I think most of us know how fortunate we have been in the last couple of years compared to other parts of the country. Our economy has, for the most part, not experienced the drastic declines that others have. This fact was confirmed by some recent information that I experienced.

I had the opportunity to attend the International Builders Exchange Executives (IBEE) mid-year conference in Las Vegas the first week of February. The IBEE is an association for association people. It is a non-profit organization of senior executives from Builders’ Exchanges and other construction-related associations located in the United States and Canada, who are committed to sharing information, ideas, trends, techniques and methods for the betterment of serving a diverse and complex industry. The IBEE includes over 100 Builder Exchanges and Construction Associations member companies that collectively represent nearly 70,000 construction-related businesses.

One of the sessions at the IBEE conference is a “What’s going on at your Exchange?” Attendees spend about five minutes giving out information on their Exchange. There are usually three areas that are discussed:

1. The number of projects that your Exchange received processed and made available for your members and how that compares with prior years.
2. The number of members that you have compared with prior years.
3. And of course, the bottom line and how that compares with prior years.

Although the majority of Builders Exchanges are non-profits, they still need to show positive profit numbers to insure that benefits, staffing, services and future expansions continue to be met.

It was interesting to note that there were only 2 Exchanges that showed an increase in all three areas, and the FM Builders Exchange was one of them. There was one Exchange that experienced a 40% drop in membership and most others were in the 15% to 25% range. Most of the time membership will increase in a slower economy because businesses are using every option available to maintain and get new business. Because of this decrease, some exchanges are struggling to maintain existing staff and benefits.

The IBEE conference was held as the same time as the World of Concrete conference in Las Vegas. This event was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This event is historically one of the largest held in Las Vegas and attract construction related companies from all over the country. In visiting with some of the exhibitors, they all agreed that this year’s estimates for attendees and booth were down by an estimated 10% to 20%. The main reason they listed for this decline is the economy, and in light of that, many exhibitors and attendees decided not to attend this year. 

  There are also other companies that offer similar services as builders’ exchanges. Competition for members also impacts membership levels. We pride ourselves on the fact that we offer personal local service to our members and strive to do it better than anyone else. We also need to continue to offer benefits, goods and services that others don’t. We continually remind the design community and our membership that we have been doing this for 105 years. We will continue to offer project documents to companies to insure that the plan issuer gets the best value for the project owner. During the last year or so, competition and the economy have made bidding on building and remodeling projects highly competitive, which is good news for the owner.

I received some information from the Minnesota Association of General Contractors regarding number of workers and job gain or loss in the construction industry in these cities in the Midwest. Fargo Moorhead was the only area that had an increase. The numbers are very telling on what is occurring in other parts of the country:

                           Sept. 08       Sept. 09        gain/(loss)       %

Fargo-Mhd     8,300               8,400               100                  1%

Madison, WI   16,400             15,800             (600)                (4%)

Omaha, NE     26,900             25,500             (1,400)             (5%)

Des Moines     17,300             15,700             (1,600)             (9%)

Green Bay      8,300               7,500                (800)                (10%)

Milwaukee      34,900             30,700             (4,200)             (12%)

St Cloud          5,100               4,400               (700)                (14%)

Chicago           172,800       148,500              (24,300)           (14%)

Eau Claire      3,100               2,700                (400)                (13%)

Twin Cities      74,200            59,400             (14,800)           (20%)

Duluth             9,000               6,900               (2,100)             (23%) 

When looking at state numbers, North Dakota was the only state out of 5 that had an increase during the same period of time.

Minnesota       119,400          104,300           (15,100)           (13%)

Iowa                79,100             70,300             (8,800)             (11%)

N. Dakota        23,700             24,100             400                  2%

S. Dakota        25,000             23,500             (1,500)             (6%)

Wisconsin       124,700         110,000             (14,700)           (12%)

We can only hope that our area will continue to grow and the rest of the country will experience a turn-around in the coming year.