Hello CRMCA membership. I hope your summer continues to go well. The warm weather brings busy times in the concrete industry, and with the labor shortages, I know it is more difficult than ever. Hopefully, with the additional unemployment compensation coming to an end, it can help with workforce issues.
Unfortunately I cannot seem to write a blog without again mentioning the virus and now the variants of the virus. Just when we think we have this thing under control, it comes back around. As I stated before, I hope you are able to safely operate your business and remain safe. As of this writing, we are dealing with the City of Denver and their Sept 1 implementation of vaccination requirements. CRMCA, along with many, many other trades, are requesting that construction sites be excluded from this mandate. As we expect a decision this week, we are prepared to continue to fight for the industry if necessary.
Regarding CRMCA news, we are right in the middle of expanding the Concrete Testing Adherence Collaboration (CTAC) to the National level. As this program is designed to improve concrete testing from both an accuracy and accountability perspective, it has created much interest in other areas of North America. Therefore, we are expanding this program across the US and Canada. This week we will hold our second Task Force meeting, consisting of concrete trade associations planning to participate. We are anticipating starting with 10 states for our January 2022 launch and build from there. Look for additional updates as we move the program forward.
I am pleased to state our ACI Certification sessions are again back to full class sizes of approximately 25 participants. Once limited by the max group size of 10 or less, we have again boosted these up to meet the demand. Contact JT Mesite of Emma Dolan with questions.
Regarding events, we just completed our Summer Conference in Vail on August 12-13. This was the first year we partnered with CSSGA for a summer event, and it proved to be very successful with over 100 attendees! The event began with Board of Directors meetings the afternoon of Aug 12, followed by the first annual Rock Race!!! Then on the following day, there was a golf outing and dinner.
- Two people I need to thank for the success:
- First is Jeff Mulder, the Executive Director of the Nebraska Ready Mixed and Aggregates Association for building and delivering the Rock Race Track and overseeing the race event. He did a great job with all aspects. We plan to incorporate the rock race into future summer conferences.
- Also, Emma Dolan stepped up and did a fantastic job of pulling the entire conference together. Thank you, Emma, as all your attention to detail paid off!
We now turn our sites on the Annual Conference at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on Nov 18 & 19. This is always a great time to network with industry partners in a beautiful setting along the foothills. I am hopeful there are no restrictions in the upcoming months and the conference is once again the highlight of our year! Registration and details are scheduled to be out soon, so mark your calendars now, and plan to attend.
Lastly, I want to welcome Annelise back from her parental leave. She and husband Mike recently welcomed a healthy baby boy, Owen, into this world. I was able to meet him for the first time this week and am happy to report they are all doing great! Once again, congratulations Annelise!
As usual, let me know if there is any questions. Thanks and, again, be safe.
Todd R. Ohlheiser, CAE
Executive Director
