Are you concerned about the time commitment? Are you concerned about the cost? Are you wondering if you are going to get anything out of this membership?

Or, are you a current member and not sure about renewing your membership?

All of these questions are valid, and very real.

Just as in our businesses, we have to continue to invest in them — we are always trying to make them better. And believe it or not, ASA is another tool in our bag of things to help us do better.

How?

Well, you are going to get out of it what you put into it. Yes, it does take time to read the annual ASA Operating Performance Report (more than 75 key financial benchmarking metrics), the economic forecasts, the biannual Cross Industry Compensation and Benefits Report (do you pay your team members enough?), and even the monthly commodity reports.

Or, if you don’t like those, there are the surveys where we read about what our contractor and builder customers think about us, and our showroom customers alike.

It does take time to create learning paths for employees through ASA University, or to read current job descriptions that are available for you to use to attract new employees.

“What you get out of ASA is what you put into it.”

It does take time to write an email saying you want to give some money to support the ASA Political Action Committee (PAC), which is OUR VOICE in Washington, helping push through Our initiatives, and making sure lawmakers understand our points of view.

It does take time to attend one of the regional meetings where education and networking at a more local level occur. And don’t forget about the Women in Industry and Emerging Leaders conferences. Those take time to go to as well. By the way, combined, those two conferences attracted nearly 700 of the industry’s brightest minds this spring.

Do you see where I am going? Everything we do takes time. The tools that ASA has available at your fingertips provides the value to you and your companies.

All it takes is one good Idea you got from attending NETWORK (Nov. 13-15 in Chicago this year), or maybe hearing from one of your employees that attended the new ASA Innovation Summit (Sept. 25-26 in Rosemont, Illinois) to implement something in your business, and it’s worth it.

But the best thing you can do by joining and being an ACTIVE participant in ASA is supporting the industry. By joining, your company gets access to everything we discussed, and so much more.

What you get out of ASA is what you put into it. There is a financial commitment. There is a time commitment. But you are committing yourself to the betterment of our great industry.

So, do you have time to invest in your business?