NTCA PREVIEW 102 TileLetter | July 2017 NTCA announces highlights for May board meetings Each month, the NTCA board meets to report on initiatives made in the individual subcommittees for the association and industry overall. Here’s a brief summary of works and developments in prog- ress. Membership: April was a record month for NTCA membership, as we signed up 62 new members in the month. We continue to work hard on retention, and our overall membership numbers are tracking well ahead of last year through April. We fully expect to reach 1,400 members by the end of the year. Coverings: Installer attendance was up over 25% at the show from last year. It showed in our member- ship numbers joining and renew- ing in Orlando. Our two booths, the Installation Stage, the NASCAR experience area, Contractors Lounge, and Installation Design Showcase areas were all extremely busy. Plans for 2018 In Atlanta will begin with Coverings Marketing Committee Meetings July 18th and 19th . Anyone with conference ideas or ideas to promote the show should contact Bart at bart@tile- assn.com. TISE West: NTCA recently partic- ipated in conference and program planning for 2018 TISE West in Las Vegas. We will have a similar size booth at the show as in 2017, and our trainers will be on the Installation Stage with six to eight live demonstrations. Workshops: The first swing of workshops was very successful in getting great attendance and signing up new members. State Ambassadors, Board Members and volunteers at many of these events are truly making a difference. We held our first few Spanish work- shops this winter in California as well. We are learning how to mar- ket these events, but we are get- ting there. The trainers are doing a fantastic job of engaging our members, promoting the events on social media, and providing a fun learning experience for attendees. Apprenticeship: Year One of the program is nearly complete, and is available online at NTCA University. A reminder to every- one – you DO NOT HAVE to have an Apprenticeship Program to use the system and its training mod- ules. We now have hundreds of users actively training with these modules. We are already starting on Year Two of the program and adding other courses to the NTCA University site. Contact Becky Serbin at becky@tile-assn.com for any assistance on how to use the site, courses available, or how to train your employees, etc. Regional Education: At the Board of Directors meeting in Las Vegas, our staff was given direction to begin to develop regional programs that focus on training installers. Mark Heinlein and Becky Serbin