Building a camaraderie between roofers

By Emma Peterson. 

How associations build networking and community that helps roofing professionals grow. 

In a new Roofing Road Trips® episode, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Kris Hitesman and Mindy Dahlquist to talk about uplifting contractors through associations. Mindy, who is the business development manager for TRA Snow and Sun opened the conversation by emphasizing how associations have helped her career:  

TRA Snow and Sun is actually a pretty small company that manufactures snow retention based out of Utah. And so, one of the things that I have to utilize in my role is associations. By leaning on and getting involved in associations my network and opportunities are much larger than I would have without. And that has not only helped me build up TRA, but it has also helped me build my own career.  

Kris, who is the owner of Capitol Roofing, has also greatly benefited from associations over the course of her career. She explained, “The experiences that I've had with associations like Western States Roofing Contractors Association have literally changed my business. It gave me a great network and I recommend it for everyone, because if you don't get out of your own little world, in your own little office, you can’t grow.”  

Now, both Mindy and Kris are working to pay forward the support they got through the Utah Roofing Contractors Association (URCA), which Kris is the current president of. Their first step is to grow the organization. Kris gave some context, sharing, “We’re really working on getting more contractors involved with URCA. As it is currently, I am the only commercial roofing contractor on the board. There's a couple of residential contractors, but that's it.” 

And once they are able to get people in the door, they will be able to start building the type of experiences that they both got from associations at the beginning of their careers – one of comraderies and support. Mindy shared some of their vision: 

We want to build a space where other contractors aren’t just competition. They’re peers. And you can sit next to them and have conversations about larger industry issues, like cost increases or supply issues. And that space creates unmatched comraderies that helps everyone build their businesses and improve the industry.  

Listen to the whole podcast or Watch the recording to learn more about Mindy, Kris and their work in URCA.