making the case as to why Solutions Not Bailouts reform can't wait another year.  Go to www.qca2014.org and select "videos" to see a visual transcript of that high profile event.

MCAA's Collective Bargaining Seminar will take place September 8-10 in Washington, DC, when Congress is in session. The program will feature several Administration officials with authority over collective bargaining issues as well as panel discussions with labor and management representatives seeking common ground on difficult bargaining issues. This biennial conference is designed to provide information that will help collective bargaining participants transform adversarial relations into win-win solutions for the benefit of employers, employees, unions, and industry clients. Plan now to attend this highly rated program; program and registration details will be released soon. And, if there is a need for lobbying on the vital pension reform legislation described above, MCAA will schedule a legislative fly-in program concurrent with the conference on September 11. 

SERVICE ONLY...IS FOCUS OF MSCA'S SALES INSTITUTE 

MSCA proudly announces the Sales Institute.  An MSCA University program, the Sales Institute is the first and only focused training program specific to service sales in the HVACR industry. With four phases that support all levels of service sales - from leaders of sales teams to entry-level employees and advanced-level personnel - attendees of Sales Institute programs will be equipped with skills and expertise that can readily be applied to both maintenance and project sales. The official announcement will be made at the MSCA 2014 Educational Conference in Huntington Beach, CA. Kicking off this new program will be the Sales Leadership Symposium, which is the first step to ensuring that sales staff have the training and skills needed to succeed. Visit the Sales Institute Web page to learn more about all available programs. Contact Barbara Dolim (bdolim@mcaa.org) with any questions about the Sales Institute.