Posted by Melissa Bunis, Boston Stone Restoration, EM NARI PR Committee

June’s membership meeting had a packed room on Wednesday June 5^th at the Crowne Plaza in Natick, MA. After a welcome by President Justin Zeller, Asher Nichols gave a funny and accurate assessment of the current lack of young people going in to the trades. He encouraged all members to get involved in WFD (Workforce Development) by mentoring a student, allowing a student to shadow, or volunteering at EM NARI’s Youth Remodeling Career Day October 16th.

Another highlight of the night was the presentation of the annual scholarship awards. Each year our chapter awards two $1000 scholarships, one to a student who is pursuing a career in the trades and one to an EM NARI family member. This year’s winners were Niall Walsh who will be working for Kirby Perkins construction and Evan Travis, son of former EM NARI President Glenn Travis who will be studying Business at Assumption College in the fall.

The keynote speaker was Leslie Shiner, from the Shiner Group. Leslie is an MBA and financial consultant who specializes in the construction industry. Her informative, lively and humorous talk focused on 4 Tools to Boost Profits.  Here are the points she hit upon.

1. Time Management – techniques to keep on track

• Use a schedule and keep to it
• Plan ahead and order all resources and supplies
• Set expectations for the employees so they know when work is to be completed

2. Track Employees productivity

• Blown budgets are almost always from Labor
• Use a labor burden calculator to determine actual labor costs and budget accordingly

3. Cost reporting

• Track committed costs to subcontractors
• Check budget mid-way through so you have time to correct for errors

4. Time factor of change orders

• Charge an admin fee for change orders
• Make sure you document all change orders, make it easy for workers in the field to document. But make sure they communicate to you the changes.

For the full presentation Click Here.

Special thanks goes to our dinner meeting sponsor Mason and Mason Insurance.  Be sure to contact Tom Messier or Brian Robertson for your insurance needs!