Four Important and Urgent Matters
 We would like to draw to the attention of members, four important and urgent matters:
Excellence Awards 2011 – entries for this competition close on 10 June 2011. If you have entered before, we would really to see you enter another project this year. If you have not entered before, I would like to encourage you to read what one of our Members had to say about his positive experience in entering the Excellence in Construction Awards. If you are keen to enter and would like to discuss the process or need any assistance, please contact us.
You have a lot to gain, and very little to lose.
Safety Check – we have had a good response to the Safety Check process and would like to thank all members who have booked and undergone their Safety Check. We would like to urge all members who have not booked their Safety Check, to please contact Elishya (031 266 7070) or your Regional Manager who will walk you through the process. We are here to help you, so please contact us if you need any assistance in this regard.
Members who have not booked their Safety Check by the end of this month will have their status changed from Full to Ordinary member. Ordinary members can still take advantage of the membership services offered by the Association, but are not permitted to use the Association’s logo in any of their marketing material or corporate stationery. Ordinary members are also not listed on FindaBuilder.co.za.
This initiative is for your benefit and is handled by our experienced safety officers in a helpful and non-threatening manner.
Beware of invitations to participate in marketing or referral schemes - We recently published an article which focused on advertising through the Association’s advertising Hub. In this article, we highlighted the fact that one of the reasons we do not give out a complete list of our members to suppliers/publishers is to protect you from receiving a flood of unsolicited requests to purchase products/services or to advertise your services in various publications.
Unfortunately there will always be people who try to circumvent the safeguards that we have in place by trolling our website for information. It could be argued that this information is in a public space and can therefore be used freely. To a certain extent that is true, provided all communication complies with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and the Consumer Protection Act.
We have however noticed a disturbing trend where publishers/suppliers have contacted members directly and purported to have the Master Builders Associations’ full participation/endorsement in order to get members to buy their product/service or advertise in their publications. This type of conduct is at the very least unethical and may even be fraudulent in some cases. We would therefore caution our members to exercise restraint when dealing with these type of third party requests. When we form a joint venture with a third party vendor, we always first send out a communication to our members, informing them of the opportunity and giving them an introduction to the vendor as well as an overview of why we selected the vendor.
If you are ever unsure or are being badgered by vendors/publishers who purport to have the Association’s support/endorsement, please feel free to contact us.
Membership Subscription 2011/2012 – the Association provides a comprehensive range of services to Members. These services are heavily subsidised, but we still rely on your memberships subs to provide these services to you. We would like to thank all our members you have paid their subs timeously and would like to urge those that have not, to pay their annual subs or switch to debit order by the end of May to avoid being struck off.
The debit order was recently introduced as an alternative payment mechanism and allows members to continue having access to services that will promote and protect their businesses at only R200/month (Including Vat) - R228 (Including Vat) for Associate Members. Please chat to your regional manager for more information. If you were already on debit order before 1 March 2011, you will need to sign an amended debit order form. We understand that this is a bit of an inconvenience, but it is mandated by the new Consumer Protection Act, which is in place to protect you – the consumer. On that note, you are reminded of our upcoming "Consumer Protection Act" training course, scheduled for 2 June 2011, click here for details.
We fully appreciate that the industry is going through exceedingly tough times, and it is not always easy to make ends meet. This is one of the reasons that we are trying to keep the subs as low as possible at this time. If you remain a Full Member, you stand to benefit from the work we do promoting you to potential clients, and you have access to our industry related advice and support.
We sincerely hope you can see the value of your membership, and that you can see your way to remaining a member of this great community.
Brandon Abdinor | Executive Director |
