News Detail

We Can Listen and Learn

8/1/2005

During the last week in June, I had an opportunity to attend an American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC) CEO Forum. In addition to meeting a wonderful group of people, it was a great and enlightening experience for me. As I told them at the conclusion of the Forum, I felt like the little kid who peeks around the corner to see what's going on and gets invited in to participate. In my experience, it's always better to be in the kitchen than outside looking in.

One of my Presidential Objectives is to "Reach out to the concrete constructors to improve their participation in ACI activities." At the ASCC CEO Forum, I learned that this is a two-way street. Yes, we want the concrete contractors to be more active in ACI, but maybe the way to accomplish this is to better understand their issues and challenges. We need to first try to understand their problems and then invite them in to ACI to help solve them together. How can we even begin to think that we know what they need without listening to them and then offering to help if it's appropriate? We can't help with everything nor should we try, but sometimes we may be able to learn from them and also help them.

Our goals are the same: To produce economical and durable structures that also look nice. I wish that each ACI member could have had the same opportunity that I did to participate with the leaders of these companies in this two-day meeting. Although a lot of the activity was related to running a construction company, much of that was just as applicable to handling our own careers. Everything that we do involves dealing with other people, and the same basic rules apply to most situations. I learned a lot.

Although most of the discussions and presentations were not technical in nature, the information was pertinent to all of us. In addition, roundtable discussions followed most of the presentations. The roundtables were facilitated by leaders in the concrete contracting business. I found this extremely enlightening and felt privileged to be allowed to participate. In general, the groups were composed of 10 to 12 folks and included participants from various geographic areas as well as different types of business. For example, a group might be composed of contractors who build buildings, some who build bridges, suppliers to the industry, and contractors who basically do residential work. In general, the participants "let their hair down" and had open and frank discussions on the subjects that had been presented by the speakers.

Perhaps this roundtable venue can work for some of the problems that we would like to mutually solve with the concrete contractors. It certainly wouldn't hurt for small groups of knowledgeable folks to sit around a table and have frank discussions about solving problems, such as tolerances. Do we as typical ACI members and designers believe that we know more about what can be done related to tolerances than the folks who have to build the buildings that we design? I DON'T THINK SO! We need their participation, and hopefully we can help them to understand what we as designers are trying to accomplish while the concrete contractors can explain to us what they can actually do.

Nothing that I have said here should in any way minimize the efforts of those contractors who are already participating in ACI. We are lucky to have concrete contractors serving on a number of committees. In recent history, we have had several concrete contractors serve as President of the Institute and will have another next year. Many other concrete contractor members have been active in helping to make ACI a financially viable organization by providing leadership in the business aspects of running our Institute. Others have offered practical technical leadership.

In this memo, I've used the term "concrete contractor" to describe any contractor involved with the concrete construction industry. In some geographic areas, that would refer to general contractors who perform their own concrete work, but in many places today it means a contractor who essentially does only concrete work. We can learn from all of them.

All of us should support the "Contractor's Day" activities that are typically on the Tuesday of each convention. We should also take advantage of the knowledge of this valuable group of members. We are fortunate to have the concrete contractors as members of ACI and should make the experience viable enough for them that more will want to join.

We have room in our "kitchen" for all of the participants in the concrete industry. Let's make them want to come in.

James R. Cagley, President
American Concrete Institute
jim@cagley.com

Back to Past-Presidents' Memo List