The Greater Ozarks Building Systems Association is disbanding this month after 31 years of serving local contractors, building erectors and material suppliers. The networking group cited declining interest in a Nov. 5 announcement on its website.
GOBSA.org is scheduled to go dark Nov. 30, according to Kurk Brown, the organization’s president-elect this year. Brown said the writing was on the wall by September for the trade association established to connect metal building contractors and vendors.
GOBSA traditionally has held three fundraisers a year – two golf tournaments and a summer barbecue mixer – for local scholarship efforts, but after its two tournaments barely broke even last year, the board decided to only host one golf tournament in 2012.
“It was supposed to be in August, but we couldn’t even get enough teams together to make it go, so we had to cancel our one big event,” Brown said, noting the events primarily funded scholarships for future builders and the $3,000 in scholarships handed out at the Nov. 1 Salute to Construction banquet would be its last. “That was a pretty good determining factor.”
In the waning days, Brown said the group’s monthly meetings barely drew more than a couple of members who weren’t obligated to be in attendance as part of the board of directors. The group last met in October.
“We were kind of doubling efforts with the (Springfield Contractors Association). It was a well-oiled machine in that regard. It has the members. It has the contacts. It felt like we were just trying to carry something that was big in the ‘90s and early 2000s, but had fallen away,” Brown said. “With the economy going into a nosedive, nobody wanted to put money into it.”
Walter Warren, an engineer at Warren & Goodin Inc. Engineers-Architects and current GOBSA president, also identified the overlap with SCA.
“We attracted the same people, and our missions were kind of the same in terms of scholarships for students in the construction industry,” Warren said. “Given that there were some people who wanted to cut back a little bit, I suspect they chose to remain in SCA rather than GOBSA.”
Warren said GOBSA membership had dipped below 60 during the last two years after a peak of around 90 in the years immediately prior to the recession. He said responses to renewals for the $150 memberships this year were especially grim.
“Our treasurer said he had sent out renewals and received seven responses back,” Warren said, not including the board members.
SCA Executive Director Sheryl Letterman said its membership levels also have suffered through the economic downturn since 2009. Currently, she said SCA claims about 350 members, down from 410 on its roles three years ago. The $300 annual membership fee has held steady in recent years.
“The economy has really hurt a lot of people. I think (GOBSA) was just a small organization that didn’t have the staying power. The group was organized to promote the use of and the connections among people who erect metal buildings,” Letterman said, noting in a tough economic environment, GOBSA may have been too specialized.
Letterman noted a diverse membership base has been a key to keeping SCA viable.
Letterman said SCA and GOBSA had many ties during the years, including Warren, who is an active SCA member. Others who had shared memberships were SCA treasurer Joseph Tucker and GOBSA treasurer Jeffrey Schmitt, who both work at accounting firm Tucker & Co. PC, and Lyndall Magers, a senior vice president of Guaranty Bank.
According to
GOBSA.org, a small group of contractors met in 1981 to start the Greater Ozarks Chapter of the National Metal Building Dealers Association. Four years later, it voted to drop its national affiliation and establish the independent Greater Ozarks Building Systems Association.
Prior to the recession, Warren said it was common for 40 to 50 people to show up at monthly meetings, which often featured guest speakers.
“Around 2008 was when things started to go south,” he said.[[In-content Ad]]
