Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128International outreach In February, NTCA President James Woelfel and I traveled to Castellon, Spain, to participate in QUALICER, an international manufacturing and installation forum. Together with industry leaders from around the world, we shared ideas with other labor organizations regarding train- ing efforts, installation standards, best practices, and apprenticeship programs. By getting involved in events like this, our association will be able to not only support other groups with our knowledge, we can learn from what other groups are doing successfully as well. Several years ago, we reached an agreement with the Australian Tile Council to market and promote the NTCA Reference Manual to its members. In 2016, the Tile Terrazzo and Marble Association of Canada (TTMAC) agreed to use our manual in their country for its members. Because they have their own prod- uct and installation standards, they will make slight revisions to the manual, but this is another sig- nificant development for our asso- ciation’s impact on the tile industry. We hope to expand this outreach as we translate our manual into Spanish in 2017 to many Spanish- speaking associations. Apprenticeship, online education and worker recruitment Over the next decade, I am con- vinced the biggest challenge our industry will face will be the avail- ability of workers who are qualified to sell, specify and install ceramic tile and natural stone. As technol- ogy continues to make significant strides, we need a more sophis- ticated and highly trained work- force. Training and product knowl- edge has always been important, but it will take on an even bigger role moving forward. In addition, the industry needs to recruit a new group of passionate, dedicated, hard-working men and women into our trade. We cannot do that without having a strong message (l. to r.) Javier Rodriguez Enjerique, technical secretary of Qualicer, NTCA executive director Bart Bettiga and then- NTCA president James Woelfel, at the Qualicer conference in Castellon, Spain, in February 2016. NTCA YEAR IN REVIEW –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 82 TileLetter | January 2017