ACCA Now September/October 2020

CHA I RMAN ’ S COLUMN

So Many Ways To Get More Out of Your Membership

Become involved in the ACCA Contractor Forum. It is the place for ACCA members to pose questions and seek advice from other contractor members. To start a discussion, log in to your ACCA account (www.acca.org/login) and then go to www.acca. org/communities and select “Contractor Forum.” Once in, select the “Discussions” tab, and you will see the green “Post new message” button. From there, it is just like sending an email. If you receive each message as it is sent (instead of a digest of all the messages), you can also click the “Start new dis- cussion” link at the top and bottom of every ACCA Contractor Forum email. To reply to messages, just click on “Reply to discussion” if you’re logged in online or “Reply to entire group” to post your message using your smartphone. When you’re reading and replying to the forum’s email messages, remember you are automatically logged in to the ACCA website. The Contractor Forum has answered and dis- cussed thousands of questions and topics. To all the new members, let this be your personal invitation to become involved in the important work of ACCA. I assure you that you will grow in knowledge and find that information to help grow your business. ACCA has also experienced growth in the number of our invaluable corporate partners. These manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors have made a huge commitment to ACCA and the well- being of the HVAC industry, providing significant financial support to ACCA’s advocacy and stan- dards development programs. Please show them your appreciation and support through a phone call and especially through a purchase order! ACCA relies on these dedicated partners for our educa- tion programs, seminars, publications, government affairs, and events. Finally, ACCA has some exciting items that will be introduced in the coming months. The ACCA staff, volunteers, and corporate partners have been tirelessly working through the summer to bring opportunities that will help finish out your year with a bang. Stay tuned and have a successful end of summer!

I HOPE THE SUMMER months have been good to you and by now you have developed a plan on how to con- duct business during the COVID-19 pandemic going forward. Apparently, many of you have discovered what a valuable asset the Air Conditioning Contrac- tors of America (ACCA) can be especially during this pandemic. ACCAmembership has exceeded all expec- tations and we all are grateful and hope that ACCA will continue to be a resource for your business. Now, ACCA needs your help. Our government rela- tions group has been extremely busy with the Pay- check Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness program, two stimulus packages, CARES Act, home energy tax credits, and a few state issues. You can help by contacting your Congressional representa- tives (ACCA has made this really easy) and of course through the ACCA-PAC. Please consider becoming involved in the government relations part of ACCA. With a unified voice and ACCA’s presence on Capitol Hill, you will have a powerful influence on legislation that affects your business and the HVAC industry. There are numerous needs at ACCA. There are five major committees – Events, Membership, Member Services, Partners, and Products – that do the volun- teer work of the association. This is the best way to become involved and the very best way to get your money’s worth from being a member. Every commit- tee I have served on has been a learning experience, and another way to experience the satisfaction of contributing to the HVAC industry. If you are inter- ested in joining one of the committees reach out to ACCA’s Committee Liaison, Melissa Broadus at melissa.broadus@acca.org or 703-824-8842. You can also become involved in our ACCA Man- agement Information Exchange (MIX ® ) Groups. ACCA’s MIX Group program is an organized forum of ACCA’s contractor members. Each ACCA MIX Group consists of eight to 10 ACCA members from non-competing areas, who usually meet twice each year. They typically travel to each other’s compa- nies to review each company’s sales, operations, policies, advertising, staff, strategies, facilities and more. The collective knowledge and experience of those groups is immeasurable.

Lanny Huffman is president of Hickory Sheet Metal in Hickory, NC, and ACCA’s 2020 –2021 Chairman of the Board. He can be reached at chairman@acca.org.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020