Director's Message: Getting Involved with NFC

Connect with the Framing Industry

Participation and involvement in trade organizations like National Framers Council (NFC) can offer a tricky return on investment. Initially, there are the membership fees or dues that offer discounted access to events, goods, and services, but after that, how do you maximize time and involvement with a trade group?

Like most things in life, it starts with showing up, which essentially means participating in whatever form you have the time, energy, and budget for. It can include travel to in-person events or joining online meetings and events leveraged by tools like Zoom or Teams. It can also include time spent reading various newsletters, websites, online/offline documents, and even a trade magazine to stay on top of what is happening in your industry. With Framing Today, NFC is attempting to connect you, the reader, with the broader framing industry.

The goal of Framing Today is to offer framers an opportunity to connect and interact with their peers, the broader industry, and those who value the framing trade. The easiest way is to simply subscribe and read, but there are other ways to be involved! In future editions, Framing Today will need story ideas and the opportunity to understand your pain points and struggles as you continue to build homes and structures throughout North America. It’s easy to connect with NFC staff and members to share your ideas and challenges, whether it’s dropping us a line via email or snail mail, giving us a call, or even a text message. 

Through reading Framing Today, we hope to establish a connection with our members and organization that inspires you to interact with NFC in other ways. NFC needs a broad range of ideas and perspectives in order to properly represent the techniques and practices that make up this great trade that every wood frame structure relies on throughout America. Your involvement, in any way, shape, or form, will be a substantial contribution to NFC from which the organization will surely benefit. But there’s also a benefit to you as a member!

Many of the greatest success stories for NFC members are how they’ve mentored one another and improved their businesses and framing practices in the process. NFC members have transitioned their businesses from single-family to multi-family, moved towards turnkey operations that afford them more control in the framing process, and even better managed multiple crews as their headcount increases. They’ve shared ideas on how to handle increasing costs in lumber and other markets with improvements in purchasing and contracting best practices. 

Many of the greatest success stories for NFC members are how they’ve mentored one another and improved their businesses and framing practices in the process.

So, what will make you a better framer? We want to know. Perhaps it’s streamlining processes with dimension protocols NFC can share with building designers. It may also be a library of construction details that allows you to easily communicate with designers on how to properly install various pieces within the framing scope of work. Maybe it’s adapting NFC’s FrameSAFE safety plan to your specific needs, that reduces injuries and adheres to OSHA requirements. It could even be a repository of installation guidelines in a single place to visit to properly install whatever products are specified. Reviews of tools and materials may also be helpful to allow for more informed decisions about what investments to make that will hold up and stand the test of time.

Whatever it is, we need to know! NFC Steering Committee and staff are excited to hear from you and learn what you would like to read about in future issues and the challenges you want NFC to address to make framing a little bit easier. Participating is easier than you might think and is literally at your fingertips! If you would like to participate in elevating the professionalism and significance of framers in all parts of the country, please reach out! 

Jess Lohse
Executive Director
National Framers Council
(224) 236-3904 (desk/text)