As I write my last TCA president’s letter, I look back on my TCA involvement throughout my career. I was first elected to the TCA’s Board of Directors back in 2010. In 2011, I did my first TCA presentation at our convention. I can remember, back in 2011, being so nervous about presenting in front of a large crowd. I could not sleep well for the entire week before my presentation. On the day of my first presentation, I was so nervous that I couldn’t eat anything. I believe my first presentation went very well because the TCA asked me to come back to present the following year. It was the biggest relief after I finished my first TCA presentation. I felt like I grew as a person from presenting to a large crowd, and I was able to educate and do my part to make the TCA and our tilt-up industry better! 

For me, personally, it was an honor of a lifetime to serve as the TCA’s president for 2020–2022. I grew up on a farm in Hillsboro, Missouri, and worked on my first tilt-up panel back in 1988 right out of high school as a union apprentice carpenter. Working on construction sites with dirt under my fingernails was my “college education” and I made it all the way to president of the TCA. I received several TCA honors along the way, including being named TCA’s “Contractor of the Year” in 2017, being elected to the TCA College of Fellows in 2019, and currently being included in TCA’s “Top 20 Industry Influencers.”

My TCA success story is very similar to many people involved with the TCA. The people who make up the TCA are absolutely the best group of folks you will meet on this planet. You can have the same TCA success story as I do by just showing up, giving your time, getting involved, sharing your ideas, and doing your part to help those in the tilt-up industry learn and grow. 

In 2013, I was blessed to serve the TCA Board of Directors under the TCA’s first woman president, Kim Corwin. Kim did a phenomenal job as the TCA president. She raised the bar higher for all future TCA presidents, and I learned a lot from her. 

Now, as my last task as TCA president, it is a great pleasure of mine to officially “hand Hand” the torch of TCA presidency. Karen Hand is now the second woman TCA president. I have no doubt that Karen will raise the bar even higher than it has ever been raised before! She is a great person and leader. 

Thank you, 

Barclay Gebel

Former TCA President