History of the AGC Dallas

The Dallas AGC is the local chapter of the Association of General Contractors (AGC), America's oldest and largest trade association.

Raleigh Roussell

The AGC was organized in 1919 to address problems discovered during World War I. "The original purpose of AGC was to have a mechanism to mobilize the industry in an emergency situation," said Raleigh Roussell, President and CEO of QUOIN, the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of AGC. "WWI was the first time America was truly called to mobilize on a global scale and some parts of this mobilization just didn't work well. One of the areas where this was a big problem was the construction industry. In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson went to the country's leading construction firms and asked them to create an organization to address this, and AGC was the result."

Since then, the AGC has evolved into the primary voice of the construction industry in Washington DC. They coordinate with OSHA, EPA and other government agencies on regulations, lobby politicians to influence legislation and participate in judicial actions that affect the industry. The national organization maintains a staff of 85 people in Alexandria, Virginia to support its 35,000 members nationwide.

The AGC is also represented by 100 local chapters around the United States. The Dallas Chapter, the first AGC Chapter in Texas, was formed in 1924; the Fort Worth Chapter was established one year later. "There was always a need for the local groups, doing mostly labor-oriented activities," said Roussell. "That's why there were separate chapters in Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston . . . each local chapter was initially just an individualized, community group. Historically, the local organization had a focus on labor issues. The national organization had a focus on dealing with federal agencies and political issues.

The 1970s Bring Change to Dallas and Fort Worth AGC Chapters

Since its inception in 1924, Dallas AGC members have been involved with Dallas / Fort Worth's landmark buildings like

• The new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington
• Reunion Tower in Dallas
• Bank of America Plaza in Dallas
• Burnett Plaza in Fort Worth
• American Airlines Center in Dallas
• The Ballpark in Arlington
• Kimball Museum in Fort Worth
• Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth
• Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport in Irving

The DFW Airport was particularly noteworthy in that it was the first joint venture between the Fort Worth and Dallas AGC chapters. "In 1970 the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport was the first real cooperative project between Dallas and Fort Worth contractors," said Roussell. "We quickly realized that we were going to have a difficult time building an airport that was half in Dallas and half in Tarrant, because there were separate unions in each county. So we put together a group called the North Texas Contractors Association (NTCA). Its goal was to bring the unions into a single regional bargaining process rather than doing it for each separate county. This way we'd have common expiration dates, wages, working rules and so forth. That worked very well."

The creation of the NTCA carved out a large part of the local AGC chapters' traditional role, allowing them to pursue new avenues of support for the local construction industry.

In 1971 when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was formed, Dallas was the first AGC chapter in the country to hire a safety expert. "That was sort of a bell cow of services for the industry," said Roussell, "in terms of helping members manage their safety, do site audits, do OSHA representation when OSHA came out. OSHA and our safety program has become a big part of what we do, and that's become a predominate service provided by most AGC chapters across the country. It's a big part of a contractor's business."

As environmental matters became more sensitive, the local AGC chapters became involved with that as well, adding an environmentalist to their staff. "Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations used to be enforced federally," said Roussell. "Then they became enforced at a state level, and now they're locally enforced. All municipalities with over 10,000 residents are now required to administer EPA regulations on stormwater run-off. It used to be one entity interpreting the regs one way. Now, in the Metroplex we have 23 cities that are over 10,000 in population so we have 23 different regulators out there. In Arlington they may look at it one way, then you cross over to Grand Prairie and they look at it another way. We realized that we needed someone on our staff who not only knows environmental regulations but is out there building relationships with people who will be doing the inspections."

Local AGC Chapters Merge into QUOIN

Up until the 1980s, the various local chapters in North and East Texas operated independently; however, economic circumstances and the growing Metroplex market forced changes over the next several years.

In 1988 the East Texas AGC Chapter merged into the Dallas Chapter as a result of the soft economy. This merger expanded the area of responsibility for the Dallas Chapter from the Dallas/Tarrant County line to the Texas/Louisiana border.

Over the next eleven years, the Dallas and Fort Worth chapters met periodically to consider the value of combining into one group, with little success. By 2000, however, the groups' leaders recognized that viewing Dallas and Fort Worth as separate markets had become an obsolete perspective. "People began to truly realize that this is one market," said Roussell. "We saw that we could be a stronger political entity if we put the two chapters together."

In January 2001 QUOIN was formed to create a single AGC chapter that supports more than 40 counties in North and East Texas. With over 740 members, a professional staff of 12 and an annual budget of $3.5 million, QUOIN became the leading voice of the construction industry in this part of the country.

Where Did the Name QUOIN Come From?

Inevitably, the questions arise: "Where did the name 'QUOIN' come from? What exactly is a QUOIN?"

"When we did this merger we had contractors in Dallas, Fort Worth and East Texas," said Roussell. "Normally, the chapters are described geographically in AGC. But we thought it was unfair to call it the North Texas chapter because then you think only of Dallas and Fort Worth. We couldn't call it Northeast Texas because then you think of Texarkana and Mt. Pleasant and that area. We certainly didn't want to say North and East Texas because that just doesn't roll off the tongue the right way.

"We hired a professional PR firm to come up with a name. As the PR guy was getting ready to meet with the new combined chapter board, I told him, 'They are not going to go for any off-the-wall names. You better be thinking of terms like Council, Associated, Master Builder, Constructors, words like that.' He had shown me a bunch of the other ideas and I told him they'd never go for those.

"So we have this first meeting with the consolidated board. He makes his presentation on what I'd call traditional names. Everyone just sat there, didn't get excited about anything he presented. On a break he came to me and said, 'Let me give them some of these other names. You said they wouldn't like them, but I don't see a lot of energy for what we presented.' So he presented these off-the-wall names. He said QUOIN and explained why he had gotten there.

"QUOIN (pronounced "COIN") is a construction term. A quoin is a cornerstone or keystone of an arch. It was symbolic of bringing the two organizations together to create a structurally stronger group.

"It made wonderful sense when we talked about it. It was short and unique and when they saw it they jumped all over it."