A Word From AGCVA Chair, Don Sproul

Fall is upon us and as October closes, I wanted to share some of the details from our fall state board meeting. The 2024 Business Plan and budget are the main focus of the board meeting each fall. However, this year we had another exciting item on the agenda – a new member benefit program.

The board approved a 401k plan for AGCVA member companies. Over the last few months, the Finance Committee did its due diligence to vet and prepare a recommendation on this program including meeting with Steve Ellsworth from the Baid Diagrid Group, the company managing the program. Steve has been managing this program for the AGC southwest chapters (i.e., Louisiana AGC, Houston AGC, and others) for the past 13 years. Steve attended the board meeting to present as well. This new member benefit program is a pooled employer plan or (PEP) that provides a 401K plan to participating members at a significant discount. Since Baird has had this plan in place for many years and understands AGC chapters it is great fit for AGCVA members. Steve will be presenting this plan at the 2024 Convention on Feb. 23, 2024.

This was not the only added value for members coming in 2024. The board unanimously approved the 2024 Business Plan and it is focused on continuing to deliver value to members by advocating for the industry, growing member businesses, and connecting you with who you need to see to be successful.

Here are a few highlights!

Advocating for the industry:

• Continue to engage with members and legislators at the local level through increased use of Voter Voice alerts, district events, and strategic off-session meetings with legislators.
• Continue telling the “construction story” through increased earned media.
• Celebrate association’s centennial anniversary in 2024.

Growing member businesses:

• Complete a DEI pilot program to connect contractors with minority owned business partners.
• Increased focus on workforce shortage by reaching more students, supporting CTE programs across the state, and piloting a school engagement plan for local districts to engage directly with schools.
• Increased training opportunities for members.
• Grow the Virginia BEST Program.
• Bring back the Young Leaders Conference.

Connecting you with who you need to see to be successful:

• Increase cross-district regional events.
• Focus on value added district events where networking is combined with programing, education, or other value-added content.
• Grow membership in the Northern Virginia area.
• Increased volunteer training and engagement.

I want to thank the Board of Directors for their leadership, hard work, and dedication to the association by approving the 2024 Business Plan, Budget, and new 401k plan for our members. I also want to thank all district leaders for their input and contributions to our plans going forward. So many of our initiatives begin at the district level and they are our boots on the ground to accomplish our shared goals.

It has really been great to see many of you out at many wonderful events so far this year with many more to come. I hope you will register for the AGCVA Convention at The Greenbrier. A notice went out earlier this month for registration and I hope you take advantage of this great event. Please take note of the new dates (Feb. 22-25, 2024) and encourage your colleagues and friends to register as well. We have got a great schedule for this year with some exciting new elements.