When was the last time you read a really good book of the page-turner variety? Each page is turned more quickly than the previous one. An anticipating pace races you deeper into the plot, the action, the historical moment, or the truth you are seeking. With that picture in mind, consider the page turning taking place in your business right now.

Non-essential has turned into essential. Ample work has turned into more-than-enough work. A pandemic-impacted workforce has begun turning into a vaccinated population. Winter has sharply ended with the promise of spring. All of these are examples of positive page turns you have all made recently. You’ve learned; we’ve learned; together we have endured.

You find yourself at the start of a new chapter. Facing you are storylines that are among the most important of your recent years. Availability of materials is challenging your productivity and your effective, if not competitive, pricing. These include steel, wood, and cement. Steel-form ties, the most recent shortage, threatens the pace of housing construction and the overall economy. Your workforce is evolving as more people gain the confidence to return to work, yet the availability of more laborers has not yet led to quality interviews. As you begin to turn the pages, you are met with disappointment, dissatisfaction, maybe even frustration.

Yet the threads of hope for new opportunity remain a part of your quickening pace. What you need now is a page to turn in your favor. Where will your next inspiration come from? How will you set at arm’s length frustration and anxiety and replace them with a sustaining energy and then drive through the present chapter?

Let me suggest that inspiration can come through this Association and your peers. As I look forward, in my immediate future is a CFA board meeting in mid-April. During this meeting, your leaders will continue to direct and affirm development goals and platforms from which membership growth can take place. Among the big-ticket items are a fully implemented, on-demand Learning Management System; growth of staff to serve and connect members to thought leadership; increasing active participation in mixed networking groups; establishing areas of expertise and proficiency; and facilitating easier networking for members.

Looking beyond these development goals, the pages turn quickly to Convention this summer, where we will return to an in-person, aggressive offering of business-changing education and networking, desired by so many after more than 700 days since our last in-person convention. Charleston will be the location of the next great CFA event for those who can make it there. For those who cannot, we have learned far too much from previous pages to let go of the convenience of virtual gathering, and we will offer a hybrid way for you to engage with the same learning and experience unique networking.

Now is the time for you to pick this book up and stay with it. Come and see why the CFA is the right story for this right time, needing you to be part of the content on the pages.