What is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy and civilization throughout the world — one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love?

On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. 

That one thing is trust.

New Mexico Ethics Alliance presents internationally acclaimed author, Stephen M.R. Covey and the SPEED of TRUST Workshop

Thursday, November 19, 2009
7:30 am - Noon
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

Spend the morning with us and learn why nothing is as fast as the SPEED of Trust.  This fast-paced and engaging workshop is based on Covey’s New York Times best-selling book and dramatically reveals TRUST as the hidden variable that always affects two outcomes: speed and cost.  Mr. Covey makes a compelling case for the economic and social benefits of building high-trust relationships.

Engineers: this workshop is eligible for 4 hours of professional development ethics credits!

To Register and for More Information, Go to www.nmethics.org

Not a LEED Accredited Professional but suddenly you’re on a LEED project?  The LEED Tool-kit was created to help LEED project team members understand green building principles, the LEED rating system, and your role in the certification process.  This session will introduce this new tool, developed through a grant from the Energy Conservation and Management Division, show you how it works, and explore some of its almost 1200 pages of information.  Four tool-kit modules guide you through: Green Building Foundations, LEED for Project Teams, LEED for Design Teams, and LEED for Contractors.   It was designed to let you target the specific areas of your interest or browse through the wealth of facts, figures, articles, and sample LEED documentation.  Learn how the LEED Tool-kit can quickly bring you up-to-speed for your next LEED project.

Learn about how the tool kit can help you answer questions like: How do I learn the basics about green building concepts? What incentives are available for LEED buildings? How much does it cost to do LEED? How did other projects achieve EQ 8 (daylight & views) credit?  How do I track construction waste?  I’m a building owner and I don’t know anything about LEED – how do I get started?
 
The Albuquerque Chapter of Construction Specifications Institute is proud to present a seminar to introduce this important new tool for using the LEED rating system at the 10th Annual Albuquerque CSI Continuing Education Conference, October 14th, 2009.  Online Registration is now available at www.regonline.com/csicec2009.  There are still seats available in this important class.  Make sure that you register today to ensure yours. Program 6B – LEED Tool-Kit will be jointly presented by Kris Callori and Susie Marbury, and earns 1 HSW SD CELU.

Kris Callori, AIA, LEED AP is a LEED Accredited Professional, Architect, and Principal of Environmental Dynamics, Incorporated (edi), an architecture and sustainability consulting firm with offices in Albuquerque, NM and Boynton Beach, FL.  She has been an active LEED AP since 2000.  She was the LEED AP for the first LEED Certified building in New Mexico and nationally for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the first LEED Silver building in Albuquerque, the first LEED Certified school in Arizona, and the first LEED Silver hospital in Oklahoma.  Since 2000, she has been instrumental on over 60 projects applying for various levels of LEED certification.  The edi office in Albuquerque is LEED NC Gold certified and the edi office in Florida is applying for LEED CI Gold.  Currently her office is working on 3 projects attempting LEED Platinum certification.
  
 
Susie Marbury,  a LEED™ Accredited Professional with a Master of Architecture from the University of New Mexico, administers the Energy Efficiency and Green Building programs for the State of New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.  Susie previously provided LEED consulting services for a local architecture firm and brings a broad understanding of the issues involved in making the built environment more sustainable.  As the past Executive Director of the Green Alliance, Susie was instrumental in establishing the U.S. Green Building Council New Mexico Chapter and currently serves as the Chapter Chair.  In her capacity with the state energy office, she assisted in passing the legislation for and is currently administering the New Mexico’s Sustainable Building Tax Credits and the DOE sponsored “Moving Toward Zero Energy Homes” program. She also manages other initiatives including the State Energy Program’s stimulus funding, improving building codes, and providing education and outreach for energy-efficient building practices.  Throughout her career, Susie has established strong partnerships with collaborating organizations and sustainably-minded professionals, in the belief that it will require all of us to make green the norm and solve our climate change problems.
 

Are you tired of negotiating needless change orders and time extensions?  Are your A/E liability insurance premiums steadily increasing?  Are you frustrated by piles of RFI's both before and after your projects bid? 

Errors and Omissions typically account for 50 percent of all change orders, with the rest due to unforeseen circumstances and changes in user requirements.  Through the use of REDICHECK, a simple interdisciplinary coordination checklist and overlay checking process, errors and omissions can be greatly reduced.  If the design team does not discover and correct interdisciplinary errors and omissions during the preparation of contract documents or during a final quality assurance review, the contractor almost assuredly will, and at the most inopportune time.  In severe cases, litigation results.  The REDICHECK system reveals simple techniques to catch these errors when correction on drawings is all that is required.

The Albuquerque Chapter of Construction Specifications Institute is proud to present a full day technical seminar on this important quality control system for construction documents, at the 10th Annual Albuquerque CSI Continuing Education Conference, October 14th, 2009.  Online Registration is now available at www.regonline.com/csicec2009.  There are still seats available in this important class.  Make sure that you register today to ensure yours.

The REDICHECK system will be presented by William T. Nigro, it's originator.  Bill is retired from the Civil Engineer Corps of the United States Navy, where he was Course Director for Design Contract Management.  He is a registered architect in the state of Florida, and has conducted many quality assurance seminars for the AIA, Clemson University, private A/E firms, and the government.  The REDICHECK firm has provided training for over 8,000 architects and engineers.

Dear CSI Albuquerque Members and Friends,

September has been a busy month for us in preparing for the 10th Annual Continuing Education Conference & Product Show on October 14th.  This is our premiere event of the year.  Our general interest in event quality was given an early preview on September 14th with the successful lunch meeting and tour of the Hotel Andaluz project in downtown Albuquerque.  Pulling off this tour, given the logistical challenges involved, was no mean feat!  Much credit goes to the hard work and planning of the Programs Committee headed by Peter Holloway.  Special kudos goes to our Arrangements ‘czarina,’ Chris Morrison and Ron Burnstein, Education Committee Chairman. Ron and his firm Studio Southwest Architects arranged permission for the tour with the owner and provided ‘tour guides’ to make sure we accessed a great deal of the project and got all our questions answered.  Chris handled the miraculous feeding of attendees at the Alvarado Transportation Center staging location two blocks away and managed the ‘orderly’ departure of tour groups.  I would also like to thank Darren Sand from Goodman Realty, who gave what I can only describe as a perfectly timed and informative pre-tour presentation.   Finally, recognition is due Victor Rosenthal and the entire communications team who effectively got the invitation message out to the membership about the event.

Member events such as these are a good example of the way our chapter can get things done in a successful manner.  The essential element is the quality of the cooperation among capable team members that inspires confidence that the communication and hard work necessary to pull these things off will happen. Our theme for the coming CEC & PS is “Quality Control in Construction Documents:  Getting it Right”.   What is there worth doing if “getting it right” is not the ultimate objective?  We think that this year’s CEC & PS will provide attendees with some good information towards that goal.  I am personally looking forward to Michael Chambers’ lunchtime keynote presentation on “Interdiscipline Coordination: Creating a Coordinated Team”.  It takes a coordinated team to pull off a highly-ambitious member tour of a downtown hotel in the last stages of major renovations.  It takes the same kind of cooperation among team members to create a successful design and construction project on a much larger scale.  That is, in essence, what CSI is all about.  We thrive upon, and live by the team approach. CSI promotes it by developing the means to organize and communicate among team members.  All that’s left is the hard work necessary to make it happen.  Please consider becoming an active participant in the CSI Albuquerque Team by joining any of the impressively capable chapter committees.

See you at the CEC & PS!

Hello fellow CSI Bloggster's,

In December is Autodesk's annual conference, Autodesk University (AU 2009). held in Las Vegas, Nevada.  I am unable to attend this year but Autodesk is sponsoring a contest to help 3 lucky people attend.  I am attempting to be one of those 3 people. 

What it entails is posting a video response to Autodesk University's question "why should I attend Autodesk University?"  They have asked for it to be creative and send a message.  I have tried to present a little story that solves the question given New Mexico's new found role as the new Hollywood, acting aside.

The top 5 most viewed video responses then move on to be posted on Autodesk University's Facebook page where people can vote for the top 3.

If everyone can please view the video above or click here, this will help me move on to the next round on Facebook.

If I am so lucky as to attend AU 2009 this year I will more than happy to provide a presentation or training on what I learned at AU to the CSI ABQ Chapter at a chapter meeting or as a separate venue.

AU is a great conference for learning about Autodesk's latest software that helps our industry document and collaborate on our built environment with products such as Revit Architecture, MEP and Structure, Ecotect Analysis, Autodesk Navisworks and 3D Studio Max.  I use these products every day in my work.  I also help people learn about these products as President of the local 505 BIM User's Group.  I literally think about them all the time....

Thanks everyone for your support and votes!!!!

by Walter Marlowe, CSI Executive Director

Many professionals rely on certifications to demonstrate a level of specialized knowledge. For employers, certifications help ensure their workforces are up to speed on the latest procedures, requirements and best practices.

Several innovative commercial design and construction companies encourage employees to pursue certifications through the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), which offers proof a professional has attained a certain level of education and understanding of construction documents and processes.  Daylighting Solutions, Albuquerque, is one example. The company supports employees who want to pursue CSI certifications by paying for course materials and special preparatory classes. The firm also pays for time off so employees can study for exams.  Rick Lepore of Daylighting Solutions finds his CSI Construction Documents Technology (CDT) certificate improves communication flow from the beginning to the end of a project. “It allows us to be specific when we ask for things, and to be able to provide accurate information for what is needed for a project,” he says.  Certifications also contribute to the company’s marketing efforts, allowing Daylighting Solutions to stand out among its competition. “It’s one of the few things we can do as a product representative to show astuteness to our clients,” Lepore says.

Global architectural products manufacturer YKK AP incorporates certification in its ongoing employee development platform. “The purpose of the program is to advance the quality of our sales organization,” says Oliver Stepe, senior vicepresident of YKK AP America Inc. All field sales representatives have 18 to 24 months to earn CSI’s CDT certificate.   To be promoted to a senior account manager position, YKK’s sales representatives must earn CSI’s CertifiedConstruction Product Representative certification or LEED Accredited Professional credentials from the Green Building Certification Institute.   YKK AP maintains focus on continual training to achieve certification. “We encourage participation in CSI classes, conference calls and a two-day intensive review session to prepare for the CDT examination,” says YKK AP Sales Manager Frank Earley.  Because certification is attached to job classification, YKK AP employees know it has a direct payoff—in title, income and industry knowledge.  “It lets me know that product representatives are serious about what they’re doing,” says architect Scott Whitcraft of St. Louis-based Hastings & Chivetta, a YKK client.

The benefits are not limited to manufacturers and product representatives. Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., a multinational environmental engineering and consulting firm headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., provides in-house support to its employees, consultants and clients taking CSI exams.   “To help our employees prepare, we offer weekly lunchtime review sessions starting in January and concluding with a wrap-up the week before the exam,” says Jim Brown, vice president of construction management services. The lunchtime webinar sessions are accessible to staff nationwide.   More than 1,000 Malcolm Pirnie employees have pursued CSI certifications in the past 11 years. The firm pays exam registration fees for its employees and hosts an intranet website for its CSI program. “We also have a listserve to which we post example questions, which often engender lively and involved discussions when the answers are posted,” Brown says.   Pursuing CSI certification is voluntary for employees. The real value is acquiring knowledge and meeting senior staff who lead the review sessions—reducing risks for Malcolm Pirnie and its clients and improving customer service.

As the design and construction industry evolves—incorporating sustainable products, building information modeling and other advances—it is more important than ever for companies to support employees’ professional development. Certification programs are a worthwhile way to invest in a company’s most important resource: its workforce. 

Walter Marlowe is executive director and chief executive officer of the Construction Specifications Institute, Alexandria, Va. For more information, call (800) 689-2900 or visit www.csinet.org.  Article shared from Construction Executive magazine, July  2009.

Are you an experienced construction professional? If the answer is yes, then you have the key to using the web to build your business, whether you are a one-person shop, or one-of-many in a firm. You have the answer to a problem – and that’s more important than any other tool in your marketing arsenal.

Don’t take my word for it. Take Dana VanDen Heuvel’s instead. VanDen Heuvel, of MarketingSavant (www.marketsavant.com), will present two sessions at the Albuquerque CSI Continuing Education Conference on Wed., Oct. 14, to give construction professionals:
- A strategy for using social media, built on what they know about construction
- An overview of the cheap-to-free web tools that you can use to build your profile

VanDen Heuvel teaches businesses how to use Thought Leadership to position themselves in their marketplace. In simple terms, Thought Leadership is a strategy for a firm or individual who cannot outspend or out-sexy the competition, but that does have the answer to problems their potential clients are facing. If you have an answer, you can position yourself as a “Thought Leader” – a trusted advisor everyone turns to for help. The web can help you do it. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it makes the most of the one resource you’ve been growing since the day you started your first job – your experience.

- Thought Leadership: An Introduction
- Thought Leadership: Concepts and Principles

Register now at www.csiabq.org!  To read up on Thought Leadership before VanDen Heuvel arrives, visit www.marketingsavant.com.   Learn how to use what you know to raise your company’s profile, or your own. Join us for an informative afternoon!

        BIM and the NCS, by Charles Rick Green, FCSI, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP

I was asked recently to share some thoughts about the relationship between BIM and the NCS.  The first issue in my mind regarding this issue is that CSI needs to take the lead in making the industry aware of a very important and often overlooked point: That in order to meet minimum BIM compliancy requirements (as defined by the National BIM Standard), printed output from BIM platforms must comply with formats established in the U.S. National CAD Standard. Not one workplace in the construction industry that I am aware of can demonstrate that they are able or willing to do this.  From what we have seen so far, other industry organizations are either ignorant of the issue or simply unable to get the message out. CSI is uniquely positioned to take the lead on this issue because of our diverse membership and the relationships we have with other industry organizations.

How to make this happen is the challenge.  One of the biggest issues here is that CSI must form stronger alliances with owner/facility manager organizations such as BOMI, IFMA, GSA, and the Department of Defense in order to make them aware of the issues – that is, about the relationship between BIM and the NCS; and help them step up the pressure on the A/E consultants they hire to provide them with building information models to comply with NCS formats; and help them influence the CAD vendors they purchase from to include NCS formats in their software.  This means that we need begin making appearances at facility manager conventions and monthly meetings and get the message out – because until they begin requiring compliancy, past history tell us that the A/E companies they hire and the CAD products they purchase will not be motivated to do very much about it.

CSI also needs to improve our relationship with CAD software manufacturers, and persuade them to provide NCS compliant CAD and BIM platforms.   The heads of AIA, CSI, and Building Smart Alliance need to be meeting, face to face, with the heads of these organizations and voice their concerns, and these meetings need to receive lots of publicity in the trade journals and websites.  
Our members can contribute much to the awareness issue. Articles about the relationship between BIM and the NCS need to be written and posted in the Construction Specifier; chapter newsletters like this; CSI web forums; NCS web forums; CAD forums; blogs, wherever!  If there is a CAD manufacturer, company, or workplace that is currently making compliancy improvements they should be recognized on our webpages and at other industry locations also.

Some quick bullet points:
• In order to comply with provisions of the National BIM Standard to meet minimum BIM, printed output from CAD files must comply with formats established in the NCS.
• CSI’s Uniform Drawing System (UDS), as an element of the NCS, is a valuable BIM resource because it establishes formats for printed output that will help streamline collaboration efforts by all users
• The NCS allows BIM users to focus more time on quality, constructability, and cost; and less time on which drawing standard to use
• Printed output (construction drawings on paper) from CAD platforms is not going away, which means the NCS will continue to play a vital role to BIM users for many years to come
• Formats in the NCS are universal to all CAD platforms, and can be easily adopted by anyone using BIM. 

Submitted by Charles Rick Green, FCSI, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP

Growing our Future

The Hotel Albuquerque was the setting for Thursday evening’s  annual CNM Foundation Donors Recognition Dinner.  You will remember that through the combined efforts and generosity of CSI members Kerry Abbot (Daylighting Solutions), Tom Johns (National Roofing) and Steve Gendron (Upland Corporation), Albuquerque Chapter CSI was able to make a contribution of $1000 to our CSI scholarship endowment fund at CNM in June of this year. 

 

Chris Smith of National Roofing and I attended the reception and dinner last night and let me tell you what a moving event this was.  I came away with a new understanding and appreciation of how vital CNM is to the lifeblood of this community and our state.   Five students, with five different stories to tell, attested to how CNM’s diverse program opportunities have positively impacted their lives — stories that included successful efforts to obtain a Graduate Equivalency Degree; a student who completed a CNM Associates Degree concurrent to attending High School;  a student who became a “Freshman” at age 40 to re-tool for changed economic times; the difficult and obstacle ridden path one student has taken toward becoming a nurse and another’s  determination to take her financial education back to her pueblo to help others — These are just the front stories.  What we also heard were the “back” stories involving the almost insurmountable odds that these students faced in their pursuit of an education.   What surfaced in the telling was how CNM and the CNM Foundation were there with guidance, scholarship dollars, and even money to assist with rent and food when necessary — not to forget the role of dedicated and caring staff, faculty and educators who played no small role in these students’ quests for learning.  

 

As a local construction industry organization, with vested interest in an educated and knowledgeable workforce, CSI Albuquerque has done the right thing over the years to support education at both CNM and UNM through our scholarship endowment funds.  I challenge the CSI membership and leadership to continue to actively support both institutions.  At minimum let’s make sure that every year we contribute, without fail, to the future of our industry.    

 

David Vaughan CSI, CCPR

Past President Albuquerque Chapter CSI

This being my first President’s Message, I ask you forgiveness for its length, but there is a lot on my mind regarding these days of 2009-2010 A.D.   As anyone is aware, the current times present challenges to the very structure of society, CSI included.  As an architect, a basic understanding of structures is supposed to be part of my repertoire.  I am no economist, so forget about ideas on that.  With advance apologies to any structural engineers, I would still like to take a ‘structural’ approach in this, my perception of chapter priorities for this year.

Due to the immense efforts and dedication of Immediate Past-President David Vaughan and the active members of our chapter, I am happy to report that the foundation of the organization is strong.  That is good news considering that the structural underpinnings of many of our national, state, and local institutions are not in such good shape.  Even considering the current economy, CSI Albuquerque is healthy financially, spiritually, and otherwise.  For example, despite the economic slowdown we are at 130 members – only three less than last year.   I would venture to consider using our relatively sound condition to improve our role within the local building community and enhance the benefits of being a CSI member.  I and the new board and committee chairs have been thinking of ways to do just that.

First off, we need to take care of those chapter members who have individually felt the negative impact of the economic downturn.  Each member has the potential to buttress the standing of individual members in the organization and we all need to help.  The board is currently considering reduced renewal fees for members who have been laid off and wish to be active in our organization.  Also, the structural network of CSI members must be made to work in helping those who have now become unemployed find new jobs.  The diverse network of our chapter is one of its greatest strengths and can be helpful to our own who are in need.

Secondly, structural bearing points are responsible for supporting a structural load.  Let’s use our multitude of organizational bearing points (members) to apply force in efficiently supporting the goals of the chapter this year.  Please join a committee and combine your strengths with those of other members working towards a focused chapter goal or project.  Beyond that, it makes little sense to go knocking on the doors of non-member businesses asking them to join CSI when many of our members have a fertile crop of potential new members within THEIR OWN FIRMS.  If each CSI Albuquerque member got only one of their co-workers to join the chapter this year, the effect would be incalculable.  Bearing points - get to work!  We can increase membership even in these times.

Next on the list of chapter enhancement goals is to get more people to become CSI-certified by taking one of the certification exams this year.  We are fortunate that Rick Green, FCSI has enthusiastically stepped up to help apply ‘stimuli’ to our chapter efforts in this area.  Rick is presenting to firms and organizations who are interested in getting their employees to further their knowledge and careers by obtaining CDT, CCCA, CCS, or CCPR certifications.  (He is pitching certification to my own organization next week.)  Look inward to your own firms and professional organizations and inform them of this opportunity.  Use your structural connections. There are few better ways to increase your knowledge of the basic systems of construction communications and processes than to take these exams.  It has been said that down times are the ideal period to beef up your knowledge and credentials in order to be well-positioned when the upturn eventually arrives.

Finally, high-quality educational programs for our membership will be a constant priority throughout the year.  We are on track to have a final calendar of lunch programs in place by the end of August.  In addition, the planning committee for the 10th Annual Albuquerque CSI Continuing Education Conference & Product Show has been hard at work lining up the schedule for this popular event to be held on October 14th.  At present, we are asking members to make a special effort to help us sign up product representatives to participate in the Product Show portion of the program.  Contact me or our event coordinator, Melissa Rael for more information about the CEC & PS.  

It looks like we will have an exciting year of great programs and innovative chapter initiatives and we can only do it with your help.    Please keep me informed of any personal successes you achieve in helping our chapter accomplish its goals.  I hope that you agree to work harder this year as an individual member in one of the ways mentioned above. 

Hopefully, no structural principles or professional engineers were harmed in the production of this first president’s message of the year.

Andre Larroque, CSI, AIA, CCCA, CCS, NCARB