Sarah Ramon - RCAT Heads to Houston This Fall - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Sarah Ramon from the Roofing Contractors Association of Texas. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro/Outro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Megan Ellsworth: Hello everyone. Welcome back to Roofing Road Trips. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at rooferscoffeeshop.com, and today I'm super excited to be chatting about the Roofing Contractors Association of Texas. They have their show coming up in October, and I'm here with Sarah. Hi Sarah.

Sarah Ramon: Hi Megan. Thank you so much for allowing me to join you today.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to be chatting with you. So why don't you just dive right in and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Sarah Ramon: Well, I am the Executive Director of the Roofing Contractors Association of Texas, a nonprofit trade association for roofers, obviously down here in Texas. And we are just a little over 30 days away from our 48th annual conference and trade show. That is October 4th through the 6th in Houston, Texas at the Marriott Marquis.

Megan Ellsworth: That's amazing. Wow. 48 years. That's crazy. Congratulations. Almost to 50.

Sarah Ramon: Almost to 50. Yeah, we're excited. We've got a lot of great things planned. We haven't been in the Houston market. I want to say it was 2008, I may have that date wrong, when Hurricane Ike hit and we had to move the conference with about four days notice from the Houston area into Austin. So I really don't even have the math on how long ago it's been since we actually physically held a conference in Houston. We're downtown right by Minute Maid at the Marriott. So yeah, we're pumped about the venue, the location. We've got a great lineup, so we are excited.

Megan Ellsworth: That's amazing. Wow. Moving a whole trade show with only a couple days notice. That I'm sure was stressful.

Sarah Ramon: It is. Yes, yes. That was a stressful time, but we pulled it off and still managed to have our conference that year, and Lord willing, we won't have any major weather disasters, which prevent us from being in downtown Houston this year.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes. Yeah, fingers crossed. Can you just tell us a little bit on the history of RCAT? How was it started and what's y'all's mission?

Sarah Ramon: Yeah, so RCAT was founded in 1975 by a group of like-minded contractors in the Texas area. Our purpose is to collectively represent the voice of the roofing and waterproofing industry in Texas. We want to promote ethics and education and the image of the Texas roofing industry through the action of our members. We help our members operate successfully by providing, like I said, continuing education, technical research, government relations, public relations, and any other areas of concern affecting the Texas roofing industry.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. Yeah. And again, 48 years of the show. How long again did you say that RCAT has been around?

Sarah Ramon: This is rolling into our 49th year.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay, very cool.

Sarah Ramon: Yeah. Yeah. Two more years, we are celebrating 50. So the association's been around a long time and we've got a really loyal following and a strong member base in Texas. In Texas, roofing is not regulated by the state, meaning there's no licensure or insurance requirements here in Texas. So it literally is the wild west. We like to provide them a forum of chaos management, I guess is the best term to put it, to where you can know what you can and cannot do in Texas and how to protect yourself without state oversight and regulation. It's an interesting market here.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. That does sound interesting, and it definitely does sound like the wild west. So kind of pivoting, what can we expect from this year's RCAT show?

Sarah Ramon: Well, we have three fun-filled days of events. We have a two day expo featuring 150 exhibitors. We have 22 different educational seminars for roofing contractors, everything from marketing and legal, OSHA, a few popular names including yourself and Heidi that'll be joining us to provide certification.

Megan Ellsworth: Yay.

Sarah Ramon: Yeah, we're excited about that. We've got Steve Patrick. Paul Reed out in Colorado will be joining us. A lot of people know who Steve Badger is. He'll be around to do the annual event of Roofing and Insurance and When Worlds Collide. It's always a real heated, popular discussion.

Megan Ellsworth: I know for a fact Heidi and I are so excited to present our class all about podcasts and how podcasts can boost your business and get you out there more. This is actually going to be the first time I've ever done a class at a trade show. This was my first time submitting and my first time writing up the description and doing all the behind-the-scenes stuff. So when you guys accepted our submission, I was so excited and I'm very honored.

Sarah Ramon: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, we're in changing times in this digital era. Everything is online and in social media, and you really have to stay on top of that to market yourself appropriately using all of these new technology and tools that are out there. So I know even from my own perspective, it's hard to keep up with. So I think that's really important to have training for our guys out there, marketing themselves in this new day and age.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, so true. We're just very excited to give that class and we'll see you all there. What other special events are happening at the show that people should be aware of?

Sarah Ramon: So we have our annual golf tournament. We have two 18 hole courses, 288 total players.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow.

Sarah Ramon: Yeah, it's great. It's so fun. We take over the whole entire place. We're at Wildcat in Houston. It's a very, very fun event and well attended. And then we have our welcome reception for the conference, which is going to be held on the rooftop at the Marriott Marquis.

Megan Ellsworth: [inaudible 00:07:14].

Sarah Ramon: Yes, anybody not familiar with that, it's got gorgeous views of the downtown Houston skyline. It has the big Texas shaped lazy pool up there. Yeah, we're looking forward to that. It's a beautiful time of year in early October in Texas. It ought to cool off in the evenings and make it enjoyable out there on the rooftop.

We also have our annual awards luncheon, so RCAT honors some people in the industry every year. Plus, we use it as an opportunity to update our membership on the status of our membership base and our licensing program and what's been going on. Texas recently just wrapped up their legislative sessions. So the luncheon is a great place to come and network plus honor those people we are honoring, help us do that. And also stay abreast on what's been going on at RCAT over the last, well, it'll be 10 months by the time we get there, so that's a great one too.

I'm excited too about our keynote, Dave Dolin. He is doing the Game Winning Three, Making it Count in Business and Life, and it's really steered toward this change in work dynamics, marketing dynamics, this world of inflation that we're dealing with following the pandemic, so I'm really excited about his presentation and I think it'll be really inspirational and uplifting for our attendees.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. I'm excited for that. What great events. I didn't know that they had a Texas shaped pool. Fun.

Sarah Ramon: Yeah, absolutely. And it's a lazy river, right? And the Texas shape. It's actually on the sixth floor. It's not all the way up at the roof, but it's high up in elevation and with great views and a cool spot to go hang out. It's popular to have that giant pool and recreational area on a rooftop in downtown anywhere.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes. Love it. So you all have a licensed roofing contractor program. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Who's eligible? Will you be talking about it at the show? Give us all the deets.

Sarah Ramon: Yeah, absolutely. So as mentioned, Texas is not regulated by the state legislature. We revamped our old certification program back in 2014, changed the name of it to a licensing program legally, just in case anybody wants to say that. But it is a voluntary self-regulation program, and the purpose of it is to really boost consumers' confidence that these contractors have gone above and beyond and done more than what the state tells them they have to do to ensure they're going to do a good job for these home and business owners, carry insurance, they've been around and they do the right thing. So any qualifying residential or commercial roofing contractor in Texas can get the license with us. You have to pass an examination and you have to maintain continuing education credits every year, renew it annually. We do everything that the state licensing and regulation board would do with a few exceptions, obviously, because we are not a state run entity.

We have got almost 400 participants in the program. We've had great success with it. And then yes, at the conference we are doing an in-person bootcamp and exam sessions. Yes, and we have a 99% pass rate on the exams when we do these in-person sessions. They'll go through the materials, give you some printed guides, which you can use during the exams. So it's a great way to really interact and absorb a lot, plus lock your license down while attending the conference and all of the other fun events. So by qualifying and participating in that program, you get free registration to all of the other conference events.

And just so everyone else is aware out there in the public, you can do this online as well. You do not have to attend an in-person, but we like to do them and we like to record them so that we have online material for them to use and study and prepare. But yes, we have it fully online in English and in Spanish. You can take the prep course and the exams online and complete all of your renewal pieces online. What RCAT does for these contractors participating is just like you and Heidi will be recorded during your session, and those will be professionally produced with your presentations and put online for those contractors to use year-round to ensure that they can maintain their continuing education.

Megan Ellsworth: That's amazing. That is so great. And I love that they get access to all of the in-person events too when they sign up for this. That's a great incentive.

Sarah Ramon: Yeah, absolutely. Why not? You're going to be in a three-hour boot camp session and then a three-hour exam session, so you might as well be able to break it down and mix it up with some fun and go see what's on the trade show floor too. Lots of exciting new products and services available and we've got a great group of exhibitors, so we definitely want them to get down there and get hands-on and experience and visit with those reps too.

Megan Ellsworth: Love it. Love it. How do contractors sign up to attend this year's RCAT show? Where can they go? Well, I know they can go to RoofersCoffeeShop, that's for sure, and go to your directory. But where else can they find this information to register?

Sarah Ramon: You can go to RCAT.net/tradeshow. That's RCAT.net/tradeshow. There is a complete schedule of event. There is also a full program curriculum description, so you can meet the speakers, know who and what they do, who they work for, what company they run, and their program description. Registration links can be found there as well. So for contractors registering to come to the show, your full registration package includes entrance to the welcome reception, the two-day expo, 22 classes and seminars and our annual luncheon.

Megan Ellsworth: Awesome. That's amazing. Thank you so much, Sarah. This has been super informative and I know everyone here at RoofersCoffeeShop, the team that's going, we're really excited to attend. Heidi and I are jazzed to give our class. So thank you again for having us. Do you have anything else to add about the trade show this year?

Sarah Ramon: No, other than I hope to see all of you there. I love to meet new people and contractors around the state of Texas. So I hope you will all join us in Houston next month.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes, everyone come on down to Houston for the 48th Annual Texas Roofing Conference. So everyone come on down and we will be seeing you next time on Roofing Road Trips. Go to rooferscoffeeshop.com to listen to more podcasts or your favorite podcast streaming platform and make sure to find the RCAT directory on rooferscoffeeshop.com to get special information about the show and we will see you then.

Intro/Outro: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the RoofersCoffeeShop.com.