The holidays are over and it is time for a changing of the guard… digital guard that is. At the November 17, 2009 Board Meeting, the Institute Board chartered the first virtual chapter. CSINext is the brain child of CSI Member Brent Williams. With social media storming through the internet like wild fire, CSINext is the next evolution of the CSI chapter. You may be familiar with Blogging, Facebook, and Twitter which is social networking. This is where CSINext comes in, taking the traditional chapter model to the digital world via social networking. Basically, allowing access to potential CSI members all over the world.

One of the most difficult things specifiers do is try to decide if one product is equivalent to another. Fortunately, many product characteristics are based on industry standards, which can make those products easier to specify and to evaluate.

Greetings fellow members of CSINext. We will be conducting our Chapter Meeting and the topic will be "How to properly develop performance specifications for Fluid Applied Air Barrier Systems based on performance testing, standards & codes" Presented by Robert Popp, CSI, CCPR. Mark your calendars for February 21st at 11:00am EST. We look forward...

Greetings fellow members of CSINext. We will be conducting our Chapter Meeting and the topic will be "LEED and Integrated Technologies" Presented by Anthony Ursini. Mark your calendars for November 15th at 3:00pm EST. We look forward to having you attend.

Greetings fellow members of CSINext. We will be conducting our Chapter Meeting and the topic will be "Marketing in Today’s Economy " Presented by Kimberly Kayler, CPSM, CSI . Mark your calendars for October 10th at 2:00pm EDT. We look forward to having you attend.

President-Elect Robert Huserik has added a CSINext group on Facebook. This is part of a continued effort on CSINext to expand the awareness of the chapter and CSI. We are excited about this new addition and watch for even more exciting stuff. You can visit the group by clicking the 'Become a Fan' link on the right or just CLICK HERE.

Greetings fellow members of CSINext. We will be conducting our Chapter Meeting and the topic will be "Eliminating Fear, Terror, and Boredom - Networking for Construction Professionals" Presented by Sarah E. Caldwell, CSI, CDT, BS, MBA, LEED AP. Mark your calendars for September 6th at 3:00pm EDT. We look forward to having you attend.

We had our first CSINext Chapter Board meeting of the year. We are excited to get the chapter back on track. We have Chapter Programs scheduled for September and October. August is in the works and then we will take time off for the holidays and jump back on track in January. Very soon you should be receiving an invite to register for the chapter programs. We will continue to reach out in many different ways to the virtual community.

I need your help... How many times have we heard that? CSINext has floundered over the past year, mainly due to my health and spreading myself to thin. I have cleared off most of my plate, feeling good and I'm looking to work in the background again. I have mentally made the commitment to get CSINext back on track and make this next year the best it can be. I remember how CSINext started off strong and it filled the missing gap in CSI for the members. With that, we are looking bring up to speed in the next 30 days a new President and President-Elect. Here are our goals for 2012-13:

Greetings fellow members of CSINext. We will be conducting our Chapter Meeting and the topic will be "Recruit and Retain Emerging Professionals" Mark your calendars for May 25th at 11:00am EDT. We look forward to having you attend.

Greetings fellow members of CSINext. We will be conducting our Chapter Meeting and the topic will be "Small BIM" Mark your calendars for April 27th at 3:00pm EDT. We look forward to having you attend.

We’ve been hacked! Not just once, but twice. With that CSINext has moved its hosting and domain to goDaddy. For the moment, everything looks the same, but we will have a few more changes under the hood. The first thing you will notice is the speed improvement, being closer to the top of the chain and on faster servers makes a big difference. We have upgraded Joomla to the latest for improved security (and hope to prevent Hacks in the future).

We have been busy behind the scenes at CSINext. We had our chapter meeting with a good turn out last November and the meeting is just around the corner in February (tenative date is February 16th). The chapter is officially incorporated and in the final stages of setting up the bank account. We continue to have member growth with our current chapter membership at 22.We held our CSINext board meeting on December 21, 2010 and the next one is scheduled for February.

Just as you thought CSINext may have flat lined, it is still very much alive. We just had our November Chapter meeting and the next one is scheduled for January 19th. But I’m mainly writing this message to share a long journey that ends with “very good news”.

You may be asking yourself… why is this site keep changing? Two simple words ‘Virtual Chapter’. Or in geek speak, Social Network. The site is built on Joomla!, it is nothing more than CMS (Content Management System). But that is only the beginning we need to expand on the member experience. The interface has been updated for a fresh look that makes it much easier to navigate. As web site grows, we need to make sure that content is easy to find. The result is using a very popular layout template JA Purity.

It is getting closer to the next chapter meeting! The topic will be Specifications: Can Less Be Enough? presented by John R Guill AIA, CSI, CCS, CCA, SCIP. The meeting will be held on it in November 17, 2010 at 2:00pm ET via a webinar. Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/532208553

Greetings fellow charter members of CSINext. We are excited to get CSINext rolling, the chapter board has begun meeting on a regular basis taking care of the procedural and operational business issues. Keeping with institute bylaws, the chapter needs to hold its Charter meeting. To accomplish this we will be doing it virtually via a webinar setup. Mark your calendars for April 9th at 4:00pm EDT. We look forward to having you attend.

First, welcome to the club. Sorry for your situation. There is nothing particularly unique in our "underemployed" status. If misery loves company, we have a large and growing company!

To read the full article CLICK HERE and visit CSINext Member Bob Dye, FCSI website.

at the last posted comment, which should be a single word. Then you write your comment which would be the first word that pops into your head. (borrowed from another site;) I WILL START...

Editors Note: This was a very early post and the word play it lasted a couple of days. Here is the original List:

• American - by dkh007
• Patriot - by cynbel
• Warrior - by lynnj
• Samurai - by lane@beougher
• Japonica - by lynnj
• Audacious! - by olargyle