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38 39 consumersmeans of redress and protection against shoddyworkmanship by so-called“cowboycontrac- tors”-something that has been a frequent complaint among residents. BCAmembership is comprised of some 500 con- tractors,specialtysubcontractors,and industryassoci- ates fromacross the Bahamian archipelago.With some 9,000 contractors in the country,though,Sands admits that theAssociation still has a lot of work to do.“We recognize that our reach is not successful,” he states.“That’s why I continue to push and push to get them to see the value of membership.We are the sharing portal of information; the government comes to us and tells us about projects andwe share that ‘intel’with our members so that theycan pre- pare for the opportunity.We’re their learning partner; we put on different training courses,monthly,to train our membership to continue to compete at the best level. “We are the advocate in the Bahamas for all con- struction in the country; we advocate on behalf of the large contractor when a sizable project is being THE BAHAMIAN CONTRACTORS’ ASSOCIATION negotiatedwith the government and an outside entity.We assist the government to ensure that they remember that there are locals who have invested a lot of money into their companies and can do the work, and they should have an opportunity to bid on large work. So,we advocate,we train, and we create the opportunities by knowing what’s going on in the marketplace. “It’s our job to educate our membership and the general public that this is why you should join the Association: so you can better your business and continue to thrive,”Sands declares.“We have not done the best job at doing that because our resources are divided, but we know that’s what we have to do.We have seen that our newmem- bership has been increased significantly by con- tractors who started their businesses less than ten years ago.That’s the biggest number of per- sons who signed on and became members of the Association.So,the youth in construction is driving the desire to do things better-to be a part of what’s happening in the industry.”