Dear Members,
I have always enjoyed construction (and deconstruction). I have some great recollections of being involved in construction projects at an early age. There was the time my father was pouring a large concrete patio. The slab had been finished and my father was taking a break – somewhere away from the slab. His parting words were “Jimbo, don’t go near the concrete”. Of course being curious (and four) and wondering why no cylinders had been pulled, no slump test done, I slowly inserted my Hush Puppy clad foot into the wet mud to gauge consistency. It must have been a wet six sack because when I went to remove my foot my shoe stayed. Some interesting lessons followed, certainly not involving concrete.
Some of the most intriguing times were spent on Christmas morning deconstructing my new toys. It took my parents a couple of seasons to figure out that giving me a toy that needed to be built (Erector Set, Lego or Lincoln Logs) made more sense than a toy that would be taken apart before Christmas dinner.
Whatever the toy it had to come apart so I could figure out how it worked. I know there are many of you who did the same. Today many toys (think Transformers) are made to assemble and disassemble. I guess that takes a little fun out of raiding my fathers tool box to find just the right tool (or so I thought) to get the back off some electronic part from the inside of some other part that came off the toy.
I remember going to other children’s houses and seeing pristine collections of toys that were untouched – on shelves in display cases. I drooled at the thought of disassembling the “Rock’em Sock’em Robots that was on display – in the box - and figuring out what the release mechanism was on the jaw portion of the robot. Or neatly dissecting the rocket launcher on the GI Joe Action Jeep to figure out how the spring launcher was configured.
Things got no better when I disassembled my first Bendix Coaster Brake. I was about seven and worked on it most of the day. None of these things suffered from anything other than my curiosity of what made them work. Why did these things perform the duty they had been built for? I knew their purpose but needed to understand how that purpose was achieved.
I look at the work that I and my fellow CSI members do today. From concept to completion we ask some of the same basic questions of the buildings we build and maintain; what is the purpose, will it perform to the purpose and how can we make it better achieve the purpose? The curiosity for the built environment makes up part of our CSI culture and we get to share this with one another at our monthly dinner meetings. Please plan to come and participate in our meetings, we may even have some AM radios to take apart.
This has been a great autumn for the chapter. We have picked up several new members and have had a great turn out for our monthly dinner meetings. November was great with Sean Maloney of Maloney Construction giving a talk on Helical Piers. Sean knows his field and his practical experience came across in an unpretentious and easy to understand format. I am hoping that any of you reading this will feed the Programs Chair (me) any ideas for new programs or different perspectives on programs we may have already had. Getting a program roster filled is challenging and having the programs member generated is important.
We have been experimenting with GoToMeeting for several sub committees and are planning to (hopefully) put that format into place for upcoming board meetings. The principle is simple – people log onto a web site and conference in via phone (or VoIP if you have that technology) and meet. We can have single or multiple presenters and agendas or other critical items can be viewed on your computer – in real time. It has generally worked out well and cuts down on the travel time and expense for all the members involved. We need to keep searching for ways to make volunteering easier and promote new participation by creating “ease of use” for all the members.
The holiday’s are upon us and our annual holiday party will be held at Joseph’s Restaurant on December 4th. If you have not received your invite please email me or any other board member and we will get you all the information. This should be a great time and I look to seeing all of you there.
Happy Holiday’s and warm regards,
Jim Daniel
RECSI Chapter President
