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Exciting Changes at SIPA
by Damian Pataluna
 Season’s Greetings to all. I find myself excited about the events of the past 6 months within SIPA and decisions of the SIPA Board. For years, I have been amazed at what SIPA has been able to get done via grants and donations under Bill Wachtler’s leadership; but the bottom line is, SIPA has been held back by an under-funded budget. That is about to change.
By now, many of you probably have already received notice of the decision to increase dues for all SIPA members. This was not a quick or an easy decision. We have been trying for years to find another way to generate funds. We thought we had it done last year with the “OSB tax” idea; but in the end, it proved too difficult to make that idea work. So instead, we have taken a page from the history of the metal roofing industry. A few years ago they raised their membership dues by a significant amount, as a way to generate funds to build their industry. In the five years that followed, their market share increased from 3% to 6%, resulting in a 600-million-dollar increase in sales. That’s the kind of growth we are looking for.
At the board meeting in Chicago this past September, your board members voted to increase dues. Substantial increases were passed to manufacturers (triple in most cases) and supplier companies (double in most cases). As an owner of a business myself, it was an easy decision to commit. When I break the payment down on a monthly basis, I can’t think of any other opportunity to invest that amount of money and get the same bang for the buck. Individually, we all do our own local marketing, but we can’t touch the national level. With our combined resources, we will essentially create a million-dollar budget for SIPA. Now we have something to work with. Beyond that, we also have a plan and a new alliance.
Your board also passed a resolution to form an alliance with APA - The Engineered Wood Association. We saw many strategic benefits coming from this alliance. APA wants to increase the market share for OSB. We want to sell more panels. They have resources that can help with more testing. We want to sell more panels. They have a field services staff around the country and an infrastructure in place to help us implement national awareness and marketing immediately. We want to create more awareness and sell more panels — and this will help everyone in the industry do just that. Of course, this all comes at a cost. APA is offering a very good deal to the industry, but it doesn’t come without a price.
Your marketing committee has been working very hard for the past several years on our strategic marketing plan and tweaking it on a regular basis. We feel we now have a great plan that will increase national awareness of SIPs. Just listen to some of our objectives. 1) Increase awareness, understanding and preference for the benefits of building with SIPs among user groups (residential builders, design professionals and dealers). 2) Position SIPs as the preeminent Green/energy-efficient building system. 3) Provide technical support and regulatory oversight. 4) Conduct research to develop verified SIP performance data. 5) Conduct market research to document market share and growth in the SIP industry.
Each one of these objectives has effective strategies and tactics. The first thing we all realized was that the plan would cost more money than we have in the current budget. We did not have the resources — especially the people — to support half of the ideas. The alliance with APA will provide many of these resources. Your increased funding will go toward the fulfillment of our goals.
At the board meeting, the motion to increase dues passed unanimously. As they say in Texas Hold-‘Em, we’re “All In.” The good thing about this decision is that we can ALL win. We expect that there will be some dissension, and that we may lose some members. But we would like to see everyone stick with us on this decision. Those of us who are members on the board are committed to this decision. We have been working on a breakthrough plan for years, and we intend to see it through. The timing is right to combine efforts and really try to grow this industry. The industry goal is 5% market share in 5 years. That’s a large task. Without the funding, we won’t make it. With the funding in place and the APA alliance, I believe we can achieve our goal and then some — it's about time!
Have a Happy Holidays! See you in Orlando.
Damian Pataluna
President
FischerSIPS, LLC
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