Jeff Henry - Look who is turning 40 – Metal Construction Association! - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Metal Construction Association (MCA) Executive Director Jeff Henry. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Hello and welcome to another MetalCast from MetalCoffeeShop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth and I am here today to talk to the leader in metal construction.

That is the executive director of the Metal Construction Association, you may know it as MCA, Mr. Jeff Henry. Jeff, welcome to the show.

Jeff Henry: Well, good morning, Heidi. I'm pleased to be here. I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I am really excited to have you here too, and I'm excited for everyone out there to learn more about the MCA because what an amazing association.

Jeff Henry: Well, thank you. I always enjoy the opportunity to promote MCA and share a little bit of our history, and what our purpose is and how we go about fulfilling our mission.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Excellent. I'm excited to hear it too because I think I'm going to learn some things along the way. Let's start first, if we could, if you could please introduce yourself and then tell us a little bit about the Metal Construction Association.

Jeff Henry: Yeah. I'm Jeff Henry, as you mentioned, executive director of MCA. I have served in that capacity since early 2020. Prior to that, I had had a couple different roles with MCA beginning in 2012, so have a little history with them and the organization.

Our purpose as an organization, is to promote the use of metal in the building envelope. We do that through our marketing efforts, educational programming and our advocacy efforts to help address policy issues that influence the use of metal in that building envelope.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. We were just together in Washington, DC last week on Roofing Day.

Jeff Henry: Roofing Day, fantastic. Always great to have the opportunity to sit with our legislators and their representatives. They'll talk about those issues that are critical to our industry. The interesting thing there is, it's much broader than just metal, of course.

It's the entire industry coming together in a unified voice to advocate for opportunities to develop workforce development issues. Allow tax or financial incentives for people to use our products or to renovate their buildings to make them more efficient. It's a wide range of people and I think there's tremendous value in that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We saw it, we saw all the different groups coming together to talk about roofing overall. I thought it was really powerful.

But having been involved with the MCA now for the last couple years, I've just been so impressed with the dedication and the passion that the membership has for performance-based metal products in overall buildings, both residential and commercial. But I would love to hear, Jeff, a little bit about the history. How did MCA get started?

Jeff Henry: Yeah. As you know, we are celebrating our 40th anniversary this year. MCA was created actually by a group of members of the former Metal Building Component Manufacturers Association.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay.

Jeff Henry: They saw a need in the early '80s for an association that had broader reach and that was more inclusive. With the funding of eight of those members, MCA was created in June 1, 1983 was our actual birthday.

But our first organizational meeting was held in November of that year, I believe in New Orleans. The outcome of that was 73 companies had signed up to join the association. We've been off and running ever since, promoting the use of metal, documenting its performance and just advocating on the industry's behalf.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: When I see the quality of the membership, equipment, roofing, siding, coatings, paint, really you cover the whole gambit of what it takes to really have a strong metal construction products. Now you're in your 40th year, what are some of the initiatives that you were working on this year?

Jeff Henry: This year, well, there are a number of them. Obviously, the thing that's top of mind for everybody in construction and in all industries, is sustainability and decarbonization. Obviously, that includes the entire vertical from the raw materials' generation to the steel mills, to the paint coders and the paint manufacturers. We're looking at that issue from a systems' perspective.

A major focus is on this topic of sustainability and how do we position metal in a favorable light? It's got a great story to tell and we do think when you look at the entire cradle to grave perspective, we have huge opportunity from a sustainability perspective in the marketplace. Building efficiency, we know the government has a lot of stimulus today for retrofitted buildings, and there's huge opportunity there with IMP panels.

New systems that we are conducting research with, with OR&L currently, that develops commercially viable processes for thermal capture and repurposing of that energy. There's a lot of exciting stuff happening around that whole topic.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I know we talk a lot about it during the meetings, but just the sustainability, the durability of metal and what a great fit it is for solar too.

Jeff Henry: Absolutely. It's one of the few cladding materials that outlives the life of the solar panels. You can put solar on top of metal. It's easy to fasten.

The metals, the roofing material or wall panels if you happen to put it on the wall, will outlive the life of the solar panel.

You don't have to go through the exercise of removing solar to replace alternative building materials because their lifecycle is so much shorter.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: One of the things that I find fascinating as we're talking about initiatives, one of the things I find fascinating in your meetings, both your summer and winter meetings, is that you have committees for so many different topics.

Whether it's sheet metal shops and equipment, roll forming I should say, or if it is ventilation and residential. Talk to us a little bit about the importance of all those committees and the research that they're doing.

Jeff Henry: Yeah. We have structured, we have both what we call councils and those are aligned by products, and including some of the functionality that you were just talking about. We'll have an IMP council, insulated metal panel for a metal composite material panels, so the fabricators and manufacturers of MCM panels. Single-skin wall panels, we have a separate roofing panel, a metal equipment forming council, and then also an accessories' council.

We have seven product councils, and those are groups that all members are welcome to attend and sit in the meetings. But they're really, the industry participants in those market sectors get together to talk about what are their emerging issues and common concerns, and how do we develop strategy or initiatives to address the problems that they're seeing in the marketplace?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I learned so much listening to those and the research that they're doing. The one they're doing on ventilation right now, I learn every time I sit in those meetings. I find it fascinating.

Jeff Henry: Yeah. That's our retrofit council is working with roofing council to just address that, a big topic. There's been research in the industry.

But how do we harness all that, and then present it to the design community and specifiers and contractors in a way that allows them to maximize their efficiency and, of course, improve building performance overall?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I really encourage anybody listening to this to get involved. The meetings are open, so you can go to the meetings and learn about all of everything that's going on, right?

Jeff Henry: Yes. Yeah. I should mention, we also have a committee side of our structure as well, so our technical committee, codes and standards committee, and then we have our market development committee. Those are more functional related activities versus product, and that's how we separate a council from a committee. But yes, we have to host two meetings a year, our winter meeting is our annual meeting. Our summer meeting, which is coming up here not too distant future, June 13th and 14th in Rosemont, Chicago.

At those sessions, have several of our committees will meet and all of our product councils will meet. Again, people get together, talk about what are the current activities, current concerns, current opportunities for their sectors. Then talk about how do we implement strategy to address that? Attendance at our meetings is open to all, members and non. There is a cost for attending the meeting. Non-members have a slightly higher fee, but all are welcome.

If you're considering membership, we're happy to host you at our meeting. We will waive the registration fee come on in, check MCA out, and if you have interest to join, we'll get you signed up right there at the end of the meeting. Encourage all to come and join us in Chicago this year.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. When you talked about your market on development committee, they're doing so much with case studies and profiles and getting information out about metal.

I'm really impressed watching that committee and how much information that they turn out. A lot of it we're putting onto MetalCoffeeShop, so it's great because we're able to share that on what's happening.

Jeff Henry: Yeah. We're thankful for partners like MetalCoffeeShop and others who help promote our activities and share that with the industry, but there is a lot of activity. As I mentioned, our purpose is to promote the use of metal in building construction. Our market development committee is charged with doing that promotion and marketing outreach. We have a great lineup of AIA accredited presentations that are shared onsite.

We launched in 2019, the Metal and Architecture Academy in partnership with our arch record. That has really expanded our exposure to one of our target audiences, the design and specifier communities, and just our social media has ramped up over the years. It's assisted by partners like yourself. There's a lot of dynamics.

Constantly moving parts and pieces and we're there to promote members and improve their marketplace. We think we do an effective job at accomplishing that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I think so. I'm impressed at how much you all do and how much gets done. It would be remiss if we didn't mention the Metal Roofing Alliance too. Renee is always there and speaking and giving everybody updates on the residential side of things.

Jeff Henry: Yeah, they're a great partner. We consider them as a sister organization. They were actually born out of an outgrowth from MCA back in the late '90s. We've maintained a very close relationship. MCA is a member of MRA.

We contribute to their activities both in technical content and in financial resources, but as you said, they handle the residential side. Our side is on the architectural piece for the commercial, industrial, institutional segments, and we have a great relationship and Renee does a fabulous job.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Yeah, great information. Okay, so let's go back and talk about the 40-year celebration because we kicked it off a little bit at the winter meeting, which was great.

Megan and I both were there. But you have some fun things happening this year for your 40-year celebration, including what we already talked about, your summer meeting. Tell us what some of the things that are happening.

Jeff Henry: Our winter meeting was our big celebration of the 40th and we had the dinner, our awards dinner. We had a nice video there. Thanks to partners like yourself and Megan, we were able to create a testimonial video that will be released here shortly. I think that really goes a long way in talking about that passion and connection that our members have to MCA that you mentioned earlier, and we thank you for that. But we do have some continued activities and recognition of our anniversary at our summer meeting.

You'll see signage and promotional activities there. We don't have a formal function. We do have a networking event scheduled for the first evening. Again, there'll be presence there of the 40, but not necessarily a formal recognition. Then METALCON, of course, which we consider our third meeting of the year and conducted in partnership with our great partner, PSNJ. Also, our 40th will have recognition and be acknowledged at the METALCON event as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, METALCON is great. You are an owner of that show, and so you have MCA and then the METALCON team coming together. Yeah, it's going to be fun to celebrate that the 40 years there.

Jeff Henry: Yeah. We always enjoy the show obviously and maximize the opportunity there. Las Vegas provides a unique venue and we should have fun and have an opportunity to do a little more celebrating while we're in town. Yes, and we're very thankful for our partners at PSNJ for the fine job they do in executing the show.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, they do an excellent job. We're always excited about that. Okay. Contractors out there, so I think sometimes some of the contractors may think, "Well, this is just for manufacturers or just for distributors."

But every time I go to the meeting, I see some contractors there. They really get engaged and learn so much. How can contractors become involved with the MCA?

Jeff Henry: Yeah. We welcome them to be involved, as you mentioned. We do have a small number of contractors in membership. We have usually larger commercial type contractors are dealing in those segments, but we welcome all to become involved. If you're interested in learning more about metal or you're currently engaged in applying metal roofs, please join us. It's easy to sign up. Our membership application is downloadable online.

We think we have a reasonable cost structure on the contractor's side. We have tremendous resources. Over the years, we started with our wall and roofing guidelines and how do you promote best practices. Today, we have over 80 whitepapers and technical bulletins all talking about how you accomplish best practice applications and use of metal roofing and wall products. That education goes a long way in helping facilitate contractors in their roles.

We're seeing tremendous interest and growth in the use of metal. You were just at IRE, I was there as well. Our partners at NRCA were kind enough to do a demo of the pro-certification program there. It was wall-to-wall people surrounding that all day long. How do you install metal roofing properly? We're just seeing tremendous growth and interest on that side in all building sectors.

We welcome contractors to get engaged, to be sure to take advantage of our resources, take advantage of the networking opportunities that you have with manufacturers and product suppliers, so that you can ensure you're meeting best practice in the application of those products.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. When I think about all the resources that are available on your website for roofing contractors or for all contractors, not just roofing.

But metal siding, you name it, everything, the building envelope that is really critical and along with the ongoing research that they can also use in their business.

Jeff Henry: Absolutely. We have top of line industry statistics, number one, the research that you've talked about. I should have mentioned at our summer meeting in June, we have keynote speaker, Randy Charles, speaking on sustainability. We also have a panel conversation of three representatives from IBEC, so the Building Envelope Consultant Group.

They'll be talking about the current trends and future expectations for design and construction of the building envelope. It's really cutting edge type stuff and forward-looking type conversation and discussion. Yet that's of great value not only to manufacturers, but certainly to contractors as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: To become a member of MCA, you said just download the form, but you can come in, also attend a meeting ahead of time just to check it out.

Jeff Henry: Absolutely. The form's online, you can fill it out, send it in. There's email address there, metalconstruction.org. Janette Ali, our membership operations coordinator, will be all over that and get you signed up. But if you want to check things out first, come to the summer meeting in Rosemont. Attend, ask the questions, we're happy to have conversations there.

Our board members, our staff, other members are more than happy to share information with you about how MCA provides value and where you have opportunities to help grow your business, and further your expertise and even your personal development. We have a lot of educational materials, our Future Leaders Program, it will have content there, et cetera. Go online, metalconstruction.org, check on the events page, all the information there is about our summer meeting.

The membership tab has the information about how you get signed up. If you have any questions, give me a call. Yeah, just happy to talk to anybody about the opportunities.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: There are so many benefits and just what you're talking about. Like I said, I love these meetings. I think I learned so much as I'm going through them. I really encourage everyone out there to think about being a member or if you're not ready to be a member, go to the meetings. There is a little cost, but it's great. It's so worth it.

Also, you can find all this information on MetalCoffeeShop in the MCA directory. We have all this information, how to sign up, you're going to find it all over the site. Plus obviously, going to Metal Construction Association website. Jeff, thank you. This is great information.

Jeff Henry: Well, I enjoyed our conversation, Heidi. Always look forward to the opportunity to speak with you and others, and the opportunity to promote MCA across the industry.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, I love it. I love it. I think we're going to have to have, this may have to go on both places and I think it will on both MetalCoffeeShop and RoofersCoffeeShop because this is information that everybody needs. Anybody who's doing metal on any level, this is where you need to be.

One thing, I meant to mention this, Jeff, and you said it, but I want to end on this point. That the networking that you can do through the MCA is just off the charts, I mean just such amazing people. Maybe just visit about that one last thing on how great the networking is.

Jeff Henry: Yeah. Thank you for that because the thought had hit me that I may have not highlighted that quite enough. There is tremendous value in speaking to members. They all speak to that very point. You come together either with your peers or people in the verticals, depending upon where you're at, and you're able to share ideas and have conversations. It's like family in a lot of ways.

People that are competitors in the marketplace are more than willing to have a conversation about what they've done to solve their problems. You have the opportunity, they've reached that level of expertise. People have been in the industry for a 100 years or newbies that are coming there and they're experiencing, they're taking a new approach to things.

Building those relationships is probably the greatest value any trade association offers. We have a fantastic network of people across the entire spectrum of them, of metal and construction.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. It really does, really does. You can find a bunch of them also on MetalCoffeeShop because when you bring all this information together, it just grows. It's just a little viral.

Jeff, one more time, thank you so much for being on MetalCast today. We just love being a part. I'm working with you on MCA and look forward to a great 40th year.

Jeff Henry: Thank you, Heidi. We're excited to be here and looking forward to our next 40. Have a good day.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Next 40, I like that. That's great. Thank you all for listening. Again, you can get all this information about the Metal Construction Association on MetalCoffeeShop in their directory, plus great articles, draw profiles, you name it. You're going to see so much great information.

Of course, you can hear all of our MetalCast podcasts, both on your favorite podcast channels and also on YouTube. Check that out on our site underneath the Read Listen, Watch Initiative, look for MetalCast. You don't want to miss a single episode and we'll be seeing you next time on MetalCast.