As I sit here, reflecting back on the entire history of the virtual community that we know as CSINext, I’m amazed that we’ve come so far, so fast...for you see, this is the end of my second go-around as President of this Chapter. The first one was our first “official” year, even though I’d spent the previous 18 months running around in the background trying to pull everything together to make the concept of a “virtual Chapter” a reality.
Lots of news to report. First, it's looking like the CSI board is going to approve our petition for charter, so we can finally get down to the business of community building with some legitimacy.
Our October webinar, set for Wednesday, October 28th, at 2pm EST, has been postponed to November 18th because of technical issues. We apologize for the delay, but learning the particulars of a virtual environment are new and a lot more complex that you might imagine. We hope that you will join us on November the 18th at 2pm EST for an insightful look into the near future of communications in the construction industry. Simply join our email list...the sign up link is located on the lower left side of this page...to receive a free invitation to the webinar.
It's been said that BIM will eliminate the need for the traditional "specifier" in the design process, but in truth the role of a knowledgeable professional with broad experience in both materials and assemblies will become even more crucial as the workflow path evolves to integrate BIM technologies. Join CSINext as we look into what changing the design platform will mean for the future of specifications and construction communication.
Our webinar will be hosted by Robert Weygant, who is the Chairman of CSI's BIM Practice Group, a member of the CSI Institute Technical Committee and the President-Elect of the New Hampshire Chapter of CSI. He is committed to the development of BIM standards, formats, and concepts to streamline the design and construction processes. Robert has been a member of CSI since 2003 and has worked as a General Contractor, Manufacturer's Representative, Construction Specifier and currently is an Independent Specification Consultant and BIM Content Developer for Building Product Manufacturers.
Yesterday I spent the day attending GlassBuild 2009 at the Georgia World Congress Center. GlassBuild is the largest trade assembly solely devoted to the glazing construction industry in the world. Lots of amazing products, vendors and speakers.
The single biggest lesson learned from the show? Visual is IN! Greater than 80% of the vendors that were displaying "glazing" materials (glass, plexiglass and other things used to fill a hole in a building) were displaying decorative products front and center. Fritted glass, dimensional glass, ceramic printed glass...and the machines and equipment used to produce them...were upfront and stars of the show.
I attended one educational seminar about the future of decorative glass in the industry where all of the three presenters all had three similar things to say. First, visual design in architecture is embracing the use of the glazing surfaces, second, the evolution of any art form is driven by the availability of the necessary technologies, and lastly, the technologies to enable that transition are now available, in place and are affordable.
At the end of the session, a number of questions were raised about how to handle decorative glass products from a specification standpoint. The most interesting lesson that I learned in that session was that a proper specification, as encouraged by the CSI format, is almost unheard of in this area of the glazing industry. As a matter of fact, the panel almost encouraged the audience to depart from an accurate, formatted specification and go towards a vague, amorphous spec in an effort to be able to control the end result more closely and therefore be more "artistic".
This "thought process" is nothing short of lunacy. In reality, the artisan/architect, the manufacturing concern and the contractor/installer should be collaborating early on in the design process to enable the end result to be a synergistic yet structurally sound result that is delivered on time, under budget.
I know, "get in the real world" you say. But I do live in the real world. I may be an artist at heart, but I'm from a family of engineers. I fully understand the need for accurate construction documentation, and I'm beginning to see a shift away from building using a formatted project manual.
The Institute itself is squarely in the middle of this shift. We have an entire generation of well-trained, experienced professionals that are at the peak of their knowledge base. Viewing them, from the outside, is the next generation of construction communicators. These professionals have new skills, new technologies and new points of view...but lack the wisdom and experience of "our" generation. Not to mention that I've personally witnessed these newcomers being treated like idiotic dolts by the older grayhairs in the room at CSI meetings.
Let me put forward a thought. The construction communication industry IS going to continue...with or without the old grayhairs...and with or without the Institute. Some have already said that "CSI is dead...it's just too stubborn to have figured that out yet". Others are advocating a name change for the Institute because the word "specifications" itself is becoming outdated. We have competitors that "get it"...they do a fairly good job of reaching out to the next generation of professionals. We don't...at least not yet...but there is hope. Contained within our Institution is a knowledge and experience base of over 140,000 years of industry experience. This experience base has solved some of the biggest construction problems that have ever come along...and made it look easy.
It's become my personal passion to look for ways to connect the experience we hold with the future professionals that can use it, for if we don't open our minds and pour that information and experience into the upcoming generation, our Institute is destined to die with it's aging membership.
More to come...stay tuned.
Given the amount of discussion that I've heard lately, you'd think that the "virtual world" was as foreign to the A/E community as is the term "successful BIM integration". OK, so I"m guiding the lily a bit, but I've run into a lot of opposition to building a virtual chapter lately within the CSI community. It seems to me that there is a great amount of angst over the thought of opening our somewhat closed community to large numbers of emerging professionals with their 24/7 addiction to everything digital. Irrational as it may seem, there is a lot of fear of the future, and understandably so.
The A/E community is frightened. They've never seen unemployment rates in the 50% range in their lifetimes. They've never seen anything at all like it.
The Institute hasn't seen anything like it either. I know, I spent the last year on the Institute Membership Committee...looking at trends...trends that look like the south side of the Matterhorn.
The interesting thing is that the Institute peaked in membership...not last year, not in the last 5, 10 or even 15 years...we peaked in 1991. Almost 20 years ago. But that is ancient history...almost literally. It's a new day and time for a new paradigm.
No one that I'm aware of understands the change in paradigm that we all need better than Andrew West. Andrew is a young (well, compared to me at least) energetic and visionary purveyor of contract specifications. He's also a brilliant visionary of where the Institute needs to be going. I'm not going to waste any time in building him up, you'll just need to read his blog to understand where we need to be heading. You can find his writing here. I hope it stirs you like it does me.
Over the last few months, as the development team has been diligently working on building CSINext, I’ve spent a large amount of time looking at how other member based organizations are handling the shift from traditional, face to face networking to a newer, more virtual communication process. What I’m finding is both encouraging and discouraging.
The Construction Specifications Institute is proud to announce the release of the new MasterFormat 04 conversion app for iPhone. This application allows the user to input the old MasterFormat 95 Standard number and instantly see the MasterFormat 04 Standard numbers with descriptions. The application is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch and requires the use of iPhone OS 2.2 or later. You can download the app from the iTunes AppStore for only $2.99. Click the button below to check it out.
In this month’s Architect, Edward Keegan does an excellent job of delineating the turmoil which the job description of “spec writer” currently seems to be under. There is no denying that the traditional picture of a dutiful technical writer, toiling away creating tomes that equal a phone book in scale, is under attack by new and disruptive technologies, online spec engines and systems and new design methodologies such as BIM. While all of this is true, the simple fact remains that you cannot complete any modern construction project with simple drawings alone, no matter how you generate those designs. You’ve got to have a full understanding of your design elements and how they relate to each other, and that relationship is always handled through the “specs”.
CSI has more than 140 chapters across the U.S. When CSINext receives its charter, it will be unique among them. The biggest difference? Simple...target market. Until CSINext, all of CSI's chapters - even the ones meeting by conference call and webinar - were specific to a particular city or geographic region. They grew out of a location, and focused in part on that location's construction community.
Sign up now to be in attendance for the first official meeting for CSIN! This Wednesday at 3pm, EDT, join us for "Fiduciary Duties: Connecting the Mission to Membership.
Bryan Varner, of the Redwood Empire Chapter will be discussing the legal requirements that all chapter officers need to know. You can find the full description of the presentation on the CSIN Blog.Bryan is an excellent presenter, having been an integral part of the team that brought you the Incoming President's Seminar at the Institute.
All you need to do is sign up for the Email List, located at the lower right of this page...beneath the row of buttons, to receive your FREE invitation to our first ever webinar!
CSI Leadership: Your Fiduciary Duty to Connect the Mission to Membership
When: 2pm ET, Wed., Sept. 30
Where: Web-based on CSINext.org
Presenter: Bryan J. Varner, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP
Cost: FREE — All CSI Chapter Leaders are invited!
REGISTER NOW! Sign up for CSINext’s email list and get an invitation to this event!
…and if all those “C”s didn’t have you hacking up hairballs, Congratulations! You’ve successfully discovered the web news feed for the Community Building site, CSINext.
