CERTIFICATION COMMITTEE
Jack Sondergard presented the committee report for Doug Walker. There is one new Certified Company, Hard Rock Concrete Cutters in Raleigh, NC. There are two applications in process, and Board members who are not certified were again encouraged to complete their applications. The committee will work on a White Paper to concisely explain the benefits of Certification.
Current program auditor Glenn Purdue is retiring, and the committee has selected Ted Johnston, formerly of Di-Tech International and a CSDA Past President, to serve as the new program auditor. A timeline and process will be finalized to complete this transition.
CONVENTION COMMITTEE
Matthew Finnigan presented the committee report for Kevin Baron. He reported that the committee is investigating several east coast options for the 2021 Convention, including Charleston, Bermuda and the Bahamas, and asked meeting attendees for feedback and other ideas. Both Bermuda and the Bahamas were received favorably by meeting attendees, and there was not a concern with the passport requirement of traveling to an international destination.
ELECTION COMMITTEE
Donna Harris presented the committee report and reminded 2020 Board candidates to submit their Board applications or Lifetime Achievement Award nominations to Pat O’Brien by the June 30 deadline.
GPRIMAGING COMMITTEE
Rick Glidewell presented the committee report for Mark DeSchepper. Due to a lack of attendance, there was no new business to report.
MANUFACTURER COMMITTEE
Peter Bigwood presented the committee report. The equipment list for the upcoming 101 and 201 training courses was reviewed and approved. A Manufacturers’ Night will again be held at the 2020 Convention in Carlsbad, and location options will be presented at the next committee meeting in Columbus.
Manufacturer members will be providing CSDA a list of their local sales reps for each region, or a key contact in response to a CSDA staff request. This information will be used when contractor members are looking for sales rep contact info for their area.
The goals of the committee for the year are to enhance the Tech Talks featured in Concrete Openings by collaborating with contractor members and to update the equipment list for the training classes.
Bigwood thanked immediate past committee chair Greg Lipscomb for his years of hard work as the committee chair.
MARKETING COMMITTEE
Bill Fisher presented the committee report for Jami Harmon. One of the committee goals is to better plan out their annual budget to ensure efficient and effective use.
A proposal from O’Brien International (OBI) to rebuild the current CSDA website was presented to the committee. The current website lacks functionality, is not user-friendly and is not mobile-friendly. OBI’s proposal is to redesign the website to be more user- and mobile-friendly and include improved features for event registration, payment processing, member management and more for the total price of $30,000. This proposal was presented and discussed, and OBI is offering to contribute $10,000 towards the project. Three other proposals were received, with overall costs ranging from $60,000 – $100,000. The committee chose to select the proposal from O’Brien International, contributing $10,000 of their 2019 budget towards the project and ask the Board for the remaining $10,000, in addition to the $10,000 being contributed by OBI. A beta version of the website will be delivered by October, with the final approved website ready to go live by November. Motion was made and seconded to approve the website redesign proposal from O’Brien International and contribute $10,000 of the Marketing committee budget as well as another $10,000 from the general budget towards this project. The remaining $10,000 will come from OBI, for a project total of $30,000. Motion was passed by unanimous vote.
The proposed Concrete Openings ad rates for 2020 were approved. The Market Development Position continues to be evaluated by the committee, as the initial pool of candidates did not meet the requirements of the job description. The Past Presidents had expressed concerns at the Convention that the committee was repeating mistakes made in the past and suggested the committee reach out to IGGA to see if a relationship with their marketing group made sense. Jami Harmon, Jim Dvoratchek and Doug Walker met with IGGA in Chicago in March and it was determined by both sides that it was not a good fit at this time. The search for viable candidates will be refined and expanded, and the committee will continue to evaluate candidates.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Bill Fisher presented the committee report for Dan Dennison. There were 47 member resignations, which was slightly down from 2018. Overall dues revenue is up by about 10%.
A proposal to add three new membership categories for field personnel, safety managers and specifiers was discussed. The membership fee is $99 annually for each category and does not include the same range of benefits as a company membership. Current members can have any of their employees join these categories for free. Motion was made and seconded to approve the creation of three new individual membership categories for field personnel, safety managers and specifiers. These new membership categories will not be eligible to run for Board or Officer positions and will not have voting rights. Motion was passed by unanimous vote.
A survey is being developed to ask membership what benefits they would like to see CSDA offer.
The committee approved an approximate 3% membership dues increase for 2020.
NEXT GENERATION COMMITTEE
Bill Fisher presented the committee report. The mission statement for the committee was rewritten to better reflect the purpose and new direction of the committee. The new mission statement is: “Engagement of growth minded professionals through outreach events, social media, and other network channels to promote the industry and help them succeed in an ever-changing business environment.”
The committee stated goals for this year including a social media plan, designing a new Next Gen logo and helping source job stories to create collections of short job stories that can be promoted as a channel to showcase everyday concrete renovation jobs and highlight operator accomplishments and contributions.
POLISHING COMMITTEE
Bruce Ferrell presented the committee report. He announced that Ryan McBride will serve as committee vice-chair.
Work on the Ra, Rsk and Rq polishing testing continues, with Taylor Hobson volunteering to conduct lab testing and Troy Laidlaw with Diamond Vantage volunteering to provide samples to send to a testing facility in the UK. A goal of the committee is to complete the re-write of an updated CSDA-ST-118 by the end of the year.
Bruce Ferrell attended a seminar by Prof. Chris Brown at Worchester Polytechnic Institute on surface metrology and will send his findings and results to any interested parties.
Prof. Brown is working with a team to develop a new testing meter that would use digital light. More information will be presented at the next meeting in Columbus.
SAFETY COMMITTEE
Bennett Jones presented the committee report. The Constructor Employers Association (CEA) agreement has been updated with feedback from Bennett Jones, Matthew Finnigan and Glenn Purdue. The committee is ready to submit to CEA with the changes and is requesting approval for the $2,500 fee. Motion was made and seconded to approve the $2,500 payment to CEA for the silica data testing program. Motion was passed by unanimous vote.
NIOSH has approached CSDA to participate in testing to modify Table 1. Interested contractors can contact NIOSH to come out to their jobsites and coordinate data collection. Anyone interested should contact CSDA for more information.
The committee set two goals for this year – one goal is to review and update the scripts for the safety videos and the other is to create five new TSTs, including a series on robotic demolition and another on UV protection.
Jones announced that Jack Sondergard will serve as committee vice-chair.
STANDARDS & SPECIFICATIONS COMMITTEE
Mike Orzechowski presented the committee report. The Wire Saw Specification (CSDA-WS-106) was reviewed and edited. The final update will be approved at the September meeting in Columbus. The committee is working on three new updates on the Diamond Blade, Blade Application Code and Robotic Demolition documents.
The committee’s goal is to review and update all 43 documents by the 2020 Convention.
TRAINING COMMITTEE
Patrick Harris presented the committee report. The committee created four goals: update the training instructor job description, update the Cutting Edge online course, include a short training session at each quarterly meeting and update the 101/201 course manuals for 2020.
The quarterly training classes for the September and December meetings will be on silica, and a blueprint reading/blueprint takeoff class is being developed as an option for quarterly training.
The committee continues to work with St. Petersburg College to increase the output of water and power on the slab at the college. John Robinson is working with the committee to replace the floor of the storage shed.
Two potential new instructors have been identified and the committee is evaluating their resumes. Additional applications are welcome and encouraged.
The OSHA Susan Harwood Training Grant deadline is July 2, and while the committee is interested in applying, they do not think they can complete the application by the deadline. More information on the grant and how to apply will be prepared for the committee for the September meetings in Columbus, and the committee will work on applying for this grant in 2020.
A Safety Manager Training course was discussed with both online and onsite options and could be considered as a quarterly meeting training class.