PRESIDENT’S LETTER Martin Howard As business leaders and entre- preneurs, we usually enjoy the chance to share our successes because we all like to WIN! I hope you will indulge me the opportunity to congratulate the NTCA on achieving major growth as an association. Back in 2003 the association had approximate- ly 400 members and five full- time staff. Since that time, NTCA has grown to almost 1,600 mem- ber companies representing tens of thousands of tile professionals. We now have 15 full-time and two part-time employees serving our members and industry. One of my strategic goals as president is to work with the excellent staff, Executive Committee and Board of Directors to structure the organization for the future. In 2003 the staff had an all hands on deck mentality in which each wore many differ- ent hats in order to get the job done. As the years went by and membership continued to grow, staff was added to fill the needs that seemed most urgent at the time. This is probably not much different than what has happened in many of our businesses. The traveling workshop program has grown exponentially to now offering more than 130 half-day events around the country. All are completely free and open to the public. This year we are rolling out a new program to serve NTCA members and Five Star Contractors by offering 20 Regional Training events specifi- cally tailored to the needs and requests of the members in each region. These events are one- and two-day educational and train- ing sessions available for up to 20 attendees at no cost to our members. Okay, enough bragging and back to the organizational structure. During many discussions with the Executive Committee it became clear that Bart Bettiga, Executive Director, and Jim Olson, Assistant Executive Director, were assigned too many of the major responsi- bilities to allow them to effectively lead the association overall. It was decided to implement a plan to create a Director level of key lead- NTCA success story 22 TileLetter | July 2018