Who Are We?
The “EGCA Foundation”
...is an initiative of the
Engineering & General Contractors Association (EGCA) of San Diego,
California, to “give back” to the community and the industry that has
given so much to our engineering contractors and those who make their
work possible.
To learn more about the members of the EGCA, click here
The EGCA Foundation, Engineering Better Tomorrows
Construction Industry Coalition In 2001, EGCA leaders
became concerned that new small and emerging construction businesses
(many of them woman-owned or minority-owned) were failing at a high
rate, and/or were growing very slowly.
In response, they co-founded the
Construction Industry Coalition, a federation made of the American
Subcontractors Association (ASA), Black Contractors Association (BCA), National
Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), Latino Builders Industry
Association (LBIA), Women Construction Owners & Executives (WCOE)
and the EGCA.
The Coalition began a series of
cooperative ventures aimed at making local municipalities, especially
the City of San Diego, more “user-friendly” to small and emerging
businesses and more responsive to their needs.A “Home Town Plan” was introduced to the City of San Diego in 2002, and has meet with considerable success.
Small Business Mentoring Program
In 2003, EGCA created a
mentoring/training program with the City of San Diego’s Minor
Construction Program’s 160+ small and emerging contractors (some 60% of
whom are from disadvantaged groups) to train and mentor these small
businesses, using the business skills EGCA members had honed over the
previous five decades in San Diego.
As a consequence, in its first year,
over 60 firms sent their principals and staff to one or more of ten
EGCA conducted classes – topics included: bidding, estimating,
pre-construction planning, time management, CPM Scheduling, site
management, OSHA and safety, record keeping for public works, how to
bill and get paid, negotiating and getting projects closed out – and 15
of these staff attended at least 80% of the sessions earning a special
certificate of accomplishment for the EGCA and the City of San Diego. The
total 2003 City of San Diego low-bid awards to the contractors who
attended one or more of the EGCA/MCP classes were $1,114,600.
Also during 2003, the EGCA led an effort
facilitated through Southwestern College’s Contracting Opportunity
Center (SDCOC) to create a Contractor’s Roadmap to Success.
Through a small grant from the City of
San Diego’s Office of Small Business, the Roadmap was researched and
written by Dan Fauchier, consultant to the EGCA.
Then
in a second grant series, Community Development Block Grant funds from
two of the council members, another small grant allowed publishing the
Roadmap on the internet, holding a series
of outreach meetings to reach local contractors needing assistance, and
a series of six classes in essential topics.
In
2004, through the EGCA Foundation, an even broader-based group of
applicants has joined the Construction Industry Consortium (CIC) to
apply for renewal funding for 2004-05. Our
efforts are supported by the Public Agency Consortium (PAC), which
includes representatives from all of the following agencies and
others: San Diego Unified Port District, County of San Diego, San
Diego County Regional Airport Authority, City of San Diego, San Diego
County Water Authority, Center City Development Corporation, and San
Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).
Sixteen
of the team members are pledging $256K of in-kind support to complement
the City’s CDBG dollars. These dollars will be an investment in
strengthening the backbone of San Diego construction industry: its
small and emerging contractors. Those organizations providing in-kind
support to the project, either directly, or through the Construction
Industry Consortium (CIC) are:
- Asian Business Association
- American Subcontractors Association (CIC)
- Black Contractors Association (CIC)
- City of San Diego (EOC)
- Contractor News & Views
- Disabled Veterans Business Enterprise Network
- Fauchier Group
- Engineering & General Contractors Association (CIC)
- National Electrical Contractors Association (CIC)
- Power Summit
- Red Door (formerly AVENCOM)
- San Diego County Water Authority
- San Diego Contracting Opportunities Center
- Small Business Development & International Trade Center
- Spinster Marketing
- Women Construction Owners and Executives (CIC)
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