Who remembers why and when you joined CSI? A little bit of a rhetorical question. However, for most of us, it was a decision that continues to impact our professional carrier. I’m a stone throw away from being a member for 20 years. I remember my first meeting and the impact it had on that young kid (young at the age of 34). After I joined, I remember being surround by such wisdom. I would sit quietly, absorbing everything around me.

It only took one day after my first meeting to decide that I wanted to be part of the CSI family. At the time, I had no idea it was a family. I was on a path to become licensed as an Architect, and the education was amazing. I had never seen anything like it. When I talked with my boss Dennis DeLisse about joining, he was please yet serious. I still remember he advice to me “If you are going to join CSI, you will need to be involved.” Probably the smartest thing I’ve ever heard and if you can’t tell, I take it to heart. 

It did not take long to learn CSI was more than a learning opportunity. Today, CEU’s are everywhere, Lunch & Learn at the Office, Webinars, Podcast, online seminars, conferences, you get the point. At CSINext, we strive to bring relevant content via our webinars. As you can tell, it is a crowded field. So how do we step it up and take it the next level? 

We build on diversity. We build on the other aspects of CSI. CSINext is always striving to be an echo of the local chapter on the web. At www.csinext.org, it is more than a web page. It is portal to connect. Each month I go throw the roster and look at the new members and anniversaries. This month it caught my eye that we have 70 members in our chapter. I started thinking about where all of our members are from.

There is a very cool web page called Scribble Maps. You can find it at www.scibblemaps.com I placed a pin at the city listed for each member. I’ve included a screen shot, but you can also visit the ‘live’ map at https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/CSINext/YzsDLqECYi It is pretty cool, we have members from Edmonton to Puerto Rico and California to New York. The geographic spread amazes me, yet we have common goals in the construction industry. Also, if you notice our Board, we are just as spread out as our members. The green pins are the Board members.

From time to time, I always remind myself of how my CSI journey started. I would encourage anyone to share some of their beginnings. Post it to the social feed or in the discussion section. We can continue to learn so much from each other. That’s how I approach each day.

…and now for something completely different.
Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It’s the same with apples!