The Construction Association of Puerto Rico

4 Business View Caribbean Orlando and Tampa; another one is in the Dominican Republic developing housing. So, even though it’s a local association, a lot of our developers are actually working elsewhere.” There are three tiers of membership in the Associa- tion: builders, developers, and investors; associates, who are those who have some relationship with the construction industry, such as suppliers, etc.; and professionals – licensed architects, lawyers, brokers, and accountants, or others who are involved with the industry via their professional services. “Our revenue comes from membership, from seminars, from lun- cheons, from annual conventions, from golf tourna- ments,” Diaz explains. “And a big part of our revenue comes from sponsorships from suppliers and different members of the industry.” “We have over 100 members, right now,” adds Diaz. “Those numbers have dwindled quite a bit because of what happened in 2008 and the fact that we be- gan the recession in Puerto Rico in 2006. But we are starting to see some serious growth. In the last year, we’ve seen 15 percent more members either coming back again after they left, or new members. These new members are mostly international people coming from different places – Canada, the U.S. – wanting to invest in Puerto Rico and they feel that the first place they need to invest is to become a member of the Associa- tion.” Diaz says that the Association keeps in touch with its members via a monthly newsletter, the Association’s website, and a weekly email. “We also have Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook; so we’re active in social me- dia,” he says. Updating its communication platforms has been a key focus of the Association lately, since, according to Diaz, there is an undeniable “changing of the guard.” “The Millennials are slowly taking over,” he says. “The sons and daughters of family companies are taking leadership of them. So, we’re in an exciting time because of the generational change – the new energy and the confidence that we perceive within the membership.” The Association’s staff is quite small – there’s only an Executive Director, an Assistant Director, and a recep- tionist. That is because the Board of Directors, which according to Diaz is “one of the most respected boards of any association on the island for the quality of peo- ple we have and their importance within the industry and the economic development of Puerto Rico,” has decided to farm out much of the Association’s day-to- day responsibilities. For example, lobbyists are under contract and press and social media people work out of a public relations company. “So, we’ve been able to maintain with a limited, slim amount of people, while offering very accurate and efficient service because we contract a lot of it,” he says. As the Association looks ahead, Diaz says that Puerto Rico’s construction industry is being challenged to re- spond to the changing needs of the island. “We have to be creative,” he says. “We have to come up with dif- ferent options – a new vision when it comes to build-