James Baty
jbaty@cfaconcretepros.org

The calendar is telling me it is December, and I’m still trying to convince myself it can be true. How is it that 2023 is nearly over, and by the time you are reading this, 2024 has likely arrived? I hear this in nearly every conversation where I get the chance to catch up with others. Surely, time can’t speed up; surely, we aren’t missing blocks of time, and my age isn’t catching up with me, leaving gaps in my remembered timeline.

The reality is, like most of you, I am measuring time in much smaller intervals or projects. My comprehension of time today looks much different than it did when I measured time based on the length of a baseball game or fishing in a pond. I get a little bit of that old pace back each time I find myself in a stream, tossing a fly into a run, or when I settle into the combination of that beach chair and a good book. The challenge then becomes: how can I (we) recapture the value of time while maintaining the productivity necessitated by our present life?

Part of what speeds up that clock is the intentional way this association is put together and run. There are quarterly meetings with the Board of Directors, monthly meetings with the Executive Committee, and semi-monthly meetings with Board task forces, striving hard to set the stage for productivity and revenue empowerment for the future. Add to these weekly meetings with the CFA president and daily strategy sessions with our staff and (like the way your business runs), the CFA is filled with time-marked intervals that quickly snap forward through the days, weeks, months, and years.

Working with current CFA president Jason Ells, whose letter in this issue does a great job reflecting this association’s energy, I have come to realize the power behind the phrase, “you can’t improve what you can’t measure”—one he has become known 

for across these meetings. Measuring is built into our human nature; measuring is common sense; measuring is also a burden. Yet, measuring is the tool most need and unfortunately is most overlooked. By this I mean, the hardest aspect of your business and likewise this association has to do with the measurement tools we use to understand the needs of clients and members. 

I get distracted by the low-hanging fruit and the squeaking wheel, those things that pop up regularly but are not central to my work. Yet, there is a much larger picture out there I need to remember, the one that shows the impact this Association can have, and reminds me of the potential of reaching many more customers who need our skills. Let’s work on this together. The CFA needs more of you engaging, contributing, and taking. In so doing, your capacity to reach and serve, and thereby receive, will be increased as well.  

Are you up for the challenge?