Understand the Power of Associations

By Cass Jacoby. 

Kyle Thomas sits with RCS for an interview on how he got involved with the association, his new role and his goals to further unite the roofing industry.  

Like most people in the roofing business, Kyle Thomas was born into it. His father eventually took over a roofing business that would become Thomas Roofing in 1980. After getting married and earning a degree in finance, Kyle decided it was time to take over the family business. In May 1993, he joined the company full-time. Fast forward to National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA)’s 133rd Annual Convention held February 2020 and Kyle is elected to next chairman of the board-elect for the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA). 

Kyle says he was drawn into the association by participating in a three-year FEI program that led him to take interest in participating in multiple committees and becoming part of the board of directors. 

“I enrolled in the first of the Future Executives Institute classes, the NRCAs FEI courses and that program has really produced a lot of future NRCA leaders, committee members, board of director members and all that. That's what really started drawing me into the association,” says Kyle. “My first stint on the board of directors was 2005 to 2008, but ever since that point I have been on multiple committees and done all kinds of stuff — two stints on the board of directors, a couple of stints on the executive committee as a vice chairman." 

He wasn’t only drawn in by the committee work, he was also encouraged by members of the NRCA and his family to engage with the association. “My dad was a big proponent of being involved in the associations and being involved in your professional community and all that. So it was not pushed on me, but supported all around,” says Kyle. “I had a lot of mentorship to get active and engaged, and if you're going to be a roofing contractor, be at the top of your game, be the professionals, get associated with the best of the best, and so that's what pulled me in and drew me in.” 

Kyle knows what an honor it is to be selected by a group of peers, mentors, friends and those he looks up to. “It's a big honor to be selected by that group of people to fill this role and then to have your peers vote you into that position is pretty amazing, but it comes with that responsibility too, so you got to man up and do it," says Kyle. “It's a challenge, but it's very rewarding. And I'm only a couple months in now, but it's been very rewarding so far and fun.” 

When it comes to the future goals of the NRCA, Kyle knows that he has his work cut out for him with navigating COVID-19 and supply chain shortages. Kyle says he wants to turn his attention to the NRCA ProCertification Program. “While the challenges the last couple years have been focused on the pandemic and they've been focused on supply chain problems, the big picture for the roofing industry as a whole, it has been and it will be, manpower, how are we going to find manpower?” says Kyle. “So one of my goals is to really figure out a way to get this ProCertification Program out into that marketplace to where it's known, it's accepted and it's asked for. If we can get it to the point where building owners, consultants, architects are asking for it, then we'll really have some serious buy in and then our members will really jump into it.” 

Kyle also says that a huge goal for him is to continue to promote unity within the industry as NRCA CEO Reid Ribble retires. “One of my key real initiatives as I transition in is to really manage the transition to new CEO McKay Daniels. Reid was a big figure in the industry. The NRCA, when we updated our strategic plan, coincidentally five years ago, one of the big parts of our new mission was to really unite the industry,” says Kyle. “Part of what I want to do is make sure that as we transition from Reid to McKay Daniels, reassure the industry that mission, that vision is still there, that strategic plan that the association implemented doesn't go away with Reid, we're still going to work hard at uniting the industry.” 

A driving force behind Kyle’s commitment to the NRCA is his belief in the importance of associations in supporting and nurturing contractors. In his own life, the association has been a huge part of his own mentorship and gaining a network of friends and business contacts that want to see him succeed. It is clear that he wants that level of value to be made available to all members of the NRCA, as it will make the industry that much stronger.  

“One of the more rewarding and fascinating things about being really active within the NRCA is you're theoretically in a group of competitors, you're not necessarily competing, because they're all across the country, but you're theoretically in a group of competitive companies, but everybody wants you to succeed,” says Kyle. “It's like everybody you deal with, everywhere you turn there is someone there that's offering to help. They truly want you to succeed.” 

Learn more about NRCA in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.nrca.net. 

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants.