ORLANDO, Florida - (Jan. 4, 2009) - As your new President of CFRSA, I would first like to thank my wife of 38 years and best friend Cathy, my daughters Amy and Wendy, my son in law David, and my best buddy and granddaughter Callie whom without there support, I would not be able to accomplish this task. I would also like to recognize and thank Jim Brauner, Jim Carducci, Ron Malmberg, George Ebersold, Bob Mahoney, Michael Leonard, Don Schmidt and Bert Logan who without there endorsement and support I would not be serving you. In addition, I commend and support Richard Tennyson for being elected our new treasurer. I also would like to thank my former employer The Roofing Connection and my current employer, NationsRoof, specifically Mark Cridlin and Rich Nugent for allowing me to serve.

And finally, I commend all the members for supporting CFRSA and what we all are pledged to.We have all heard about change in our federal, state and local elections this past year.  I believe we, as members, will be changing the way we do business in 2009 and beyond. There will be change in manufacturing and installation process's for our industry and others. In order to survive, we will all need to adapt to these changes.

With change comes new opportunities. I look forward to these changes and hope that all of you do as well. There is also change happening within CFRSA.

At our regular monthly meetings we will be supporting our associate members by providing a table top display area during the cocktail reception and allotting 10-15 minutes in our meeting for them to focus on their service and/or product line. See either myself or Michael to schedule this event. We will be presenting a Foreman, lead man, and/or crew leader training session and best practices symposium on Torch Safety, Metal Roofing and Architectural Sheet Metal, Fall Protection and Harness Safety, Tile Roofing Standard, and Codes update. This is a first of its kind in our association and will be held on Saturday, February 21, 2009 at Architectural Sheet Metal's shop. Our February membership meeting will give us an update on the wind mitigation and codes update as they go into effect in March. We will continue to provide you, the members, with updates on code changes,  building department changes as they affect our industry. We will be having a luncheon meeting in March with the building department officials to get there response to the new code changes.We will also keep everyone updated on the progress  the Disaster Preparedness Committee is making. In May, Cam Fentriss will update us on what is happening in the legislative session.

We will also have some fun. A new event is scheduled for March in the First Annual CFRSA Poker Run, the proceeds of which will be pledged to Give Kids the World Foundation. This will occur the week end before bike week so that everyone's up to speed so to speak. Our Golf Tournament is planned for April. We are actively searching for a course that is both challenging and forgiving to host this event. So get your teams ready. And the Bar B Q with competitive volleyball is planned for October.  Again, get your team ready.