By- Mary Dougherty in SRQ Daily

As I announce my retirement from the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange (GCBX) after 16 years, I’m reminded of the lyric from a famous Frank Sinatra song, “And now, the end is near.” I won’t go into the next lyric, because I don’t think I’m facing the final curtain. I hope I have many years left to kick up my heels and watch the organization continue to grow and prosper under new leadership.

Yet, I hope GCBX never loses sight of what makes it such a special and unique organization. It was founded in 1952 by a small group of local business leaders to address local issues. While the organization itself has undergone several structural/organizational changes over the years, it has never lost sight of its mission to support local commercial contracting industry, which in turn strengthens the local economy.

GCBX has been called a unicorn. We don’t have a state or national organization. We focus on local issues and the local economy. When issues at the State or National level will have a negative effect on the local commercial contracting industry, we work with our local delegations to have our member’s voices heard and/or when necessary engage the help of our very effective lobbyist.

We keep it local and we keep it simple. When your tax dollars are utilized for a commercial construction project in the region (ie. schools, parks, fire houses, libraries, police departments, etc.) if a local firm is hired to do the work, those dollars remain in the community and strengthen the local economy. A local firm employs local people (you may know many of them as your friends and neighbors), they support local charities, they dine in local restaurants and they partner with other local firms to complete the project. Your tax dollars circulate in the local community creating jobs and a strong local economy.

I have been proud to do that work for the last 16 years and advocate for the over 400 businesses that belong to GCBX and the over 50,000 people they employ. In those 16 years we survived the Great Recession, a once in a century pandemic and most recently a terrible summer of storms.

During the Great Recession we partnered with local governments to not only ensure that they focused on hiring local firms, but also to move projects forward on their capital improvement plans.  This enabled local governments to complete these projects at lower costs, but also kept many local companies alive and able to keep people employed. I’m proud of the partnerships we’ve had with local government. Many fine people work in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties and are committed to public health, safety, welfare and maintaining the quality of life we enjoy.

I’m proud of the work we did during the pandemic as a resource to our members who didn’t know what tomorrow would bring for their business. We worked as a team with our other partners in the business community to disseminate critical information to businesses, process grant applications for local businesses and try our best to assist members in keeping their businesses going through the uncertainty of the time.

During storms, I’m proud county governments know they can turn to GCBX and know that their members will be there to assist, whether it’s for box trucks to get cots to shelters, tarps for roofs, checking electrical connections for safety and whatever else they may need.

It has been those partnerships and the opportunity to not only help build GCBX businesses but also the opportunity to help build a stronger community that have made my time at GCBX so fulfilling and rewarding. I will say I will miss the people and those opportunities. I have no doubt that whoever takes the reigns after me will still be committed to those principles in the same way the organization has been committed since 1952. I have been honored and proud to be the Executive Director of GCBX and I am honored to assist through a successful transition. We live in a great community and it’s great because of its people, its resilience and a strong business community that is committed to its success.