June Message from National Women in Roofing’s Executive Director

The NWIR June newsletter featured a special message from Ellen Thorp sharing what’s new with the association.

You can watch Ellen’s video update below or scroll down to read the transcript.

Hi there. This is Ellen Thorp. I'm the Executive Director of National Women in Roofing. And thank you to Jennifer Stone for giving me this space this month to take over the Letter from the Chair, to tell you a little bit about what's going on in the association.

In early June, we had a great presence at the Western Roofing Expo. we had some awesome educational sessions there. We had some time to talk with other women who stopped by our booth. And our educational session featured some really straight talk about the presence of women in the roofing industry, and how the rest of our industry can help the support those roles, not only for women, but also for men in the industry. We also had a Board meeting right before the Western Roofing Expo, where we reviewed goals for 2019 and set goals for 2020 and continued the work of really running the association.

Speaking of our Board of Directors, I wanted to make sure that you were familiar with this resource on our website. We've got a new page with photos and descriptions of our Board of Directors. So, in case you were wondering who's who and who does what it’s all right on the website.

I also wanted to bring to your attention that we have a tremendous amount of councils that are forming all across the United States. There's a list of these on our website as well. And, councils are a great way for women to really make contact with other members in their local area. And the way that you make contact with them is by updating your profile in the Association Management System, selecting your primary council and choosing the one that is closest to where you live.

If you want to get in touch with them in a different way, you'll click on their link on the council's listing. The officers of the council are listed at the top. Any upcoming events or any messages from them are there. And then there's also a place where you can enter in your information, to make sure that they are contacting you. Again, if you have updated your profile in the Association Management System and clicked on the indication that you want to be contacted by your primary council, you will be contacted if there's activity there. Some of our councils are more active than others, so if your council is not active, offer to help them out and to get something started and get something going.

We also are announcing the date for National Women in Roofing Day, which is going to be February 2, 2020 in Dallas, immediately preceding the International Roofing Expo. So, you'll want to plan to travel on February 1st, because we are going to have an all-day session on February 2nd, filled with tons of education, and also opportunities for networking and mentoring as well, and you will not want to miss it. We are in the very early planning stages. All of our members were invited to a brainstorming session that we had at the Western Roofing Expo, where we talked about different content ideas, and so it's going to be really fantastic.

I also wanted to make sure that you were aware of the WORLD Award. Submissions are open now. We've had a couple nominations already and all the information is on our website. Nominations close in September. The WORLD Award will honor an outstanding woman in the roofing industry. No self-nominations are allowed, but you can nominate your friends or colleagues, and we will be excited to see those come in.

I also wanted to let you know about our Careers page. This is where we have opportunities for our sponsors to post job listings. And we also have a link to all of our Diamond and Platinum sponsors' HR pages from our website. You've heard me say a million times that these are the sponsors that not only talk the talk, but they also walk the walk when it comes to empowering and supporting women in the roofing industry. So, if you're in a position where you're looking for a new role, these are some great companies to start with.

On the website, we also have a link to the webinar that we held on June 20th about training and retaining employees. It was produced by the Education Committee and hosted by Sue Drummond. You can also access all of the previous webinars.  This page will be changing soon to members only access. They are a great resource for women that are new to the roofing industry for sure, but really for any woman or man in the roofing industry.

One of the questions that I get a lot is, "How do I get involved? How do I do more?" One of the ways to get involved for sure, is by connecting with your local council, helping your local council leadership produce more events, more meaningful opportunities, or starting a council in your area. That's really the most impactful way to get involved with National Women in Roofing and to do more.

We also have committees. There is another page on our website that shows all of our committees. We have committee openings all the time so if there is a committee that you feel passionate about, then please reach out and let us know that you'd like to be considered.

Another question that we get sometimes is, "What is National Women in Roofing? What do you do?" On our website, we have this About Us page that explains what we do. We also have our goals which are the pillars of National Women in Roofing. They are recruitment into the industry, networking, education, and mentoring. National Women in Roofing is a volunteer-led organization. It provides programs and services to the roofing industry, through the lens of empowering women. And we use our members and our councils to help spread that message.

So that's it in a nutshell. Thanks for your time today and I am looking forward to seeing you again soon. Bye now.

To learn more about National Women in Roofing visit them at www.nationalwomeninroofing.org.