Construction Writers Association Held Annual Meeting in Washington, DC
June, 2005
(Buffalo Grove, IL) Highlights of the Construction Writers Association Annual Meeting, held in Washington, DC, in May, included a tour of the newly-renovated Robert F. Kennedy main Justice Department building and the CWA Awards dinner. But the meat of the program was contained in two well-received program sessions - the fundamentals of construction writing education sessions and the construction-related topics included in the annual meeting session.
Fundamentals of Construction Writing
Proceeds from CWA's popular fundamentals sessions go into a special scholarship fund, but the reason members attend is the quality of the one-hour presentations included in the series.
Karl Borgstrom, executive vice president of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), kicked off Thursday's Construction Writing Educational Sessions with a presentation on CSI's MasterFormat 2004 Revised Standards. Revisions to the classification numbering system expand the section possibilities considerably. The old MasterFormat includes 81 possible sections, whereas the new classification system can have up to 9,801 sections. MasterFormat now includes updates that make the standards compliant with OmniClassTM Tables, changes that will help to include building engineers and other construction professionals in the use of MasterFormat. The revisions cover the entire life cycle of the building process and accommodate performance requirements, including LEED® building.
Borgstrom also discussed the challenges of transitioning to the new system and presented a list of agency and architect resources that are in the process of, or have already accepted the new system. Information on CSI's MasterFormat 2004 Revised Standards and user transition courses can be found on the website www.csinet.org/masterformat.
Ed Hannan, a principal at Zweig White and managing editor of The Zweig White Marketing Letter, presented tips, tricks and common pitfalls of direct marketing. He discussed marketing trends among fast-growth and high-profit architectural and engineering firms, including using a database to target market effectively, sending most marketing materials via regular mail, sending out press releases, and producing newsletters on a regular basis. Among the secrets to successful direct marketing that Hannan mentioned were harvesting Outlook for contacts, sending weekly press releases, and sending bimonthly personal letters from principals. He also discussed case studies, featuring a firm which successfully switched to electronic correspondence with little pull-out and mentioning companies that created their own publicity by paying to be featured in a regional or national magazine or making their own documentary about their firm's area of expertise. To maximize Google visibility, he suggested avoiding Flash and linking to prominent websites.
Finally, he gave examples of common direct marketing pitfalls including failure to use a client database effectively to target a specific market or overestimating the value of e-marketing, which should never serve as a cold call or replace face-to-face communication. Hannan suggested that e-mail should only be used to reinforce a direct mail campaign. He also suggested contacting IT departments to see what filters they use, in order to determine the obvious triggers to avoid so that e-mails are not filtered as spam.
Writer, novelist and professor Patricia Daly-Lipe surprised participants at her presentation on enhancing creativity by asking them to spend five minutes writing about an abstract de Kooning painting. The point of the exercise was to give participants a way of accessing and expressing their individual perspectives. Daly-Lipe said that reaching inside ourselves for the "child that discovers" is a way to improve one's writing.
Construction Certification Coalition (C3)
Thursday afternoon's session was a Construction Certification Coalition (C3) meeting. A panel of association leaders discussed trends in continuing education for professional development and certification in the A/E/C industry. Panelists were Bill Scott for the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS); David Mendes of the American Subcontractors Association (ASA); Bill Manfredonia, CPE, for the American Society of Professional Estimators (ASPE); and Barbara Hickman, Director, Management Program, Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).
The panelists discussed certification as a commitment to continuing education in the workplace, which makes the professional more competitive in the job market. Each went over their certification offerings and requirements, discussed the current popularity of distance learning, and covered the use of online training and assessment, which is expected to replace traditional training and assessment. While many associations are turning to distance learning and/or endorsing accreditation programs that use distance learning, many of the panelists said they still have great success with face-to-face training sessions.
CWA Annual Meeting
Speakers for Friday's annual meeting presented topics that covered a broad spectrum of the construction industry.
Evan Futterman, aviation services chairman with HNTB Companies, spoke on airport development. Despite economic challenges and the resulting impact on airlines over the last few years, airport development is progressing, construction projects abound, and major changes are occurring in the airline industry. Currently, low-cost carriers like Jet Blue and Southwest Airlines are emerging as the new industry leaders. Projections indicate that air traffic in 2005 will exceed records set in 2000, and the FAA predicts that 1 billion passengers will be airborne annually by 2015. As a result of this growth and changes in security needs, Futterman stated that airports are investing more in their infrastructure than ever before.
As the industry grows and changes, Futterman said that several trends are emerging. Airports are increasing their capacities with new runways at key airports. Currently, over 13 runways are either under construction, in the design process, or under study. As aircraft size increases; e.g. the A-380 now in Europe, some airports have begun preparations to accommodate these new, larger planes. Many airports are also transitioning into major intermodal facilities with rail and other mass transit links. As a result of this fast-track growth, design-build and construction-manager-at-risk options are gaining in popularity to speed the construction process. Of course, all of this growth takes money, and airports are developing ways to increase their parking revenue, which is their primary source of funding.
Brad Sant, vice president of safety and education with the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, presented a program on the challenges of, and industry concerns over, Hispanics in the workplace. Currently 12.5 percent of employed Hispanics work in construction, and some industry analysts project that Hispanic workers will hold 47 percent of the construction jobs by 2010.
Sant pointed out that Hispanic workers, who come from countries throughout the Spanish-speaking world, are hard-working employees who rarely complain. However, immigration issues, language, and cultural differences present significant challenges to employers. These factors contribute to the high incidence of workplace injuries and deaths among Latinos in the construction industry.
Sant presented several solutions to the workplace challenges that employers and employees often face. Among these solutions are providing training materials in Spanish as well as instructors who are native Spanish speakers. In addition, employers can provide English as a second language (ESL) opportunities or offer information on local sources of English-language education. Sant also suggested that employers could offer mentoring opportunities to Hispanic employees, who could then be trained to become future foremen and supervisors. Finally, employers should take advantage of the training materials and information offered by The Roadway Work Zone Safety and Health Coalition - a cooperative effort of several federal agencies and industry associations.
Timothy Baker, PE, principal with RG Vanderweil Engineers, outlined some surprisingly simple methods of protecting buildings from chemical, biological and other attacks. While the public and the media often focus on the security of high-interest targets such as government buildings, "soft target" protection - high occupancy structures such as hotels or office buildings - is equally important. Not only does a building's envelope need to be secure, but also its infrastructure.
To do this, Baker pointed out that building HVAC systems need to be protected against infiltration by chemical or biological threats. This can be done by securing outdoor air intakes and designing systems that can isolate and flush out toxins. Simply adding a UV germicidal irradiation system, which is composed of a series of UV lights, can reduce casualty rates in a building to zero for tuberculosis and smallpox and to 2 percent for anthrax.
Storm Cunningham, executive director of the Revitalization Institute and author of The Restoration Economy, gave a lively presentation on restorative development, which has become a dominant construction trend. The catalysts for restoration development are contamination, corrosion and land constraints, and these crises have accelerated as our population has increased. However, the processes of integrated restoration and revitalization offer opportunities to reverse these destructive trends.
In a nutshell, we human beings have run out of room and have no place else to go. Therefore, we must restore the ecosystems that keeps us alive and revitalize areas such as brownfields in order to continue to thrive. Revitalization work includes fixing and replacing our aging infrastructure, cleaning our watersheds and restoring ecosystems, and creating ecologically sound, safe, and efficient methods of development. Cunningham believes that these concerns, which have long been important to a vocal minority, must be a priority of the entire world community.
Finally, keynote speaker Nick Yaksich, vice president of global public policy for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, offered his view on current construction industry conditions and trends. Although the first quarter of 2005 revealed a relatively positive outlook among industry professionals, there are some matters of concern -- infrastructure needs, the lack of a highway bill and other transit needs, and tire supply issues -- which could be the next crisis facing the industry. Yaksich pointed out the need for strong political leadership and the importance of stressing the U.S.'s infrastructure and employment needs with the current administration.
Construction Writers Association is a non-profit, non-partisan, international organization for journalists, publicists, photographers, and marketing communications professionals serving the information needs of the construction industry. By providing opportunities for networking, education, recognition, and fellowship, CWA helps foster a strong community -- and improve the quality of construction writing. CWA's website is www.constructionwriters.org .
For information:
Deborah J. Hodges
Executive Director
P.O. Box 14784
Chicago, Illinois 60614
Telephone 773 687-8726
Fax 773 687-8627
info@constructionwriters.org