MCERF: Future Projects

OPUS - The "Online Pipe Usage and Specification" Resource Project

This project started as an update of a venerable and still useful Guideline for Quality Piping Installation manual, first funded and developed by the Foundation in 1994. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the publishers — the task force working on this project decided that to freshen the existing product was not enough. Not nearly enough. Thus, when this product comes back to market, it will exist only online, as a free resource to industry professionals needing help with pipe specification and installation scenarios and to students who need to learn how to work better and faster with the basic products of our industry and with the quality manufacturers and suppliers who bring them to us. The new title for this product will be the Online Pipe Usage and Specification resource, OPUS.

Educational Needs of Small Contractors

This study will investigate the special educational needs and challenges of smaller mechanical contracting and service firms, those with sales of less than $7.5 million per year. F. James "Jim" McCarl, president of the McCarl Group and a faculty member of MCAA's National Education Initiative (NEI), will conduct this study for MCERF.

"Small contractors constitute a significant part of the mechanical contracting/mechanical service population," said McCarl. "Increasingly, they will need to fill the future leadership requirements of our industry. Educating and engaging these small contractors will increase their viability and value in that role, and it will help provide sustainability for our industry's human capital needs."

The results of the study are targeted for publication by MCAA 2008 and will be made available to all MCAA/MSCA members.