An Evening With The RCAW

The Bi-Annual RCAW Dinner Meeting

We recently had the opportunity to attend the Roofing Contractors Association of Washington’s (RCAW) Bi-Annual Dinner Meeting. The RCAW is a great recourse of the industry and have put together many programs that promote growth, collaboration and continued education. Their dinner meetings are always a great event to network and receive nuggets of wisdom from various speakers. April’s dinner meeting was held at the Seattle Marriott Bellevue and featured two main speakers: Heidi Elsworth from the Roofers Coffee Shop and Keith Martino from Martino and Associates in Texas.

Roofer Coffee Shop

After a brief introduction from the National Women in Roofing (a national organization focused on the empowerment of women within the roofing industry), we heard from Heidi Elsworth on her adventures in the roofing industry, her involvement in the NWIR, and the beginnings of the Roofers Coffee Shop. Founded in 1994, Roofers Coffee Shop strives to facilitate a community amongst roofing professionals around the country, a place “Where The Industry Meets”. A place to share ideas, share stories, even get help.

Martino and Associates

Next we heard from Keith Martino, author of Expect Leadership and Short Stories for Busy Leaders. Martino has a passion for helping construction and roofing business owners achieve stellar results, and on this night he gave us a wonderful and interactive talk on leadership within the roofing organization. He walked us down a series of metaphors based on sequoia trees. The root system of the sequoia tree is very shallow, running parallel to the ground, intertwined with the roots from other sequoia trees. This demonstrates that the trees get their support from each other. Continuing with this metaphor he explains that the sequoia tree drops about 2000 cones a year to start the next generation, he explains that it is said “The best time to have planted a tree was 20 years ago and the second best time is today.” He goes on to explain “We are already paving the way for the next group of people who are going to come behind us and take the roofing industry to a whole new level.” “It is never too late to empower the people around you with the realization that their first job in that organization is not to be an installer, or to be a roofer, or a forman, it is to be a leader”. This re-enforces the idea of the intertwined roots, “The way they go about their job really is a reflection and an influence on the people all around them.”

The RCAW

We are thankful to be a part of an organization that invests in the future of the roofing industry, as well as supporting the established leaders. Check back for further RCAW events or follow them on their social media pages. •Facebook/RCAW   •Twitter/RCAW   •Instagram/RCAW