One of my mentors, Tim Johnson, has always said that it is it important for us to seek out quality workforce programs and recognize these “pockets of excellence”.  I agree.

I recently attended a Construction Career Day held in Irving, Texas at the Construction Education Foundation of North Texas (CEF).  CEF was founded in 1981 and is supported by numerous industry partners and associations.  Through their agreement with North Lake College, students are able to receive college credit for their craft training classes.  Industry support for the foundation is broad based, and the foundation continues to offer quality craft training programs to the residents of North Texas.

I toured their facilities during my visit and viewed students competing for a coveted spot in the ABC National Craft Championship Competition.  If you have never attended a craft championship competition, you want to correct that.  It‘s a great event.

I enjoyed watching the high school students come and go and interact with craft competitors.  Read more » about Construction Education Events Offer Glimpse Into Positive Future

One of the attendees of the 2040 Scenarios presentation and discussion was Hal Sharp, an architect with Gensler.  After the event wrapped up, Donna Rybiski from the Center for Houston’s Future asked Sharp what his reactions to the scenarios were.  Excerpts from the interview are included in the video below.

He stated that he had the strongest reaction to the second scenario presented, “Playing to Win” *, because that was the one that he believes Houston is more likely to be heading toward if the Houston community does not “take to heart” some of the messages which were discussed that evening, and take action.  He was most concerned about the “continuing growth of the divide” between the economic and social classes of citizens, as presented in the second scenario.   Read more » about Post-Presentation Interview with Hal Sharp at the Houston 2040 Scenarios Event

The US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has a website with specific information about the issue of worker misclassification, also known as payroll fraud, and the measures being taken by each state to abolish it.  The website includes links to each Memorandum of Understanding which has been signed between the WHD and specific states’ Departments of Labor and Industry.  These agreements were created to promote compliance with laws already in existence within the states and to aid in communicating with employers and employees through training materials and coordinated enforcement actions in order to “protect the wages of America's workforce”.  Only eleven states have signed such agreements at this time.

The WHD website also contains links to each state’s Department of Labor, links to all WHD press releases categorized by region, information about related federal and state laws, workplace informational posters available for download in a variety of Read more » about Wage and Hour Division’s Employee Misclassification Website

On November 17th, the Houston Chapter of the American Subcontractors Association held its monthly membership luncheon at the HESS Club.  The topic for the meeting was a panel discussion covering the Construction Career Collaborative (C³) initiative.  Panelists were Peter R. Dawson, AIA, Senior Vice President, Facilities Services, Texas Children’s Hospital; Joe Savala, Associate Vice President, Facilities Administration, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center; Jim Stevenson, CEO, W.S. Bellows Construction Corporation; and Tom Vaughn, CEO, Vaughn Construction.  I served as the panel moderator, leading the panel through a series of questions  Read more » about ASA Houston Discusses C3 Initiative at November Luncheon

In one of his recent blogs, Seth Godin, author of Poke the Box, mentions that most of the organizations and institutions we know today such as education, our work places, and the medical profession are all “pre-digital”.  He says “pre-digital” means that the real impact of the digital age has not changed those institutions to date.  Pre-digital usually means too many folks doing too much work that is unnecessary or that can be done much faster in a digital context.  People working in pre-digital industries don’t have access to information in a readily available form, which usually means that they are “reinventing the wheel” every time they make you fill out the forms for your physical or for your taxes.

Construction is largely a “pre-digital” industry, and I don’t mean that in a complimentary way.  Sure, structural engineering is computerized and digitized by necessity.  So are mechanical, electrical and plumbing designs.  Architects have been using CAD since the late 1970s, and today many owners have required that all drawings for their projects be digitized.  LEED has driven change.  Even BIM is making inroads, but the possibilities for new techniques and Read more » about Construction is Largely a Pre-Digital Industry

We have been bringing you a series of blogs on a presentation and discussion about possible scenarios of what Houston might be like 30 years from now.  We told you that after the group of community professionals from the construction and other industries had viewed two videos outlining two very different scenarios for Houston’s future, Mike Holland of Marek Brothers led a group discussion about the two scenarios.  During the discussion, the two representatives from the Center for Houston’s Future (“the Center”) who were on hand to present the scenarios took notes on whiteboards at the front of the room.

At the end of the evening, after most of the attendees had left the hall, Catherine Clark Mosbacher, Read more » about Catherine Mosbacher Summarizes the Discussion following the 2040 Scenarios Event

This week, an article by Matt Dunning in Business Insurance lists some of the numbers which reveal the enormity of the combined projects currently under construction at the World Trade Center site in New York.  The article states that “there are 13 integrated megaprojects”  in progress at the site.  When the projects were initiated, details of risk management such as safety inspections and incident reports were maintained separately for each individual project, but in 2008, risk managers for the developers and their insurers implemented a system which integrates relevant Read more » about Combining Payroll and Safety Data Adds Value at WTC Site

I recently saw the headline that stated in bold type that the price of crude had once again broken through $100 per barrel, and I was reminded that it wasn’t always that way.

In the 1990s, when the price of oil dropped through the floor to $10 per barrel, I was in a conversation about the future of Houston and the economy with the CEO of one of the major oil companies.  He was a member of our executive committee and board of directors and I looked to him as someone who could see a little further into the future than most.  After all, he was making 30-50 year investments to explore for new finds, and he had access to the best research that Read more » about New Technology will likely Alter the Construction Industry

I was thinking about the people and things in my life that I wanted to be thankful for this year when I ran across this blog posting by Simon Sinek, the author of Start With Why, an outstanding book for anyone interested in examining their business and their lives.

This blog and the letter that it contains from the C17 pilot reminded me that we should be thankful for the men and women who fight for our freedom around the world.  They deserve our prayers and our support this holiday season.  They are far away and facing the risk of death each and every day.  Please take a moment to read it in its entirety and to pause to consider the message that it contains.   Read more » about Thanksgiving Thoughts

Jerry Nevlud, President/CEO of the Houston Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, recently offered the following remarks about The 2011 U.S. Construction Industry Talent Development Report by FMI, a management consulting and investment banking firm for the engineering and construction industry.

There is plenty of good information in the recently released survey by FMI on talent development in the construction industry.  As stated in the report’s introduction, FMI has polled US construction firms for over 15 years in order to determine current practices and emerging trends in training and workforce development throughout the construction industry.

It is critical that companies develop and improve strategies that will ensure our industry continues to find Read more » about FMI’s Report on Talent Development Offers Critical Information