Member Benefits

SMACNA is a trade association, and an association is made up of people. Association people come together to concentrate their collective efforts on the needs and problems of an industry, society, or cause. By uniting, they combine their talents and resources to address and satisfy needs and seek resolution to problems that they are unable to satisfactorily address individually. 

By joining together they are able to consolidate their influence and power to affect change. This collective power can be effective in a variety of ways. The most common application of this collective influence for construction associations is in the area of labor relations, most notably collective bargaining and unity, for the express purpose of achieving equitable employment conditions. But the same unity can be used to affect positive impact in business management educational endeavors; legislative influence; industry regulatory conditions, such as code requirements, project specification development, and installation procedures.

The application of this collective influence can be initiated at the local, state, regional, national, and international levels. The potential for positive impact in all of these areas, and at all of these levels of influence is awesome.

Membership in SMACNA is by firm and is voluntary. The member firms have one common element … they utilize sheet metal and/or sheet metal products in the services they provide. The firms that comprise the membership of SMACNA are very diverse; ranging from contractors that fabricate and install environmental systems in buildings to contractors that manufacture specialty metal products, including specialty operations ranging from food service equipment manufacturers to HVAC testing and balancing contractors.

But, beyond the esoteric benefit of potential industry influence, what more direct benefit does a company derive from affiliation? Are there specific benefits that accrue to a sheet metal contracting firm by joining a chapter and SMACNA? The answer is YES.

Some General Member Benefits

• • Direct access to accepted industry technical standards at considerably reduced prices;
  • The opportunity to become a contributor to the development and/or revision of such standards;
  • The opportunity to participate in many educational programs directed at business management, industry technical expertise, and personal growth; programming presented by industry acclaimed professionals;
  • A direct link to The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) leadership through the SMACNA Labor Relations Department;
  • Labor issue consultation through the SMACNA Labor Relations Department;
  • Contractor advocacy in grievance processing and labor negotiations through the SMACNA Labor Relations Department; and
  • The opportunity to meet with and exchange ideas with fellow contractors from around the globe. While SMACNA does not directly implement peer groups, we will assist in putting members in touch with other interested members.

Many of the valuable member benefits result from the alliance of businessmen and businesswomen joining together to develop and expand their influential power base to improve industry conditions beyond the ability of a single contractor acting alone. As a result, a large number of the achieved benefits are both intangible and communal in nature, impacting the industry as a whole by improving the business environment for all of the participants. For example, SMACNA has been able to develop uniform fabrication and installation standards that are accepted, adopted, and specified by the design community. Professionals, such as architects and engineers, routinely issue specifications for sheet metal products and systems that require conformance with SMACNA technical standards. And YOU, the sheet metal contractor through your affiliation and participation in SMACNA, develop those standards. As a member of SMACNA you receive a copy of all of these industry standards free of charge; and if you require additional copies as SMACNA members they are available at substantially reduced cost over the non-SMACNA contractor.

SMACNA National is in a variety of ways constantly and continuously promoting the use of these standards with the professional design community, building owners, awarding authorities, enforcement authorities, government officials and agencies, ctc. These efforts result in uniformity and standardization within the industry, which ultimately benefit the total industry, but YOU, the SMACNA contractor, have an additional advantage not only from an economic standpoint, but you also have the epportunity to influence and participate in the development and writing of the standards, something your non-member competitor will never achieve.

Such communal benefits exist other than the technical area; they can be found in educational programming, legislative influence, labor relations, and peer communications.