3 of the many hats the RCMA wears

By Emma Peterson. 

Associations like RCMA wear a lot of hats in the industry, here are three things they do and how they help contractors! 

In a new episode of CoatingsCast™, Heidi J. Ellsworth and Ryan Blad, the treasurer for the Roof Coatings Manufacturers Association (RCMA) took a break from the 2024 RCMA Fall Meeting to chat a bit about the organization and its role in the industry. Ryan has been a part of the industry for years as a chemist, before he transitioned to working with RCMA almost 14 years ago. He explained, “I actually started out as a legacy RRCI, Reflective Roof Coating Institute, which merged with the RCMA back in 2015.” He pointed to three main roles that associations like the RCMA play in the industry. 

1 – Community 

A big part of joining any industry association is networking and building a community of support in your field. These relationships can be built in every imaginable way, from going to dinner while at the fall meeting to organized events and are key to gaining new opportunities in the industry. Ryan explained, “The value of an association, as contractors know from their side, is invaluable in many ways that are hard to measure. But you know when you go because you see the people that are there, you're with people that care about the same things that you do and really what you see there is the amount of information that we can compile as a group, we would never be able to do that on our own.”  

2 – Research 

In a similar vein, RCMA is able to take that compiled information and conduct research that helps the entire coatings industry. At the meeting, Ryan and Heidi had just seen an example of this, with a presentation on sustainability. Ryan shared some thoughts, “It really paints the picture for sustainability of how coatings really fit that key, that void, to be able to solve that problem. Buildings need to become more and more efficient. Roof coatings allow building owners to be able to do this for much less cost.” This in and of itself is crucial to pushing the industry forward, but RCMA’s ability to disseminate that information among a large population is also key. Ryan elaborated, “We're doing research that's very important, but we got to be able to convey that to the people that are installing it. And at the end of the day, they may not care about the research, but they care about how it affects their products and how it's going to make their laborers faster, better and how the materials are going to work longer.” 

3 – Advocacy 

In addition to creating space for community building and research opportunities, the RCMA makes a distinct effort to look to the long-term future of the industry and push to make it better. One of the big ways they do this is through working in Washington D.C. through advocacy. Ryan shared a bit of what that looks like, “Obviously our big agenda is to sell more fluid-applied roofing. And what it comes down to is to be able to group together and understand what's going on in the industry. Someone in California might be dealing with something different than in Minnesota and RCMA is positioned to see those ideas and pattern. Then we can bring them up in Washington and help develop unified programs as an industry that make it better.” 

Read the transcript, Listen to the podcast or Watch the video to learn more about what the RCMA does in the coatings industry!