Why you should get involved with your local roofing associations

CCS Influencer Jeff Blank says that his company's involvement with associations helps them maintain their viability in the roofing marketplace.

Editor's note: The following is a transcript of Jeff Blank's, vice president of Simon Roofing, video response to this month's influencer question. You can read the transcript or watch the video below.

Jeff Blank: Hi. To answer your question, what do we suggest for being involved in local, state and federal advocacy for the roofing industry? The key thing is to really just decide to be involved. It's not one of those things where it's elusive. There are a number of ways to become engaged. I can tell you exactly how we do it. The first thing that we have done is we joined our industry trade association. So Simon Roofing has been a member of the Roof Coating Manufacturers Association for 26 years. our employees have participated actively in that association, and some of our employees have actually risen to the position of president of that association. So we have a very active interest in that association, and that really helps us have a singular voice and a consensus with regards to the regulatory environment that our industry is involved in.

And our industry is a regulated industry, so we need a very robust advocacy presence to help us maintain our competitiveness and our viability in the marketplace. So that's the starting point. From there, we then go into our personal efforts. So, for example we then go into the the code compliance portion of how our products are sold and installed and manufactured. So like the International Building Code, our products have to meet those standards. the Florida Building Code. Our products have to meet those standards. The Miami Dade Code Compliance Agency, we have to meet those requirements. So we're actively engaged on the government side. In addition to that, we also have a robust presence getting approvals with agencies such as Underwriters Laboratories and Factory Mutual. That's also very important, and that's a three-pronged approach to how we manage local, state and federal regulatory compliance and ability. In addition to that, we are also active in ASTM, which is the foundational testing association, which comes up with standards for our products.

So we're actively engaged in re-approval development and acceptance of those standards. And we are our employees are ASTM fellows. And we do attend those meetings as well. So we have a really robust program. If you want to dabble in it, that's fine. But in order to be effective you need to have a really strong focus. And Simon Roofing does have that focus. We are very committed to being engaged on these issues primarily 'cause we have allot at stake.