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President's Message
Thanks again to everyone attending our summer convention. It was by far one of the best events I've ever attended and the turn out and engagement was excellent.
A hugely rewarding comment I heard about was relayed by Miles Zeman, who has been working with an associate that I believe was attending for the first time, and who could not get over the openness, cooperation, comradery, and togetherness FPCA shares. Truly and incredible complement and testament to you all.
Another big highlight was the continuation of the tradition begun in our 60
th anniversary year presenting the first FPCA Fellowship Award for longstanding dedication and commitment to the precast/prestressed industry in Florida along with the goals and values of the Florida Prestressed Concrete Association. This year's recipient was John Robertson who besides attending the Saturday night function to accept the award was also present for Thursday's FDOT liaison meeting. John clearly has maintained a keen interest in the industry and in his remarks expressed apparent heartfelt gratification that what he shepherded for so long was continuing to thrive.
The FPCA Fellowship Award is intended to express the gratitude of the Board of Directors and our group at large, it's also an acknowledgment of the immense value each Fellowship Award recipient signifies to FPCA, and it represents our earnest desire to keep individuals recognized by this Fellowship Award connected to FPCA long into the future. It is absolutely imperative to lean on experience, and this is a tangible way for FPCA to thank, acknowledge, and set apart folks who have exemplified that at the highest level. John is an absolutely worthy recipient.
Finally, we do need some help with a couple new initiatives so I want to encourage everyone to find a way to get and stay involved in some capacity with FPCA. Together we are growing the industry in Florida.
Lenny Salvo, President of the Board
Coreslab Structures (Orlando)
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To echo Lenny's comments above, our August's Summer Convention was a huge success and it's all due to support from all of FPCA members. Thank you to all of our sponsors, without your financial support, the Convention would not be able to get off the ground, let along soaring to new heights;
Attendance:
- 2016 @ LaPlaya - 80 registered
- 2017 @ Ponte Vedra - 122 registered
- 2018 @ Wyndham Grand - 160 registered
For those that did not attend, we now meeting regularly, bi-annually, with FDOT representatives from Central Office, State Materials Office & Districts. Everyone walked away with new ideas & excitement after Dean Gwin of Gate Precast Concrete presentation on 3-D Mold Printing for precast architectural panels. Industry training
continued to increase in attendance from year to year from Members looking to increase their knowledge about this industry. This year we had
Tony Lehman of Hudson Parrott Walker Legal and Christopher Eagon of BASF. The Luau themed reception was a big success in honor of FPCA current President, Lenny Salvo. Since Winter Meeting is always short & sweet, the Executive Committee agreed to recognize Lenny's dedication and services as President of FPCA since 2015. The Diepsea Fishing event was another huge success enjoyed by those that was on the boat for the 6-hr adventure. The event was attended by members, their spouse/guest and family. The highlight of Saturday night Dinner Banquet wasn't from all the wonderful raffle prizes, but was from an impromptu-comedian, Steve Caouette; Unfortunately our President-Elect Kurt Podoll and his family were the brunt for most of Steve's jokes. Everyone had a belly-full of laughter, thank you to the Podoll family for your candid participation.
Complete lists of FPCA classes of membership are available on our website;
www.myFPCA.org. As an Association, we're always encouraging Producer Members to support Associate/Professional Members that support FPCA.
- Education: Chair by Mr. Lloyd Kennedy, Finfrock Industries
- UF
- School of Architecture - Diep met with Director Jason Alread of School of Architecture to discuss opportunities and resources available from local & national precast/prestressed concrete industry. Director Alread is in the process of updating the new curriculum and will seek FPCA assistant when the time comes.
- School of Building Construction - Diep also met up with Prof. James Sullivan with Rinker's School of Building Construction. One of his collegue, Dr. Shanker has been taking students to Lindsey Precast in Alachua Co. Diep is working with Dr. Shanker to present opportunity for students to visit a prestressing plant(s) as well as making presentation to his classes. Other suggestions from Dr. Sullivan are presentation on Job Site Safety and Delivery/Erection Scheduling.
- School of Civil & Coastal Engineering - Heidi Ziemann & Billy Jolly of JVI presented Details & Connections to Dr. Trey Hamilton class. Thank you Heidi & Billy for taking the time to educate these students.
- FIU
- Student Plants Tour - Working with FIU-ACI Student Chapter to bus 35 students and Dr. David Garber to 3 Producer Members nearby; International Casting Corp., Coreslab Structures (Miami) and Structural Prestressed, Inc. Thank you to all of our Producer Members for knowledge, experience and the willingness to spend time with these future engineers/specifiers/designers.
- Big Beam Competition - Dr. Garber's students took 4th & 14th Place Overall in the National Student Competition. Diep met with these students to hand them matching checks on behalf of FPCA Ed. Foundation. Photos of the winners are on our website. We also presented a plaque to the Department and one to Coreslab Structures (Miami) for their participation and support.
- UNF
- Student Plants Tour - We took 40 students of Dr. Adel El-Safty to visit Gate Precast and Wire Mesh Corp. manufacturing plants. Thank you both Gate & WMC for a wonderful learning experience.
- Marketing Committee: Chair by Mr. Vern Smith, Coreslab Structures (Tampa)
- Resiliency Florida (RF)
- We continued to work closely with leaderships as they work through their governance issues and formation of committees. They are currently looking for volunteers to serve on the following committees; Coastal Resiliency, Flood Control & Water & Wastewater. Both Diep and Lenny had volunteered to be on Coastal Resiliency. We look forward the working with this Committee and getting our stories out to the policy and code bodies at local & state level.
- Florida Association of Counties (FAC) - Diep attended the FAC's Innovation & Policy Conference where close to 100 County Commissioners & representatives were present. There were about 7 vendors with products and literature to share with the attendees. FPCA will participate next year to showcase resilience structures.
- Newsletter: Aug. 2018, Sept. 2018, Oct. 2018, Nov. 2018.
- MHK Architecture & Planner - Sander Steele of Cement Industries and Mark Kraft of Coreslab Structures (Orlando) co-presented to about 12 architects on hollow-core plank technology. Lots of good questions and some were very introductory level from the younger architects in the room. They're also interested in learning about architectural panel design. Diep will follow-up to schedule.
- FDOT Liaison: Chair by Mr. Kurt Podoll, Standard Concrete Products
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PCI's Update
PCI Hires Director, Architectural Precast Systems
PCI welcomes
Donn Thompson
as its new director of architectural precast systems. Thompson brings more than 30 years of experience in the U.S. construction industry to the position, including 14 years as an architect working with firms on a variety of commercial, institutional, and residential construction projects.
Government Affairs Update
Webinar will Review Election Results.
The North American Concrete Alliance (NACA) is a coalition of 12 concrete-related associations, including PCI, formed in 2004 to address industry-wide concerns and initiatives in the areas of research, safety, education, and government affairs.
On Wednesday, November 7th at 2:00 PM, NACA will host a webinar to discuss the election results. Members of NACA will review what happened on Election Day, how the results impact the political landscape of our nation, and what this means for the concrete industry and the next Congress. Please click here to register.
OSHA Responds to Silica FAQs
Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica 29 C.F.R. § 1926.1153
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for the Construction Industry.
OSHA has answered silica rule-related questions for the construction portion of the regulations that would affect PCA member companies.
Questions OSHA answers include:
- Has OSHA identified specific tasks that are likely to be outside the scope of the standard because they typically generate exposures below the AL of 25 µg/m3 as an eight-hour TWA under all foreseeable conditions?
- Does an employer using alternative exposure control methods for compliance have to conduct sampling of all employees performing all job tasks?
Please contact Jon Grafton on the PCI staff at jgrafton@pci.org if you have questions or for more information.
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Member Highlight
Pathfinder Precast
Hello from Pathfinder Precast! My name is Dana Hook, Director of Business Development -Precast for Pathfinder Systems. I met several of you at the FPCA's Summer Convention in Clearwater Beach back in August. It was a great event! I look forward to working with you to provide engineered solutions to the precast industry through equipment, engineering and services provided by our partners. Pathfinder Systems has entered the precast concrete industry very aggressively by having a complete offering of Precast/Wet Cast equipment to support your needs. Our partnership with Vollert, Nordimpianti, B+S and CureTec provides access to over 100 Engineers to support the technical expertise required for the changing needs and efficiencies of the precast industry. Vollert supplies completely automated circulation/carousel & stationary type systems for your wet cast wall panel needs.
Vollert also produces large "T" beam forms and stair forms to compliment their offering. Nordimpianti has become one of the world's leading manufacturers of hollow core producing equipment. Both Vollert and Nordimpianti provide complete engineered solutions for your existing plant rebuild or new green field construction projects. B+S Engineering offers manhole, specialty mold and pipe mold manufacturing, which includes their state-of-the-art robotic foam manhole invert producing system, the PECO System.
CureTec provides curing and heating solutions to increase efficiencies throughout your operations.
Thank you for considering Pathfinder Precast. Please contact me at 779-771-3586 or 616-395-8447 to discuss any opportunities to optimize your precast operations.
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FPCA News
PCI Chapter Agreement Update
Through PCI, a Task Group was formed to create a single agreement and alignment with PCI National Strategic Plan; Goal 2: To Increase Relative Market Share.
Task Group met several times face-to-face & through conference calls, the final draft is expected at the upcoming PCI Convention in Louisville, KY for Board approval.
Mark McKeny of Dura-Stress is FPCA Regional Director serving on the Task Group.
FPCA: United We Stand
I'd like to borrow the motto, "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" that has been well documented in our country history. Standing together and marching in the same direction toward a set of goals will only make us better and stronger than doing things on our own.
Recently I've sent a note to all of our Producer Members encouraged them to compete base on attributes and benefits of precast/prestressed concrete products, highlighting the industry at large and their individual respective company's quality of craftsmanship, design capabilities, technical know-how support, quality of installation and faster construction when compared to other building products, instead of sharing negative messages about another producer to customers. This message goes to our Associate Members as well. By sharing shortcomings of your competitor, it doesn't make your products better. However, it begs the question, "what will you share with the next customer?"
Professionalism breeds respect. Competition is healthy. Provide solutions through your line of products earn sales. And stay away from negativity; it only makes you look smaller. Our competition is against other building products and when we increased precast/prestressed concrete market share in Florida, we increased sales for all; "rising tide raise all ships".
Remember, we are one industry and our goal is to increase the use of precast/prestressed concrete products over any other building products, because we are better, smarter and faster. It also doesn't hurt to hear from our customers that our industry representatives are the most professional anywhere. Let's work together to bring even greater success to our Florida precast/prestressed concrete industry!
Nominating Committee (Past Presidents) Dinner - slated for mid-Dec. in Orlando.
In accordance to FPCA By-laws, a Nominating Committee to consist of the Immediate Past President of the Association as Chairperson and all Active Past Presidents. This Committee will nominate the Officers and the Producer Member Directors for Board approval at the Annual Meeting.
Board of Directors Meeting - Conference call - Thursday, Nov. 29th @ 10:00 AM.
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Upcoming Events
- National Disaster Resilience Conference - Nov. 7th - 9th @ Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach
- Florida Parking & Transportation Association Annual Conference - Dec. 5th - 7th @ Marriott Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra
- PCI Marketing Council Meeting - Dec. 6th @ Villas of Grand Cypress, Orlando
- 2019 FPCA Ed. Foundation Fundraising & Annual Membership Meeting - Feb. 7th & 8th @ Marriott Lake Mary (Hotel on-line reservation is now open - visit our website - www.myfpca.org)
- 2019 FPCA Summer Convention - Aug. 1st - 4th @ Boca Raton Resort & Golf Club
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Producer Members
(For contact information, click
here)
Cement Industries - Ft. Myers
Coreslab Structures - Orlando, Tampa, Miami
Colonial Precast Concrete - Placida
Dura-Stress - Leesburg
Finfrock Industries - Apopka
Gate Precast Co. - Jacksonville, Kissimmee
International Casting Corp. - Miami Lakes
Metromont Corp. - Bartow
Pre-Cast Specialties - Pompano Beach
Skanska Civil SE - Pensacola
Spancrete - Sebring
STABIL Precast Products - St. Petersburg
Standard Concrete Products - Tampa
Structural Prestressed Industries - Medley
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