BECC Hosting First Charity Soccer Tournament

The Construction News and Report Group is proud to be a sponsor of the first annual soccer tournament at BMO Feild this September being hosted by BECC. You can regiater to play in the tournament or become a sponsor like us. Below is the information you will need to sign up to play or become a sponsor:

Our company is hosting our first charity soccer tournament to help increase awareness and to raise money for the Renal Services / Dialysis unit as part of the Diabetes Care Center at the Credit Valley Hospital.

As you may know, this cause is near and dear to my heart as my father used these facilities for a number of years before complications from diabetes and renal failure took him from us.

The goal of this tournament is to raise $30,000.00 on behalf of the Shafiq Malik Foundation which will use the proceeds to purchase various components and equipment used daily by dialysis patients.

The tournament will be held at the BMO Soccer Field - Home of Toronto FC at the CNE on Wednesday, September 10, 2008.

We cordially invite you to enter a team in the tournament and /or contribute to cause with a donation from the following choices:

 Enter a team into the tournament. The cost is $1,500.00, includes BBQ lunch (a min. 7, max. 10 players, also have one player available to officiate a game).
and or
 Advertise your support with two 3’x7’ banner boards for a donation of $800.00, or one board for $500.00. You will need to send us your logo.
and or
 Donate prizes for the charity raffle. Please provide a brief description and dollar value.
and or
 Make a donation for the cause in the amount of $ __________. Send us a copy of your logo and we will place it in our program.

Space is limited to enter your team so don’t delay and get your team practicing for a fun day of soccer with friends and family.

Please fax your interest before July 28th to the attention of:
Ms. Anita Forrester at (905) 608-9929.

I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you, your staff and family at the BECC Charity Soccer Tournament.

Sincerely,

Zulq Malik

Presidnt

Company Name__________________________________
Contact Name____________________________________
Telephone #______________________________________

New Theme Schedule for Niagara Home Builders Association Publication Structures

The September issue of Structures will showcase New and Innovative products.

To participate in the Niagara Home Builders Association or The Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association Newspapers send me an email at chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

You Tube on my blog

Check out the bottom of my blog, I came across a new function with the blog that will allow readers to view related You Tube videos to my posts.

I will be refining this over the next week and test the location and size of where it goes. Let me know if this is something you like or not.

Send me an email chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

New Constuction Job site

I have launched a new Construction Jobs and Careers blog which will share industry news, trends and new job openings from leading companies.

As part of the launch we are offering free job posting until September 1st. To post your job simply send me an email at chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

Check out the Ontario Construction Report Readers Choice Ad running this month

Here is the ad running this month promoting the Ontario Construction Readers Choice Awards in our August issue.

You can nominate your company or a business you deal with by clicking Readers Choice Awards

I have a myspace page to show off work...

I found a posting on Contractor Talk this week which reads:

Work Letter
I am working on a letter to send to commercial GC. What dept or who should I send it to get read?And i have a myspace page to show off work. Do you think it would be to cheese to put it in the letter?http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=148439011thanks

I checked out the profile and found some useful information but no other web site for the author of the post. My thoughts on Facebook and Myspace is that they are great tools to help enhance your web prescence if you can not afford a professionally designed web page however I think the use of a blog would appear more professional, especially when you provide an web address link in any correspondence you use.

What do you think of the use of Myspace and Facebook to promote your business?

Readers Choice Site is up and running

We have just posted our Readers Choice Awards Blog which will allow us to provide updates on this years awards and showcase last years winners.

The blog is a great tool to be able to offer additional branding for last years winners by listing the category they one with a link back to their company sites. I was also able to post a copy of the 2007-08 winners article published earlier this year.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting some profiles on the award sponsors and information regarding the early nominations we get. Our nominations are open until the end of October with the list of finalists ready for voting in November.

There is no cost to nominate your company or one you deal with on a regular basis you think deserves to be recognized.

You can cast your nominations by going to Readers Choice Awards.

Green Building Festival

As part of our media sponsorship of this years Green Building Festival we are doing a special feature on the Festival in our October issue of the paper covering the events of the two day event.

As part of our lead in coverage we will be doing a feature on the "Now House" Project for our September paper. The Now House project will turn a 60-year-old WWII house into a near zero energy home—one that produces almost as much energy as it uses. By reducing the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of one wartime home in Toronto, they are developing a model that can be applied to the similar that are scattered throughout Canada and North America. Work Worth Doing will start with one house, then a community of wartime houses, then a million houses across the country.

If you would like to sponsor one of these issues or have a profile on your green products or buildings please contact me chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

Proud Members of grows again.

One of the easiset ways to market your company is by prodly displaying what associations you are a part of. In my regions we belong to the following associations:

• Barrie Construction Association
• Niagara Construction Association
• Toronto Construction Association
• Niagara Home Builders Assocaiton

The best ways to display these logos are on email signatures, ads, posters, in your locations and on your web sites. The purpose of proudly displaying the associations you belong to is to help build rapport with other members in your business dealings or networking.

Accountability and sense of ownership

If I had to tell you what my biggest fault as an employee is it would be my lack of patience with people who do not have a strong sense of Accountability or Ownership for the work they do.

I think in any working environment you need to be able to effectively communicate good news and bad news and realize that mistakes will happen. In a small office/employee group this communication is key to the companies success.

I make mistakes or sometimes miss something, but the moment I realize I did I stand up and say "Hey I messed up and need help!" Do I hold myself accountable, yes, do I learn from my mistakes, yes. When an employee does not have a strong sesnse of accountability they will often do the bare necessity when it comes to the task they are responsible for and if a certain aspect was missed will not call attention or ask for help out of fear of looking bad. Even when confronted about the issue you will find excuses instead of solutions to the problem.

How do you solve the problem? My first insticnt is to fire the person, but the better solution is to set up structured regularly occuring meetings. The format for these meetings shoudl always start with a recap of an Action Item list which lists:

1) The item to be done

2) Who the item is assigned to

3) Date the assignment is to be completed

This format we use for our weekly company call and our marketing team call, but can be applied to other departments from admin even to editorial to ensure we all have an internal checklist of what needs to be done. The inernal checklist will help people who do not always have a strong sense of accountability to provide updates on a regualr basis and the outcome will be one of two things:

1) The employee adapts to the working environment

Or

2) They still mess up and no improvement is seens during regular employee reviews, so the professional relationship has to end.

How do you deal with individuals in your company or work setting who do not share the same level of ownership as the rest of the business culture?

Send me your experiences at chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

A Values Based Business Marketing Approach

I came across the following post today from Cofebuz The Marketing and Business Blog checking out a post b my publisher Mark Buckshon which touches on the premise of Value Based Business Marketing Approach which is very much inlone with the approach I have been focusing on the past year with the Construction News and Report Group.

Check out the post:

I have seen the remergence of a refreshing way of doing business that is nothing less than exciting. It is the idea that being simply honest with your clients is no longer enough to separate you in the crowded marketplace. Rather companies are beginning to embrace the idea of ‘going the extra mile’ for their clients, the concept that I like to refer to as Values Based Business. The exciting thing about a Values Based Business approach is that it generates a marketing mechanism that cannot be stopped. I have seen companies that use a Values Based Business Marketing Approach enjoy rich profits, extremely loyal clientele, and a satisfaction that only doing a great job can give.

Use of email marketing...

I had an email sent today to the members of the Canadian Farm Builders Association to serve two purposes:

1) Share the existing features we have done this year on the award winners with all the members in hope to generate a few leads on other projects and companies.

2) To make sure all the members were getting their subscripions to one of our regional papers as promised when we did the CFBA feature back in March of this year.

The service we used to send the email was Constant Contact which allows you to upload your email databases and manage them all online. The functions allow people to Opt out of your emails, provide updates to their email information, share and in return have people sign up and also send email to large distibution lists without getting your ISP shutting down your email.

On a funny note I had my email acount shut down twice last week. Once for sending an email out to a lst of 250 members exceeding my daily limit and the second within moments of sending a copy of one of our papers to a membership list elelctronically of roughly 300 members. The first time my account was closed the provider increased my ability to send 5,000 emails a day, I guess sending to 300 people at once was another red flag, all has been resolved and I will use Constant Contact from now on, lol.

Here is the body of the email that was sent:

These CFBA award winners are worthy of recognition.

Would you like this publicity for your own business?


See the stories about:
FGC Limited (April issue)
Post Farm Structures (June)
Penfor Construction (July)
Dutchmasters (July)


No financial commitment required -- your suppliers support the publicity through their co-op advertising (and no one is pressured to participate). Use the publicity on your website, in your client communications, and with your proposal packages.
For more information, call Chase at 888-432-3555 ext 221 or email mailto:chase@cnrgp.com

PS: If you are receiving this email, you should be receiving a free print subscription to Ontario Construction Report and either Ottawa Construction News, The GTA Construction Report, or Northern Ontario Construction News. If not, please send an email to mailto:chase@cnrgp.com and he will ensure you receive the publications without any further obligation.

Let me know how you manage not only your customer email database but your customer database as a whole.

Past Client Referral Letters

I came across this great discussion on Contractor Talk covering how to effectively get contact previous customers. With the Construction News and Report Group we publish several newspapers across Ontario and could probably come up with a few thousand advertisers who we have dealt with for the past 20 years. The question I face as I am sure most companies do is how to effectively get back in touch with them.

The discussion on Contractor Talk reviews what type of letters may work, surveys and phone calls. heck out the discussion and share your insights with me or post a response of Contractor Talk.

You can send me an email with your response to chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

OHBA Conference 2008

This years OHBA Conference is being held at Blue Mountain in Collingwood and hosted by the Greater Barrie Home Builders Association. This will be the first year a representative from the Construction News and Report Group will be attending since we added or second Home Builders Association Publication his past March in Niagara.

The event running September 21st to the 23rd will allow members from across Ontario to meet, share ideas and celebrate this years awards winners. The one event I am most looking forward to is the Builders Choice Exhibition and Trade Show. This will allow me to meet potential clients for feature articles, newsworthy coverage and potential advertisers. I had originally wanted to set up for the 4 hours trade show as an exhibitor but did no have enough time to register. Luckily one of the members from Niagara will be attending as an exhibitor who also advertises in Structures the Niagara Home Builders Association Newspaper we publish. Rick Coker from Cogeco Cable has offered to display copies of the paper at his booth, which will allow me to be able to reach the decision makers of other associations across Ontario about putting together association focused papers.

Now to be fair the 3 day event is not all work, their are large gaps in the afternoons for networking (playing golf or fishing) which will allow me to actually take my wife on the trip and squeeze in a little vacation like time.

Next year the OHBA Conference shifts to being hosted here in Niagara which should be a great event.

The hunt for a new driveway Part 2

Well It has been a few weeks since I sat down and searched for quotes to have a new driveway put in for my home and I ended up with eight quotes in total ranging from $5800 to $2000. I was left wondering why such a big gap. Now three of the quotes were for going a different direction of putting in sod & stone and only half as ashphalt, but even then pricing went from one extreme to the next.

I found the following discussion on Contractor Talk which helped me to review the quotes I had and recognize which ones were worth pursuing. This discussion may also help you when providing estimates to make sure yours is the winning bid.

David C wrote on Contractor Talk:

We are quoting an addition and freestanding garage. Ours was the 6th and last quote, and the highest. Our estimate is 120k, the lowest is 50k. When asked what the difference is, our salesman asked to sit down and see if it's apples to apples.

Of the 4 lowest proposals there was one on a letterhead with the rest scratched on notepaper. None of those seemed to consider the requested specifications or didn't bother offering any details. Those were quickly wadded and tossed by the HO. He felt they either weren't interested or didn't care enough to get the job.

The next estimate is from a reputable builder in our area and seems to have his ducks in a row for 109k. His was a verbal delivered over the phone and the next step is for the HO to call back with a decision.

Ours was delivered verbally in person. We were the only ones to have already checked with code enforcement on a couple of key issues and had answers for those points. (the other guy had the same answers but didn't check with CE) Our next step is a non refundable fee to take some site measurements so we can make our quote as accurate as we can. The fee will be appied as a payment to the contract if we are hired. After that we will supply a detailed written proposal to be delivered with the contract.

HO has already seen a sample propsal and has a blank contract from us, none from the others. His next step is to check the references on both of us and would like to see some of our past work. Other guy provided a few addresses, our sales guy offered a guided tour. (HO is from out of state, this is his camp)

To date I am pleased with our guys efforts and strategy. But this may be our first real competition in awhile, normally it's more like the first 4 that got trashed.

So the question is this, 2 reputable companies about 10% apart and you the higher one. What would your strategy be? Reverse auction is not acceptable. Thanks in advance.

Do we not say "Thank you" enough anymore?

I got this "Thank you" note in the mail today from the Niagara Home Builders Association for the recent sponsorship I provided for the golf tournament. I can not remember the last time I actually received a physical note vs. an email one. I prefer the hard copy myself.

When ever I have an advertiser with one of the papers from the Construction News and Report Group I always send a hand written note saying "Thanks" for their ad.

Let me know how do you send your "Thanks" out to your clients or how you prefer to be 'Thanked", send me an email to chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

Web presence in 45 minutes or less?

With a business card, a scanner and 45 minutes of my time I helped a friend launch his business on the web.

Recently I posted that I was trying to find a contractor for a new driveway and that original post was advertised on my FaceBook profile. The post was reviewed by a person on my friend list and that lead to a discussion about how I could use what I have learned from creating my blog to launching a company online.

Now the new blog for the Hole 9 Yards is still under construction, yet Al and his business partner/wife Bonnie are pulling together some pictures of previous jobs with descriptions for me to post along with some photos of the company vehicles and equipment. This additonal content will be more relevant and appealing to potential customers.

The possibilities for them to use the blog not only as a place to show off the services they provide and examples of work, but this allows customers who may not of known about the company window shop 24 hours a day anywhere in the Niagara Region. For a company that has built it reputation so far by referrals and face to face meetings the blog will not replace that strength of the business, it will only add another resource for people to accesss.

Stay tuned as further updates are made to the new blog http://hole9yards.blogspot.com/. I am interested to hear about how your business first ventured into the world wide web or how you are starting to break in. Send me an email at chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

Readers Choice Awards Post from Construction Links

Check out this post from Construction Links about our Readers Choice Awards

http://www.constructionlinks.ca/cgi-bin/jul2008.pl?rm=show_main#featuredprod

Nickerson's

Back in June I did a feature article on John Boldt Builders in Structures the Niagara Home Builders Association Newspaper and I was reintroduced to Nickerson's Home Appliances store in St.Catharines, and my wife appreciates it.

A family friend had worked there for many years and I can remember going there as a young child with my grandfather when he was buying a new fridge, but like most people I had been engulfed by BIG BOX STORES and the allure of finding everything you need under one roof. It may be easier to buy your new car tires in the aisle next to wear you find your milk, however what you truly lose is customer service and satisfaction.

About a year ago when I was doing renovations on my home I went to purchase building materials from a large store which I will refer to Orange Depot to protect their identity. I was waiting for a customer service rep to come speak with me about making some cuts to some wood I was buying, so I was waiting I kept looking at other materials while my wife and children were waiting at the saw counter. I was two aisles up from where they were and saw the rep walking towards them talking to a friend about what they did last night, as he got about 10 feet from my wife he turned around and walked away to continue to talk on the phone. For the next 15 minutes I was told by the customer service desk he was on his way but he was dealing with another customer. The rep continued to talk on the phone and walk away from me when I tried to approach him. So I packed up my family and left and went to Rona instead, a smaller store but bigger on customer service and satisfaction.

Now you are thinking how did I get from wood to new appliances at Nickerson's, well when it came time for my wife to remodel and and get new appliances she wanted to go to another BIG BX STORE. I stopped her in her tracks and reminded here of Orange Depot and told here how I just finished dealing with Nickerson's for a feature article I was doing. She recalled a family friend worked there and said sure lets check it out.

I walked into the front of the store and noticed that in the 20 plus years since my last visit it looked a lot smaller(I am only 33 by the way), however as you enter and go down a flight of stairs and check out the show room the store is fairly large. We looked around, noticed a large selection and reasonable prices to what my wife had looked at online for a BIG BOX STORE. We found a few models we liked and I approched one of the several staff members on hand and was lucky enough to get Charlie Jr.

Even though I had dealt with Charlie on the phone with the feature I was doing on John Boldt I had never met him face to face so I kept my identity secret and used my first Jason in my introduction. (I only use my last name in my professional life, a long story for another day. I told him what I was looking for and my budget and he took all that information and crunched some numbers. Now when you see a price sticker at a place like Orange Depot that is the price you pay, however from dealing with Charlie there is some flexibility especially the more you buy.

So what is the moral to the story, well sometimes what we think is convenience and simplicity when dealing with a BIG BOX STORE is really a big sacrifice on our parts for great customer service and satisfaction. I think somewhere along the way we took lowest price to mean the best deal, when in reality it is the best service that truly saves you in the long run.

Next time you are thinking of getting some new appliances contact Charlie or check out his web site.

Charles Nickerson Jr.
Nickerson Appliances
Ph. 905-685-9075
www.nickersonappliances.com

Upswing in Construction Across Niagara

Construction activity is on the upswing in Ontario's Niagara Region, mirroring the trend across Canada.

Statistics Canada reported Monday July 7th that $33.3 million (Canadian) in building permits were filed in the St. Catharines-Niagara metropolitan area in May. That was up 5.3 percent from $31.6 million (Canadian) in April.

The St. Catharines-Niagara metro roughly follows the boundaries of the Niagara Region. It includes the communities of St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Thorold and Welland.
National trends were also higher, according to the Statistics Canada report. Canadian contractors took out $6.6 billion (Canadian) in building permits in May, up 1.1 percent from April. It was the nation's highest value for permits since October 2007.

Proof of this upswing can be seen in the August issue of the GTA Construction Report in the Niagara section highlighting three great projects:

New Harley Davidson Dealership being built by M. Losier Design and two LEED certified projects built by Merit Contractors.

If you are working on a project in Niagara you would like to have covered in our news section or in a special feature profile send me an email at chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

Project by BILD members One of North America's 'Greenest"

The Building Industry and Land DevelopmentAssociation (BILD) and Toronto and Region Conservation (TRCA) launched construction today on the Archetype Sustainable House at the Kortright Centre in theCity.

Together with municipal and provincial dignitaries,and more than 150 volunteers, the blitz construction will take place on thisstate-of-the-art facility over the course of only 17 days. The project consists of a semi-detached unit: the first house showcasingenvironmentally sensitive methods of building currently available and thesecond unit showcasing the future of building green.

The Archetype SustainableHouse will showcase one of the best in conservation, energy efficiency,renewable energy, and sustainable technologies of any house in North America.

EnerQuality celebrates 10 years of making Ontario homes energy efficient

Over 150 leading energy efficient home building industry representatives, supporters and friends met at the Westin Prince Hotel in Toronto on June 25th to mark a special anniversary for energy efficient home building in Ontario.

The newly appointed Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, the Honourable George Smitherman, on his sixth day in hisnew role, was enthusiastically received by the group of builders and industry partners attending the celebration. The 10th anniversary of EnerQuality demonstrates that the vision and partnership of shareholders, the Ontario Home Builders' Association and the Canadian Energy Efficiency Association, along with the industry leaders and government, has been truly successful in transforming the new housing industry.

“It was great to see so many familiar faces with us to celebrate an important milestone in our history,” said Corey
McBurney, Managing Director of EnerQuality. “Over the years, we have seen tremendous growth in the market for
energy efficient housing and a lot of credit goes to our shareholders, the Ontario Home Builders’ Association and the Canadian Energy Efficiency Association for their continued support.”

EnerQuality Corporation was established in 1998 with a mandate to transform Ontario’s new housing into the most
sustainable and energy efficient. They have set a goal to label 25% of Ontario’s new housing every year as ENERGY
STAR® or better by 2012. EnerQuality continues to provide consulting, training and certification and currently supports almost 400 custom builders and production builders with solutions and innovations. They are the creators of GreenHouse Certified Construction, are a service provider for LEED-H, and are licensed by NRCan to deliver ENERGY STAR for New Homes, the EnerGuide Rating Service and R-2000.

"As the past president of EnerQuality, I have the good fortune of having seen directly the value and effect of
EnerQuality’s important work," said Peter Love, Ontario’s Chief Energy Conservation Officer. “Their model which
incorporates voluntary leadership programs like R-2000 makes it possible for Ontario to have the highest minimum
energy efficiency standards in its building code and will be among highest in world when fully implemented in 2012.”

This year started on a high as EnerQuality marked the 10,000 ENERGY STAR for New Homes qualified home enrolled
in less than three years of the initiative. This remarkable achievement and their continued growth is due to the leadership of builders and the strong support of partners such as the Natural Resources Canada, Ontario Power Authority, Owens Corning, Enbridge Gas, Union Gas, DuPont Tyvek, Reliance Home Comfort, Icynene, PowerWatch, PowerPipe, Jeldwen, and CMHC.

EnerQuality donated 200 trees to Trees Ontario to be planted on behalf of the guests that attended the celebration.

The value of a referral!

This week I contacted a company I was provided on a list of trades and suppliers for a feature article I am working on. The company wanted to advertise but are in the process of designing and building their new office space and they have cut extra spending from the advertising budget.

I replied to the email thanking the contact for getting back to me and I let him know that he did not need to purchase an ad if he wanted t participate by submitting photos of the work he did or to be interviewed. He got back to me and said when they move into the new office that he would like for me to do a feature on his company based on my offer.

I followed up one last time an offered him a free ad in any feature I did where he referred me to the contractor of a project he was working on. Of course he was more then happy to respond and is currently developing a list of projects.

The key to this whole email based conversation was both of us being courteous to one another.

The same offer I have made here I would like to extend to other trades and suppliers who can point me in the right directon of a contractor or acrhitect. If you are working on a project you would like featured send me an email at chasemarketing@sympatico.ca

Wood Works Ontario Awards Gala

The Wood WORKS! Awards recognizes people and organizations dedicated to pioneering and preserving the use of wood in Ontario.

The 8th Annual Wood WORKS! Awards Gala will take place on Wednesday, November 12, in the Cohen Ballroom at the Toronto Congress Centre.

To find yourself or someone you know on the podium you must submit nominations by Friday, September 19, 2008. Click here to download nomination forms.

Construction News and Report Group is a proud sponsor of this event.

Wood Solutions Fair

Come check out at our exhibit this November 13th at the Wood Solutions Fair in Toronto at the Toronto Congress Centre.

A one-day educational event on wood products and construction.
The Wood Solutions Fairs focus on wood products and their use in construction. Suppliers and technical experts are on hand to answer your questions about wood. You will be able to apply "on the job" what you've learned from the seminars and the information you will take with you.

Who should attend:
The Wood Solutions Fair is for decision makers in the construction industry. This event is intended for the professionals who need to know what wood products are available and how they can be used:

Architects
Engineers - Structural and Civil
Builders
Building Designers
Building Officials
Construction Technologists
Specifiers
Students
Professors

What you will see
Informative seminars solely dedicated to wood products.
Technical information from suppliers, manufacturers, wood engineering consultants and industry associations
The full range of structural wood products and finishing wood products
Exhibits totally devoted to wood products
Consultation with wood industry experts

What Education Credits Can You Acquire?
Courses are approved by:
American Institute of Architects. One learning unit will be accredited per attended seminar.
American Institute of Building Design(also applies to International Code Council accreditation)
Professional Development Certificates and AIA CES forms will be available to professionals toward their continuing education program.
Ontario Association of Architects: 10 self-directed continuing education points.
Architectural Institute of British Columbia. One learning unit will be accredited per attended seminar. Maximum 6 LU's core.

Attendee Information
Toronto: 866-886--3574

Exhibitor/Sponsor Information
Toronto: 866-886--3574

Publishers View Point July

It has been a great month for new relationships with the Construction News and Report Group and construction associations.

First up is the new partnership that I have set up with the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) where we are expanding the media coverage of the association and our relationship. As part of our partnership we are offering a free subscription to every member (300 plus) and discounted additional subscriptions for their employees, associates and clients. This is a great partnership to get our papers in front of the leading decision makers across Ontario and will help us expand our coverage of leading and innovative projects.

Next up is our new membership with the Niagara Construction Association (NCA) and media sponsorship of their 27th Annual Golf Tournament. The relationship with the NCA has been growing the past several months with the launch of our new Niagara Construction Section covering local news and issues. This month we covered their Membership Appreciation and New Member Drive BBQ and met some great people. As I live and work within St.Catharines the expansion of the GTA Construction Report to include coverage of the Niagara Region has been a natural progression. Watch for our July issue which will feature a few LEED projects from across Niagara.

One other new alliance is our media sponsorship of the Canadian Wood Councils 8th Annual Awards Gala this Fall in Toronto at the Congress Centre on the November 12th and at their Wood Solutions Fair on November 13th. Wood WORKS! is an industry led initiative of the Canadian Wood Council and it is their goal to promote the use of wood and wood products in innovative construction projects and to acknowledge the contribution of wood use advocates.

If you would like to have additional coverage on your association please drop my a line and let me know what is going on in the next few months.