FCICA welcomed 208 people to its Annual Convention last week in Tucson, Ariz., including 55 first-time attendees and 21 new contractor members. Additionally, the association announced that 141 members are now CIMs (Certified Installation Managers) as FCICA continues to grow.
Mike Newberry, FCICA chairman, shared other good news during the opening session as well. “Twenty-five people are specifically attending to exhibit at the trade show. That’s exciting that we have so many this year.”
FCICA also announced a milestone for one of its own: Executive Vice President Kim Oderkirk is celebrating 20 years with the organization. She has planned every convention and mid-year meeting for the group since joining in 1999.
Oderkirk prefers to stay behind the scenes and put the focus on the chairman. “I think that’s very unique to FCICA. I’m one of the few executives that isn’t front and center. My job is to make the chairman look good. I’m much more a behind-the-scenes manager,” she stated.
She’s proud of how far the organization has come since its founding in 1982. “We have a lot more women involved and more people attending both the annual convention and the mid-year meeting. It’s been really fun to watch the group grow. The potential was always there from the start.”
She stated that the group’s growth has larger come through partnerships and word of mouth. “We do a lot with Starnet, Fuse and Commercial One, and our trade show is not sales—it’s technical. Our technical education and sessions are what we’re known for, and it’s really our own members selling [the value of these sessions and FCICA] to other contractors through word of mouth.”
This year’s sessions included presentations on “Mindful Productivity” and “Mind-Blowing Leadership” with keynote speaker and author Theresa Rose; “What’s New with Tools” featuring Nick Jannett of Tools 4 Flooring and Corey Dickerson of Wolff; a contractor panel on “Building Relationships’; a discussion on “ASTM 3191 and Concrete Porosity” with Sonny Callaham of Divergent Adhesives and Amy Johnston of Flooring Services, Inc.; and “Acting on Contractual Obligations” with Sloan Bailey, FCICA’s legal counsel.
For more information, visit fcica.com and see our wrap-up story in the May issue of FCI.
