This Wednesday, March 13th, our speaker is Tim Jackson, president/CEO of the Colorado Auto Dealers Association (CADA).  Jackson will be introduced by Markley Motors CEO Carrie Baumgart.  The association represents and serves 400 new car, truck, RV and motorcycle dealers across the state.  As the chief staff officer of CADA, Tim advocates for issues of importance to franchised new car dealers, business and the public’s Freedom to Drive and right to buy their vehicle of choice.  

CADA provides training and education, legislative and regulatory advocacy, member services and legal compliance support for Colorado’s new car dealers.  For the prior seven years, Tim served as state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), small business advocacy organization, with 600,000 members nationally.  

Tim has a personal goal to visit as many Rotary Clubs as possible in the US.  So far, Tim has made over 450 Rotary Club presentations, including those to 127 of Colorado’s 140+ Rotary Clubs, some as many as five times.  And Tim has presented what has proven to be a popular and exciting program to Rotary Clubs, in Long Beach, CA, Washington, DC and Kemmerer, Wyoming.  This week alone, Tim is presenting to four Rotary Clubs across Colorado.

Tim and his wife, Beverly, reside in Denver.  They have two grown children – a daughter, who is an attorney with FDIC, and a son, who is studying for a Ph.D in Economics at the University of Miami.

Tim is a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and a frequent speaker on business and auto industry issues.

Zak George is RCFC’s newest Blue Badge member after including his New Member Talk into his presentation on H2-B visas.  George obtained a business management degree from CSU before working at Disney World and discovering landscaping, which he loved.  He started ZGL Company in 2005.  

FCRC member, Zac George started with his New Member talk, detailing how after receiving a degree from CSU in Business Management he worked at Disneyworld, returned to Ft Collins, got into landscaping and opened his own business in 2005 (ZGL Co).

The remainder of the talk was about the H2-B visa and how it works in Northern Colorado.  First, George made clear two things the H2-B is not - an immigration program, or a cheap source of labor taking jobs from local workers.  The program started in 1987 with fewer than 100 visas issued, reached a high of 160,000 visas, and in 2019 has just 60,000 temporary visas, causing serious problems for seasonal companies such as ZGL Landscaping.  

The need exists because the civilian labor force participation is declining, and there are more jobs available (especially in places like NOCO) than resident workers to fill them.  The goal of the program is not to save money for employers but to create a stream of reliable, skilled (returning) seasonal workers.  Common areas of employment in Colorado include food services, hospitality, construction and landscaping.  Wages depend on location but are $15.75 per hour in NOCO.  Workers for Zac’s business come from Mexico where similar work would pay $10 per day.

Next, Zac detailed the extensive process to get the worker on the job: acceptance of the business into the program, the yearly visa application and assignment process, receiving a (WAC number) from UCIS in San Diego, then the recruitment, hiring, and transporting workers to the job.  Third parties are hired to process workers and transport them to Ft Collins from all over Mexico.  Often Mexican workers in the program recruit hardworking friends and family for future employment.  Challenges unique in our area include getting housing, cars and all the needs we have in this growth area.  Without this program, it is not clear how businesses like ZGL could operate.