Here we are at the end of my term and last article for the newsletter. Instances like this are bittersweet. It will be nice to gain a little bit of extra time and it will certainly be nice not to have a looming newsletter every month. On the other hand, I will certainly miss the depth of involvement with the CRA and everything that accompanies that involvement. It has truly been a pleasure and a valuable learning experience over which I hope the members of the CRA have felt well represented and satisfied with its direction.

I cannot say enough about the CRA members and especially the board members I had the opportunity to work with during the past two years. There never seemed to be a shortage of volunteers for any project that came up and never a question of commitment. Everyone pitched in when the task demanded it. Whether it was state registration, the training program, charity work, or any event the CRA may host, everyone has been generous with their contributions to any of the projects we have tried to accomplish.

While state registration is still a matter to be decided, the training program is on course and should be a reality in the next year. We are still determining if state registration is a viable option for the next year. The decision to proceed or not will be determined shortly after a meeting with members of the House of Representatives to get a pulse prior to reintroducing the bill again. Unfortunately, our last try was thwarted by a polarized political climate and a late introduction of our bill. The late introduction of the bill did not allow us to properly educate members of congress to make an informed decision. I think state registration would be a valuable asset to all CRA members and help give our industry the respect it deserves. Please give us your feedback if you feel this is something we should continue and your responses will be factored in as well. I cannot express enough gratitude to those who spent so much time and energy trying to make state registration happen especially Curt Boyd, Amy Hawkins, Rick Rosendahl and Debbie Hathorne.

Being president for the past two years has taught me a lot and given me a new appreciation for the CRA as an organization and everyone who is involved in it. If you are not active in the CRA give it a try. I can assure you, you will get more out of it than what you put in. Have a great Holiday Season and see you at the Awards Dinner. Peace out.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

On October 31st, the CRA Education Committee met with John Schehl from the NRCA and Red Rocks Community College to review our training program. After more than a year, it seems a training program is coming close to fruition. John assisted in reviewing course material and context, as well as providing some other very insightful advice.

It has been a while since I have mentioned the training program, so here is a little refresher. We have been working with Red Rocks Community College to design and implement an Introduction to Roofing Training Program. We envision the students to be fairly new contractor employees who have shown some potential for advancement or who may be interested in furthering their knowledge in roofing. Courses will be offered for three hours once per week for a semester. It will include both class and lab time to maintain the interest level of the students by actually working with some of the products and tools. The curriculum will include safety, career path possibilities, and of course an introduction to several different types of roofing. The course material for the curriculum will largely originate from NRCA training modules, manufacturer instruction guidelines, and guidelines from organizations like the Tile Roofing Institute. The courses will be taught by a Red Rocks instructor on their campus. The instructor will need the assistance of members from the CRA who would like to volunteer, in particular with the lab portion of the course and possibly monitoring some class time as well. The goal is not to produce foremen or even journeymen but perhaps a good apprentice familiar with terminology and basic procedures. Not to mention, we may find out who our dedicated employees are. All of this will be offered at a cost far less than any of us could train an employee "in house". The cost should be much less than $1,000 per person per semester with a limited enrollment quota from each company. If all goes well, it may be possible to increase the number of students and offer more advanced courses.

John had several pieces of advice for us, but I would say the one that stood out the most was the phrase, "what's in it for me?" At first, the question was slightly confusing but then John went on to explain the question is being asked from the student or employee's perspective. John feels this piece of advice is so important he had an abbreviation for it, WIFM. You know it is important when there is an abbreviation. The WIFM outlines the different career opportunities available in roofing and shares how starting at the bottom and working your way up is how many people excelled in this industry. Not to get off track but we commonly lose sight of motivating our employees due to our concern about so many other things, yet it is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. John also warned one of the most common reasons for failure of such programs is due to lack of participation from the organization sponsoring the program.

I believe it is in all our best interests to guarantee the program is a success as the caliber of employees dramatically effects how we all do business. Finding qualified employees is not only a problem within our industry but one that spans across all industries. Recently the Wall Street Journal noted 52% of US companies are having problems filling job openings, largely due to inexperience and lack of technical skills. When you factor in the record high unemployment rates, especially in the construction industry, it emphasizes the need for training.

Let's imagine an optimistic future with the economy turning around in the next couple years. If we do not train with a "now for later" mentality this will translate to a major problem in filling positions with qualified personnel and therefore a full-fledged rebound in our economy will be hindered. If we can increase the quality of our labor force across the board, it is one less (or lesser) problem we all have to deal with and doing it now as opposed to later will pay off substantial dividends down the road.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

Mark Graham from the NRCA spoke at the Ramada Plaza Hotel & Convention Center late last month to give an update on all the hot topics in the roofing industry or at least as many as he was able to address given the time constraint of three hours. Mark is an engineer by education and has been with the NRCA since '93 in a technical capacity. Although his job description is technical services, it appears as though if it is roofing related Mark knows about it.

The seminar hit on topics from 2009 IBC & IRC adoption to IGCC development and a lot in between. Mark's seminar really seemed to hit home given the fact that many of the topics can or will affect how we all do business on a day to day basis.

I feel compelled to share some of the discussion points and information being that not everyone was able to attend. I will only touch on a few items, but if you have more questions or are interested in another topic please visit the NRCA website at www.nrca.net for more information.

Here are just a few random tidbits we were given during the seminar I thought were interesting:

Product

• Average lifespan of a residential roof is approximately twelve years.
• Average lifespan of a commercial roof is approximately seventeen years. Interesting -- given the warranties. Of course this factors into account natural disasters as well but still a lot lower than most expected.
• Mark also warned of many products to keep a close eye on including premature aging of 45 mil TPOs exposed to intense heat and reflection, delaminating gypsum products, inconsistent ISO insulation performance, and wood fiber cover-board adhesion issues.

Safety

• Anyone inspecting or not actually doing work on a roof during construction is expected to be wearing fall protection.
• As everyone probably already knows slide guards are no longer in play and we must use fall arrest.

Legal

• According to the AIA General Conditions it is the responsibility of the contractor to notify the architect of any conditions not conforming to almost anything otherwise it could be the responsibility of the contractor to remedy. This one is definitely worth reading it is located in the AIA General Conditions article 3 section 3.2.3 and 3.2.4.
• The next big thing following the construction defect litigation could be litigation with regard to requirements of the IGCC (International Green Construction Code). For instance if certain insulation values are not met or maintained law suits may be generated based on both pre and post energy loss costs. It could make construction defect look like a weekly church donation. Combine this with the above mentioned inconsistent performance of ISO values and it is like riding a bull with nitroglycerin in your pocket.

2009 IBC

• Secondary drainage requirements with regard to parapet wall situations and roof drains.
• Crickets and saddles required behind anything greater than thirty inches.
• There are is also information about Fire resistance and Re-roofing to check out but it is a little too detailed for this article, please look it up.

IGCC

• The International Green Construction Code is a set of requirements to reduce the negative impact of buildings on the environment. It will be a mandatory set of requirements and in all likelihood it will be here soon. The IGCC was created by ICC in cooperation with ASTM, AIA, USGBC, producers of the LEED, and the GBI. Everyone and their mother are involved with this so its adoption seems inevitable. Their goal is to produce environmental benefits on a massive scale that voluntary programs have not and could not achieve. The IGCC will more than likely implement requirements such as recycle content and indigenous material usage to name a few. As Mark said in his seminar "the IGCC will fundamentally change the construction industry."

After reading much of what we reviewed in the seminar maybe you are glad you were not there. It was not exactly what you would call uplifting. But on the flip side it could provide an opportunity for innovators out there to separate yourselves from the ever growing pack.

As a disclaimer, I would like to note that there was a lot of information in a short amount of time. Please be sure to double check any of my information before acting on it.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

Certain anniversaries seem to have more meaning than others and the tenth anniversary of 9/11 strikes the same chord. Hopefully the passing of ten years has allowed those affected some time to reconcile the day's events. Unfortunately, for many there is no amount of time that could pass which would be capable of healing their wounds. For the rest of our lives we will all remember where we were and what we were doing on that fateful Tuesday morning. As I sat in my office listening to the news over the radio. I could not help but fall into a state of disbelief as every moment the news worsened... 8:46 am American Airlines Flight 11 hits the north tower, 9:03 am United Airlines Flight 175 hits the south tower, 9:38 American Airlines Flight 77 hits the Pentagon, 9:59 am south tower collapses, 10:10 am United Airlines Flight 93 crashes in Pittsburgh, 10:28 am north tower collapses. Undoubtedly, these were the worst two hours in American history resulting in thousand of deaths. While the atrocities of 9/11 can never be erased there is perhaps some silver lining in the reactions of many people to assist others in a time of dire need.

The terrorists behind the attacks showed a disregard for human life beyond comprehension but there were people who demonstrated an even greater regard for human life which far exceeded the attacker's malicious intent. The efforts of those who assisted in the recovery after and during the tragedy were heroic to say the least. The first responders and average Joe citizens showed little to no concern for their own lives as they rescued people from the burning towers. Passengers aboard Flight 93 valiantly thwarted terrorist plans which could have resulted in more deaths. Passersby rushed into the Pentagon to help people in need. Volunteers stayed up for days on end to scavenge for missing and wounded people in the toppled buildings. Charities and fundraisers were started to help the victims. Schools and other organizations across the country have setup commemorative events to help not only the victims but anyone in need of assistance such as the elderly and victims of domestic violence, all in the name of 9/11.

Not only did people show their regard for human life but in many ways since people have demonstrated their resiliency to tragedy. Many have probably wondered if lower Manhattan may ever quite be what it used to be in the wake of 9/11. Much to the contrary, the area has been more populated than ever since 1920. Currently a memorial featuring waterfalls cascading into the footprints of the twin towers will open to the public on Sept. 12, a day after families see their loved ones' names around the pools for the first time. The skyscraper formerly known as the Freedom Tower is growing by a story a week and now stands 1,000 feet above the skyline as the tallest building in lower Manhattan. A transit station and a second office tower also are taking shape.

Many of the best human traits were displayed as a result of 9/11; compassion, resilience, and heroism just to name a few. It seems as though the acts of many individuals has summed up to equal something greater than its parts and is serving to inspire others to do great things in the name of helping others.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

I have been catching up on my periodical reading and was proud to see an article about Black Roofing and be reminded of their work on the Denver Art Museum in July's issue of Professional Roofing Magazine. It is certainly inspiring to see what our industry is capable of achieving with hard work, dedication, and thinking outside the box. What an incredible project, congratulations guys.

Well executed projects like that make me proud to be in this industry. Conversely once a storm hits a lot of that pride is washed away by what transpires afterward when hail has ravaged an area. In the wake of the recent storm hitting approximately 18,000 homes in the Denver Metro Area it is nothing short of blood in the water and the sharks are pouncing before the last hail stone drops. The positive qualities demonstrated on projects like the Art Museum seem to be replaced with other qualities driven by greed or desperation. Yes, those are some broad strokes and I am not anti-storm chaser but in many cases the shoe fits. Storms seem to bring out the worst in our industry and here are just a few things our staff, previous/current clients, and other roofing companies have noticed in the areas recently hit by hail that negatively impacts consumers as well as the reputation of our industry.

In our company's recent experience meeting with potential clients in the affected area you immediately sense their apprehension after having had a plethora of people knocking on their door to try and close their business. The tactics are usually the same; instill fear, hard sell, and high pressure. People are being hassled on the way to their cars, doing gardening, or any other activity that may put them in the line of sight of a salesmen/door knocker. In a weird way, I almost admire their persistency but wonder if it could not be channeled in a better direction. I am sure after having had a ton of canvassers knock at their door repeatedly a Jehovah's Witness would be a welcomed sight.

After the initial accosting on behalf of the doorknocker/salesmen, the potential customer is typically promised a new roof with no money out of pocket, waiving the deductible, and possibly an upgrade to an impact resistant - regardless of rules and regulations. Just sign here______________, with no price, no scope of work, and a penalty if they terminate the contract. The customer immediately assumes a vulnerable position by signing such an undefined contract. Although I am sure they appreciate the fact there is no money out of pocket or at least that is how it initially appears. Does the consumer even know that technically they could be breaking a law by waiving the deductible?

Let's switch perspectives for a second from consumer to industry peer. By my calculation, waiving the deductible and upgrading is easily between $1,000 to $1,500 off the top for a job equating to a $7,000 sale. On the high end that is 20% off the job in an industry that is lucky to net profit between 5-10%. Obviously the math does not add up and reasoning would tell you something else must be going on. It could be any number or a combination of things but my guess would be the following; the contractor operates on a razor thin overhead putting questions in my mind about stability, quality, and longevity or inferior products are being used. Either way these practitioners are hurting our industry by creating unreasonable expectations from the unknowing customers to dabble in their shenanigans. But this type of thing has been going on for quite some time and I am sure will continue. What is becoming even more concerning nowadays is the insurance representative aspect of the storm industry.

Maybe I am being unfair to my hail chasing brethren and looking at things from the wrong perspective, let's assume that the door knocking is just good old fashioned hard work and dedication, let's assume there is some sort of gray area of waiving deductibles that does not break the law, and let's assume the extreme under cutting of pricing is just the natural evolution of business. I would say I can almost live with all that, but now I am seeing something I cannot tolerate. We are seeing insurance representatives who have a vested interest in a particular roofing company(s). I think one of my friends said it best when he referred to this partnership as "incestuous". It may be time for some of these individuals to brush up on the summary of 10-4-120, Colorado revised statute. To paraphrase one of the key components of this statute says the agent may not coerce the claimant into picking a specific company and they may select one of their choosing. It has become apparent there are insurance representatives out there who have either not read this information or choose to ignore it by not only recommending particular companies but even going as far to say they will have problems if they do not choose the representative's recommendation. I cannot see how there could be any gray area. It has also come to my attention there are agents calling roofing companies to see if they will absorb deductibles and pay for upgrades. If the company does not agree to these practices they hang up and call the next roofing company. This just crosses the line for me and I think it is time to address some of these issues. I am not sure the CRA can be of assistance but I can say for one I will be reporting this anytime it comes to my attention. I hope everyone adopts this reaction to make some examples of people and companies who willingly lie for their own benefit.

In a somewhat non-related storm content but highly related moral content I recently learned a somewhat newer roofing company is trying to drive consumers to their website by purchasing key words that have another more reputable company's name in their key words, I think I have that story correct if not exact you get the point. Using somebody else's hard earned reputation to benefit your own company, if karma exists I would be crapping my pants.

I have not even touched upon the negatives of the actual installation or post job warranty issues; this article could be ten pages long. Like almost any other industry there are going to be bright sides and dark sides to certain aspects. I may be jaded because I still think of ourselves as craftsmen to an extent and not just roof churning machines. I cannot help but wonder how some people sleep at night knowing they are using less than scrupulous ways of getting and doing business. Do they justify it by saying they need to make a living to put food on the table? Does it become such old hat there is no recognition of it? I have no idea, and if this article sounds condescending you may want to check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

Another month goes by and more politicians/celebrities are exposed for their indiscretions. It has become such a frequent occurrence you can almost anticipate the process…celebrity or politician does something stupid, usually sexual in nature. The media exposes the incident. The public gorges on the media coverage. The exposee expresses remorse, or option b temporarily denies the allegations and then eventually confesses in the wake of overwhelming evidence. The guilty party proceeds to rehab. And shortly after the public forgives and or forgets the incident so the next person can take the hot seat.

What I find almost more interesting than the scandals themselves is the shock and interest level of the public. The public seems to automatically hold celebrities and politicians to a morale standard due to their iconic positions. Why is everyone so shocked a congressmen texted revealing pictures to young girls and why is everyone so shocked a famous movie star/governor had a child with an unattractive house keeper? Here is my guess as to why the interest levels spike so high. I think we put ourselves into the position of the celebrity and wonder, why did they make such a poor decision? How can they in one instance perform so well and in another like a complete ass? In most cases the celebrity or politician is rich, good looking, and respected by all yet this does not seem to stop them from the looming scandal which could have easily been avoided. Our brains cannot comprehend their thinking process and the lunacy of their poor decisions. Actually, I think we are making an assumption the celebrity or politician is mentally stable based upon their status. Because they are doing well in politics or sports or film we make an assumption they are normal functioning human beings while maybe they are NOT.

I recently read a book by Jon Ronson called "The Psychopath Test". The book outlines a checklist created by a famous psychiatrist named Bob Hare used to determine if someone has psychopathic tendencies and guess what, this is not a test you want to get a high score on. Here is the checklist:

1. Glibness/superficial charm
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
4. Pathological lying
5. Coning/manipulative
6. Lack of remorse or guilt
7. Shallow affect
8. Callous/lack of empathy
9. Parasitic lifestyle
10. Poor behavioral control
11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
12. Early behavior problems
13. Lack of realistic long-term goals
14. Impulsivity
15. Irresponsibility
16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
17. Many short-term marital relationships
18. Juvenile delinquency
19. Revocation of conditional release
20. Criminal Versatility

While I am sure most of these celebrity scandal types are not certifiable psychopaths, I think they share some characteristics indicating mental health deficiencies, some are more obvious than others. In certain areas of life these deficiencies may serve as attributes depending on the perspective and context. I think there is an autonomous presupposition that doing well in one aspect of life translates into doing well in all aspects.

One of the most intriguing pieces of the book is the dispersal of psychopaths within our society. Overall about 1% of the population is psychopathic but if you look at where the highest concentrations are, that is the interesting part. Approximately 2-3% in prisons and 4-5% reside in highly influential positions like politics, corporate executives, and so forth. Kind of a scary statistic, but nonetheless I think in a weird way it sort of makes sense. It appears to me, between the statistics and the checklist certain personality types tend to stick out in society for better or for worse and maybe even some combination of the two.

To a much lesser extent I think all of us tend to deal with this same sort of catch twenty two, when our weaknesses become our strengths and our strengths become our weaknesses…. just a matter of perspective and context. It is constantly a balancing act of knowing or learning when to use those characteristics and when to tone them down. Some people seem to do a much better job at it than others. I think I am certifiable now after this article.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

Once again I am late in coming up with a topic for the newsletter. I am attempting to write it prior to getting on a plane for the Western States show in Reno. Maybe I should just wait until after the show and maybe there will be some good topics to address or maybe I should just stop procrastinating. Besides the show could be a July newsletter, so here goes...

While I am not the most technically advanced person I would say comparatively speaking to people within the roofing industry that I can hold my own. At one point in time, I was probably reaching an age where I was about to take a less technical path but then I found the I-phone and everything changed. Prior to the I-phone I found many of the first generation smart phones confusing but the I-phone seemed very intuitive and lured me in. It reopened the technology door that was slowly closing.

I realize many people may argue the I-phone is not the best phone on the market but that is probably because they have never had one, but promoting Apple is not my intention. My intention is to address some of the technologies we have incorporated or plan to incorporate into our company. There are many different facets where technology has considerably increased our efficiency in doing business. Obviously top of the list would likely be communication. Texting, instant messaging, emailing, and translator applications have all made it easier to stay in touch when we need to. If a foreman has a question on a jobsite about a detail, we can now email or mms pictures and resolve situations without a visit by a supervisor. Saving time and gas which translates to money. And speaking of gas we can also use applications to find the cheapest gas station in a particular area or map out the most efficient routes to minimize the cost of ever increasing gas prices.

There are also several applications to help out estimators. Scaled drawing applications for I-pads to assist estimators in doing roof takeoffs or if you are feeling a little lazy or pressed for time using Google Earth. Because of these new technologies it has also spawned companies like Eagleview and Pictometry who can provide all this information for you at a reasonable cost. There are even applications to replace several different types of analytical devices like tape measures, pitch finders, binoculars, compasses, flashlights, and levels.

New technologies are also changing the face of advertising. Social networking is making it easy for us to stay in touch with existing clients which hopefully translates into new clients. The blog, Twitter, and Facebook allow us to keep our company name on the tip of people's tongues in the event one of their friends or family members is in need of a roofer and needs a recommendation. One of the most recent advancements I have seen is the new bar code scanner application which allows you to scan almost any company information directly into your phone whether it be a business card, billboard, or sign on a truck.

New technology can certainly be intimidating but nonetheless it is or will be increasing more important to our businesses. If you have not taken the plunge into the technology pool, I would highly recommend getting on the diving board and doing a big cannonball.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

Many of you may already be aware the roofers' registration bill SB11-207 was unexpectedly killed on the Senate floor second reading on April 27th. Senator Ted Harvey, a republican from Highlands Ranch, introduced an E-verify amendment to the bill. Four democrats serving in traditionally republican areas voted for the E-verify amendment in addition to the majority of the republicans. At that point the democratic leadership realized they could no longer support the bill with the E-verify attachment and it was game over. The bill instantly morphed from a consumer protection piece to help elevate our industry to a hotly debated immigration reform issue. In the immediate aftermath it seemed the E-verify amendment may have been a calculated move by republicans, or at the least SB11-207 was an innocent bystander of political warfare. A few days after the deflating news the State Registration Committee made a decision not to proceed with another attempt in the near future. Given the information at the time it seemed like the political and economic climate needed to change in order to have a good chance of passing registration or licensing in the future.

Since what appeared to be the last State Registration Committee meeting more information has been brought to light by our lobbyists. Corporate Advocates had the opportunity to speak with Senator Ted Harvey. Harvey claimed the republicans did not intentionally kill our bill with the E-verify amendment and they were not necessarily opposed to it. This information has slightly changed our tune being that if the bill did not pass through the Senate, due to politics as usual, it would surely not have a snowball's chance in the House. Although our assumption may have been wrong, there is more information needing to be confirmed prior to the board making a decision to proceed again. Here are the determinant questions:

• Is there a way to insulate the bill from the E-verify amendment or any other type of amendment that would cause a similar outcome?
• Why was the bill not insulated to begin with in the remote chance something like this might happen?
• How much would it cost given a lot of the work has already been completed?
• How much legwork would it take?
• The Democrats had the option to postpone a decision on the E-verify amendment or say it does not apply under this title, why did they not exercise either option?

The answers to these questions will determine the outcome of resuscitating SB11-207 or not.

Assuming the answers to the above questions indicate a green light there are a few things we will need to keep in mind in the event of moving forward.

Opposition from within the Industry
For the past several months of working on State Registration we have encountered little to no opposition from within our industry. The handful of opposition we have dealt with in the past year was mainly people who did not understand the bill or those with the lone comment "more regulation is bad". Once the bill has been explained their opposition seemed to dissipate, and for those with the latter comment it is difficult to have a constructive conversation when speaking in generalities. However, in the final hours of the bill, a group of roofers and an insurance adjuster (maybe five or six companies and twelve individuals), did make it to the Capitol and voiced their concerns early one morning. Their concerns were the bill was intended to be pro big roofer and anti small roofer, it would give too much control to insurance companies, and it was written by people not within the roofing industry or people who did not have a pulse on it. Unfortunately, none of the State Registration Committee was there at the time to correct the misinformation emanating from the group. Later that afternoon, members of the State Registration Committee met with the group to address their concerns. It was the first time this group was ever brought to our attention. For whatever reasons, the rest of their concerns vanished and the two that remained were the right of rescission in the event the insurance company denies a claim and increasing the amount of work to require registration from $1000 to $6000. While there may have been some room for negotiation, it did not matter at the end of the day since the bill died. If we move forward, I am sure there will be some 'blow back' from within the industry -- otherwise if EVERYONE agreed it may not be such a good bill.

Opposition from General Contractor Associations
There was opposition from some of the General Contractor Associations which may cause problems or at least warrant negotiations for a future bill. Their opposition claimed registration would increase costs for them. They requested commercial roofing contractors not be required to register. The State Registration Committee's response was and is that we are trying to clean up an entire industry not just the residential sector. Furthermore, many of our commercial contractors also do residential and in essence the costs would be a non-factor. It is ironic they are concerned about our costs considering the hoops GCs already make us jump through -- which far overshadow the menial registration fee. Personally, I think with more time we could come to a mutual agreement by dealing directly with some of their members as opposed to just their lobbyists.

More Education and Communication
More education and communication on the bill will be necessary within our industry and certainly in the political arena. Unfortunately, the bill was not written as soon as we would have preferred and therefore it was difficult to fully educate everyone on the contents in such a small timeframe. During the infamous second reading I witnessed some of the Senators speak who were opposed to the bill. It was all the restraint I had not to jump down from the balcony and correct their erroneous comments. It was painful to watch over a year's worth of research and hard work be stomped by political rhetoric. Not to mention some of the people on our side did not have the responses necessary to combat the erroneous comments. There also seemed to be some misconceptions on our industries behalf. If we would move forward, there would be significantly more time to educate everyone which is probably the most important aspect of the legislation process, at least in our case.

I have talked to numerous people since the bill has been put to rest and have been somewhat revitalized to give it another go. There is no doubt it is important to our industry and members of the CRA. Sometimes being so personally invested in something makes you lose a little perspective. Many bills do not make it on the first try and maybe it was overconfident of us to think we would be the exception. I know I am certainly guilty.

Rocky did not win the first time either…..cue music.

If you have any comments please forward them to us.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

Over a year has passed since the latest inception of State Registration and we now have a Bill, #SB11-207. I would like to thank the State Registration committee for all their hard work, in particular a special thanks to Curt Boyd, Amy Hawkins, Debbie Hathorne, and Rick Rosendahl. But we are not out of the woods yet and we are going to need your help. As the bill is circulating through the House and Senate it is important for you to contact your local representatives. In the newsletter we have provided names, numbers, and emails to reach out to your local representatives to ask them to support SB11-207. Another way you can be of assistance is to educate those not familiar with the bill. Please take a few moments and review the summary of the bill which is also included in the newsletter. Please forward any questions you may have to myself or Debbie, we will respond.

So far the vast majority of feedback from people within our industry and those outside is very positive. Those who have shown support are general contractor associations, insurance companies, consumers, consumer advocacy groups, media outlets, local code enforcers, suppliers, manufacturers, CRA members, and the El Paso Roofing Contractors Association. Many agree the bill's impact will be beneficial to our industry and the consumer. Those not accustomed to our industry are surprised to find out there is no statewide regulation already in place. During the past year of speaking to people about the concept of registration or licensing there have been numerous questions and reactions. Following are a few I have fielded and some of my responses. Hopefully these will help if you find yourself in a similar situation.

The most common negative reaction has been "we do not need more regulation and government". Unfortunately, this can be a sort of knee jerk response to any type of regulation. It is also the type of response that is difficult to debate because it is a blanket statement rather than a point of contention regarding the actual merits of a particular regulation. Let's face it regulation is like anything else it can be good or bad. Let's look at the content before we cast judgment, then we can have informed conversations rather than pre-programmed responses. Currently, we have no statewide requirements to maintain the integrity of our industry and ensure companies are playing on a level field. There is also little recourse to the consumer in the event they are dealing with a bad contractor. It is not like we are trying to raise the bar, there is no bar. Just to reiterate some points from the bill -- how do we level the playing field and protect consumers? Minimum insurance requirements, surety bond, required information on proposals, and violators held accountable by DORA.

A new piece of regulation can be fine and dandy but if there are no teeth what does it matter? Potential violators to the law will be held accountable by DORA in a variety of ways including cease and desist letters, administrative fines, seeking an injunction from the Attorney General, and revoke or suspension of registration.

How much time and money will this cost me? Initially you will need to take a nationally recognized test probably similar to the ones offered by the IRC. Every year there will be a renewal fee and requirement to provide updated insurance certificates. You will also need to provide a surety bond and include additional information on your proposals. The required information will be bonding company name and contact information, physical address of contractor's place of business, 72 hour right of rescission, legality of insurance deductibles, scope of work and material with cost, approximate dates to complete work, registration number and type. The exact fees are not known at this time because a budget has yet to be determined by our State Legislature. Although the total yearly additional costs should be less than a computer depending if you choose the master or residential classification.

The contractors who play by the rules will now have another thing to deal with while those who do not will now have another advantage. In my opinion, this one is up to us to deal with as contractors and CRA members. We must educate people and especially consumers that they need to be doing business with registered contractors. If they choose otherwise they are taking a large risk and giving up much of their recourse in the event of a problem. If the bill is passed, the CRA will be putting the public relations committee to task letting the public know about the new law. In the event of a hail storm the campaign will be even more dramatic and immediate. In addition to the CRA's awareness campaign, as roofing contractors we should make it a standard practice to display our registration numbers and educate our employees, customers, suppliers, manufacturer's, and venders. The more people who are aware of it the better.

When should I be ready for this? If all goes according to plan the law will go into effect March 1, 2012. Plenty of notice will be distributed to all by both the CRA and DORA.

Why didn't the bill go further? Several contractors expressed concern to me about other issues that they felt should have been addressed in the bill such as the mislabeling of subcontractors, waiting periods, banishing all out of 'towners,' and displaying registration numbers. While in agreement with many of their sentiments, the political process is one of give and take -- sometimes feeling like more give. Fiscal notes and appearing unfriendly to new business are major concerns when presenting legislation in tough economic times. The other thing to keep in mind is if this passes is it is more of a starting point then a finishing point. There is a DORA sunset review in five years where we can potentially address more issues once we are able to look back and see what SB11-207 accomplished.

PLEAST CONTACT YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President

There is a lot of information available to improve a company's bottom line by focusing on things like new marketing strategies, increasing quality, decreasing costs, increasing morale, making the work place a safer place so on and so forth. As I am heading into a mediation to try and minimize an ever increasing attorney's fee it got me to thinking about things like conflict resolution and ultimately what a sense of fairness means at least in a business realm (and yes I know fairness with regard to attorneys and legal battles are loosely tied together.) I have seen little emphasis in the business world about such topics and it certainly affects the bottom line. I assume we do not see references in the business world about fairness because it is not a very black and white topic, in fact it can be a very gray one. It is typically a subject explored by philosophy, and my experience with philosophy is it rarely has much use in the real world.

In our occupational lives as well as our personal lives (I will not touch this) we are constantly in situations where we must determine what is fair and then act accordingly. Employee disputes, customer disputes, and measuring performances are all examples where we must determine or measure a reality or fairness. Many times I often wonder how we are equipped to make such judgments given it is not explicitly taught in an academic sense (obviously not everything we know is academically taught) it merely seems to be a more implicitly learned characteristic or perhaps an instinct. Maybe it is learned from our parents, observations from life experience, or some part of our genetic code. In many ways I think that fairness is very tightly intertwined with reality or at least what we perceive as reality. Therefore we must have some idealistic version or ultimate sense of reality in our mind to determine our interpretation or someone else's as being accurate or inaccurate.

Disagreements and arguments typically arise when there is a discrepancy between our version of reality versus an opposing version, the larger the discrepancy the larger the disagreement. To further muck up an already unclear situation I have just read a book that describes how people are predisposed to make decisions without the sort of pragmatic process we may assume we are going through to come to a decision (and no guys there is no joke about women here). The brain makes the decision, via other techniques much more quickly and our pragmatic process is more of an afterthought or justification. Did you ever notice how after a conflict most people go to talk to someone afterwards? Is this because we are somehow aware of this book's observation and we are somehow looking for that justification? The book also goes on to describe how the mind will believe something that is somewhat arbitrary as strongly as the brain would believe 2+2=4. In case you are curious they arrived at these conclusions by an fMRI brain analysis. I do not know about you but this sounds very disheartening but nonetheless true. For example when is the last time you reasoned with someone and truly changed their belief or vice versa?

Once I read that book I kind of thought I am surprised people agree with each other as much as they do. But unfortunately that is not the type of thinking we are accustomed to in an occupational day to day reality. When we have a disagreement with someone the first question we are NOT asking ourselves is "what is their version of reality now?" So what is the bottom line? I have no clue I am just a roofer, but if I was going to take a stab at it my guess would be there is no sense of an ultimate reality or fairness so don't obsess over it and secondly in most conflict resolutions everyone is going to feel partially screwed so just expect it and maybe it won't hurt so bad.

I wrote most of this article including the last paragraph prior to the mediation. Now that the mediation is over I can confirm I definitely feel partially screwed. After going through three of these I can honestly say I think there is a simple mathematical formula that could be used to settle these disputes prior to spending thousands in lawyer's fees and many hours of wasted time. Maybe I will retire after developing the first mediation app.

Kirk Tiley
Tiley Roofing, Inc.
CRA President