b'The YCC FrontYoung Contractors CouncilKevin Gwaltney, MRCA YCC ChairA s I enter the second year as a leader of the MRCA YCC (Young Contractors Council), I believe it is time to build upon our past successes and momentum with a renewed dedication and vision for the future.I am excited to share with our membership, that with final approvals the YCC will transition from being recognized as a council, to our future role of acting as a standing committee of our association.I applaud current leaders for their efforts and vision of embracing the youth movement within our industry.As a testament to the commitment of these leaders, this year we will have three Directors that haveYCC in conjuction with Rebuilding Together in Greater Dallasgraduated from the ranks of working with the YCC toin 2014 at the Dallas convention that provided great serving our association as MRCA Board Members. Thevalue and lots of positive energy.current YCC leadership committee is made up of elevenThe YCC looks to impact our association by continued contractors that have made the commitment to servingefforts to modernize how we communicate and deliver the MRCA membership. value to our industry.The individuals on our committee The YCC committee recently met in January indo double duty serving on other committees of the conjunction with the MRCA board of director meetings. association, such as marketing, business management, We have set our sights on many accomplishments thatsafety and operations, and technical and research.I we would like to make in 2015.Our agenda includesbelieve the youth movement within our association has communicating to our membership in the form of ahad a positive impact on each of the committees and look YCC column to be published in the Midwest Roofer. for even more positive synergies.We started this initiative in 2014 and leaders in ourThe current group of YCC leaders have recognized the committee have addressed a wide range of topics rangingneed to attract new talent to our initiative.I would like from value engineering projects to immigration.We haveto encourage youth to get involved in our association. If strived to prepare these comments from the perspectiveyou are interested in developing your professional skills, of the youth in our industry. networking with peers that face similar challenges and A second item includes planning a communityshare similar successes, and are willing to give a little service event at our upcoming convention in Novemberof their time to improve the industry we work in, this is in Kansas City. This will be the second year that wean unmatched opportunity.We are currently looking have done this.We believe this gives our membershipto recruit new members to our committee.If you have an opportunity to give back to the communities thatan interest, please feel free to contact me by email or support our businesses, as well as an opportunity tocontact MRCA staff for more information.It is evident to work alongside our industry peers, creating lastingme that our industry has an engaged young generation of relationships that provide value in developing ourentrepreneurs poised and ready to meet the challenges professional skills as well as contractor-to-contractorthat we face today.I wish my fellow young contractors networking. successes in 2015.The final agenda item that I would like to share with you is our plan to have a 90 minute round tableKevin Gwaltney is president at Diamond Roofing in Manhattan, KS, and is educational program at the conference in Kansas City. the chairman of the MRCAs Young Contractors Council. He can be reached This time we will provide an opportunity to learn andat kevin@diamond-roofing.com.share ideas on common issues facing our industry, as well as networking.This is a cant-miss session for attendees of the conference.We had a similar educational program 10 www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer'