Perspective

Investing in the Future of Steel Construction

SEAA is Steel Strong! That’s our organization’s rally cry and it’s more than just a slogan. In 2021, the association gained more new members in a given year than in any of the previous 10 years. In addition, our retention rate at the conclusion of 2021 remained at about 90%. As of July 2022, SEAA’s members hail from 43 states, three Canadian Provinces, and Puerto Rico.

According to the 2022 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report produced by Marketing General Inc., 2021 was a big year for associations on the rebound following the pandemic. Across 25 different industries, 38% of survey respondents reported increasing member numbers at the start of 2022. Our renewals on average are better than the median, noted in the report to be 84%.

As of SEAA’s July Board Meeting, 2022 membership levels were only three less than where we ended 2021—with five months more to go. More than 70% of our members identify as erectors, with smaller companies making up more than a third of that group. However, association leaders see value in bringing in more companies that are in reinforcing steel or steel fabrication, which will be a new emphasis going into 2023.

Expanding services

What’s important about these numbers is that as we grow, we are able to offer more services to members of all sizes and in all categories. Here are a few important accomplishments that put SEAA on the path to meaningful investment in our industry.

SEAA held its annual convention in person in October 2021, with record registrations, then turned around to host convention again just six months later in April of this year. This is significant, as only 17% of associations surveyed in the Benchmarking Report held in person events last year. According to the report, this decision was closely tied to organizations achieving renewal rates greater than 80%. This year, we have continued to add services and quarterly networking options for our members.

In partnership with CareerPlug, SEAA offers member companies hiring tools. Members can post jobs for free to

Pete Gum is the Executive Director of The Steel Erectors Association of America.Contact him at pete@seaa.net. our online Job Board. But even more valuable is the ability to upgrade to CareerPlug’s full-service applicant tracking system at a deeply discounted price. If you want more information about how to put this tool to work for your company, please email me or check out the resources on our website.

SEAA’s Safety & Education Committee has been hard at work leading the development of 60+ training videos. Professionally produced, the videos are free for members to use. As the videos were being completed, we turned our attention to providing the best platform available for ease of use by members. That led us to another partnership, this one with Industrial Training International (ITI).

ITI, a highly reputable rigging and crane training provider, now offers an online Learning Hub for access to on-demand training. Using their expertise, SEAA will launch our own Learning Management System (LMS) by the end of the year, so that members can access our exclusive content, as well as much more free and discounted content through ITI. Each member company will receive one free license to the SEAA LMS.

In addition, to date we’ve held three webinars in conjunction with key member suppliers on a variety of topics. Archives are housed on the SEAA website. If you are interested in partnering with us to host a webinar, please let me know.

And finally, although not as exciting on the surface as these other projects, a nine-person task force with the assistance of an attorney, drafted all new bylaws for the association. This was an essential task, as the previous bylaws, last amended in 2016, had been revised multiple times over the years. They were no longer in alignment with current North Carolina law and had incorporated contradictory language, or did not reflect actual policy and procedures. The bylaws were distributed to membership for review and were approved in August.

Innovation is a vital driver in membership growth, as evidenced by the previously mentioned Benchmarking Report. Of the nine types of new initiatives reported by the associations responding to the survey, SEAA checked four of the boxes! I couldn’t be more pleased to be part of this association. As I start my second year as your Executive Director, I’m confident that SEAA is blazing a trail to help our companies now and in the future. •