Program areas at NSSGA
Meetings, events & membership:membershipthe membership department had the strongest year in nssga's history on both the producer and m&s fronts. Producer membership is up 6% over 2021 and the manufacturers & services division is up 9% over 2021. All told, 465 companies are members of nssga. This is a testament to the work of the entire Association staff and nssga being at the forefront of critical advocacy issues.meetings/eventsnssga's cornerstone annual events, annual convention, young leaders, leadership summit and legislative & policy forum each boasted record attendance and increased member engagement. It's noteworthy to mention that through the work of the various planning committees, additional breakout content has been added to each of these meetings which has provided a vital forum of exchange and engagement for our members. Some examples include workforce development, rail service issues, sustainability, advocacy and community engagement.agg1 outperformed previous shows through record attendance, sold out tradeshow floor months in advance, standing room only for many of the agg1 academy sessions and a healthy waitlist of companies that wanted to exhibit.nssga is committed to providing members leading educational content through various channels. Webinars and virtual meetings continue to meet our members where they are this omni channel approach continues to see significant engagement and participation from our member companies.nssga has added two student chapters to our roster university of reno, Nevada and the university of Arizona. We are making strides at several other schools and continue to prioritize increased participation from.nssga has doubled sponsorship revenues in 3 years and continues to provide opportunities for our manufacturers & services division to realize brand recognition, business development access and provide thought leadership.
Communications:nssga communications works continuously in conjunction with our meetings and government & regulatory affairs departments to represent our issues and organization to the public and to our members. We develop relationships with publications covering our issues to ensure our positions are represented, and we continually deliver value to our members by informing them of the latest activity and arming them with the messages they need to engage.infrastructurethroughout the legislative process, nssga communications kept our members continually informed of the state of play. When actions happened, we kept our members informed in real-time through Washington alerts. We continued to keep open communication with reporters covering the issues to ensure nssga's position was reflected in the d.c. news coverage.membership communicationsin 2022, nssga's communications department sent out 348 e-mailings to nssga members. These communications were branded and segmented by type, event and subject matter, which are grouped into five categories: advocacy/news, Association news & information, webinars, events, and safety. The impact has been that our members easily recognize what they are receiving and are able to engage with the information that is most important to them. This has led to our average open rate increasing to 29 percent.digital communications- nssga.org continues to show positive results and indicate a positive user experience with an increase in page visits, average session time, engagement and click-through rates. In 2022, we saw an 86.6 percent increase in new visitors to the website and a 13.4 percent increase in returning visitors. These visitors also spent a whopping 171 percent more time on the site. During these sessions, users visited more than one page, with an average of six different page views per session. The average session duration was 42:12 minutes.- our social media following continues to grow. In 2022, we had nearly 5,000 facebook followers and more than 7,000 followers on both linkedin and twitter.targeted webinarsin continuation with the branding efforts, we solidified a robust webinar series, under the banner of "delivering value." This provides a digital forum to update and inform our members on a host of priority issues. The communications team sends regular email reminders to engage in updates on regulatory and legislative policy which are combined with guest speakers through our "policy briefings." Additional targeted programming is offered in the areas of environmental, legal, engineering & technical and health & safety to provide detailed updates and information in each category.awards of excellence the Association also continued to recognize excellence among operations with its own awards program. These awards highlight facilities throughout the u.s. for their commitment and performance in community relations, safety and environmental stewardship. In addition to the awards of excellence, nssga also awarded company safety awards and several other types of individual awards during the virtual legislative and policy forum held in september.stone, Sand & Gravel review magazinethe Stone, Sand & Gravel review magazine is published bi-monthly and sent to a circulation of more than 4,000, with even more viewing and downloading the digital edition. The Association's flagship publication provides members an in-depth look at the advocacy and events happening through nssga. The review magazine is annually recognized by our members as among the most trusted communications they receive.
Government and regulatory affairs:in 2022, nssga made significant strides in shaping National policy to favor the aggregates industry. One of the most commendable feats was the exemption of aggregates, cement, and binders from the new build america, buy america provisions introduced in iija. Prior to the official guidance release by the office of management and budget (omb), nssga proactively met with the omb's made in america director, celeste drake, to guarantee our industry's exemption. Our Association has actively submitted comments emphasizing the necessity to exclude aggregates, cement, and paving binders from the new regulations. Together with our coalition partners, we communicated our stand and sought clarity on the industry exclusion to facilitate the department of transportation in the implementation of the new sourcing requirements.simultaneously, the supreme court of the u.s. (scotus) has been reviewing a potentially game-changing clean water act case which could redefine the significant nexus analysis, a topic that has long troubled aggregate operators. Nssga submitted an amicus brief in the sackett v. epa case, and we eagerly await the justices' clearer definition expected in spring 2023. We have also had multiple discussions with both the white house office of management and budget and other industry groups, emphasizing that any new rule on the significant nexus analysis should wait until the scotus decision.our efforts in policy advocacy are evident in the support from members of congress who appealed to the biden administration to pause on the new waters of the united states (wotus) rulemaking until the supreme court gives its verdict on a relevant case. This initiative was driven by nssga's gara team, underscoring our commitment to fair rulemaking.we also took initiatives in promoting the education of the future workforce of our industry. Nssga actively engaged with lawmakers to advocate for the establishment of a $10 million grant program to boost mining, engineering, and geological programs at academic institutions. Our members sent over 500 letters to their representatives, pressing the need for this educational support.further cementing our advocacy, nssga played a vital role in supporting the introduction of h.r. 8981, the securing american mineral supply chains act, which aims to optimize mining operations on federal lands. We maintain a strong alliance with msha, which culminated in our bi-annual meeting in arlington, resulting in collaborative steps towards better data analysis training for our members and other pivotal discussion points.our response to senator shelley moore capito's simplify timelines and assure regulatory transparency (start) act exemplifies our proactive approach in addressing permitting backlogs that hinder infrastructure investments. We have been vocal about our concerns over the fhwa rule targeting net-zero emissions by 2050 and have submitted comments urging for retraction.nssga continues to be a major stakeholder in infrastructure-related debates, as evidenced by our response to president biden's pla mandate and our swift action against the potential rail strike in december.on the technical side, our engineering and technical committee has been very active. We've joined forces with the National road research alliance, supported groundbreaking research from esteemed universities, and organized member webinars on topical subjects. We remain deeply involved in standards committees like astm, aashto, and aci, among others, and are constantly pushing for more aggregate research funding.in conclusion, 2022 has been a hallmark year for nssga. Our relentless commitment towards representing and promoting the aggregates industry's interests on the National stage has yielded significant accomplishments, and we continue to strive for a brighter, more sustainable future for all our stakeholders.