To All AAF Members and Licensed Aluminum Contractors,
As some of you may be aware, we have a local AAF chapter meeting on July 13th at 12:00 noon at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel on Daniels Parkway and Treeline just east of I-75. What makes this meeting of particular importance is that we have building officials from Lee County (and possibly Collier) attending this meeting. Each official will represent a different department, which I am listing below.
1. Code enforcement
2. Contractor licensing
3. Building plan review
4. Building Inspections
The primary reason we have asked these officials to attend is to begin to foster a better dialogue and relationship between the building department and our industry. It is thus of extreme importance that everyone attending this meeting understand that this is NOT a forum in which to complain, vent frustrations, or speak in an unprofessional manner with these officials. I can not stress the importance of this enough, and as such, I ask that everyone who attends this meeting and participates in the dialogue do so in a constructive and informative manner.
It is also important that in order to promote our agenda, we need to talk in terms of how this benefits their organization and the public for which they serve, NOT our industry. So for example, if we discuss unlicensed activity, we want to show them how this puts the homeowner at a greater liability risk, and how it threatens the building department’s reputation. Conversely, we do not want to say that we want stricter enforcement of unlicensed activity to restrict competition, which they know would be of financial benefit to licensed aluminum contractors. The whole idea of this is to start the process of creating an environment of cooperation between us, so that in the long run the building departments will see that working with us will benefit them in the long run.
With all of this said, I would like to make this a productive meeting that can be done in a reasonable amount of time. So I would like your input as to one topic you would like discussed with each department. We will take the most requested topic for each, and make that the one we discuss with each official. Please note that we already have picked a topic for discussion with the licensing department, which involves unlicensed activity within our industry, so only suggest a topic for the other three.
Of course, I also need to know if you plan on attending, AND how many others will accompany you. Please RSVP here ASAP!!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aaf-july-13th-meeting-tickets-26201247637
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you, and seeing you at this very important meeting!
Sincerely,
Tom Davis
AAF Chapter V.P.