Every month the President of RECSI invites you take a moment and share a few thoughts about the state of the chapter and promote a dialog that hopefully can help to grow and sustain our community of design and construction professionals.
Greetings RECSI!
The first meeting of our fiscal year was held at Cattlemen’s in Petaluma Thursday, September 2. It was a collaborative affair with the local chapter of ASHRAE and the local chapter of USGBC was in attendance. We also joined the AIA-RE to put on a Golf Tournament at the end of August. We hope collaboration will be an ongoing theme this year. There will be plenty of opportunity to do so corporately and individually.
Collaboration is one of the beautiful aspects of CSI. Within our group we have the full range of construction industry professionals, as well as owner’s representatives and, yes, even lawyers.
So how does one put this aspect to good use? Just getting to know each other is a big step. The monthly dinner meetings are an excellent venue for this interaction and as well as an opportunity to learn about another aspect of our industry. I had no idea what chilled beams are. (They are non-structural and Wikipedia has a good article about them in case you were as lost as I was Thursday.) We tend to trust people more when we know them and we’re both more accountable.
Phone calls and emails help too. If I have a client needing a referral, the roster is a great resource, especially if I’ve met the member. Bryan Varner’s message in the front of last year’s roster hit the nail on the head. “Finding answers when you need them makes life so much easier.” The message is a good read and I encourage us to read it again. I emailed a member today to find out about availability of a product. He did not have the answer but directed me to the right person. We have a valuable and reliable membership and need to tap each as resources for successful projects.
I also want to continue to encourage everyone to get involved. “Many hands make light work” certainly has application in a volunteer organization, even in a high tech era.
Hope to see you at the October dinner meeting!
Cheers!
Steve