The Construction Institute Board of Directors met in New York at the offices of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at 115 Broadway on Thursday, February 1, 2007. Those present included Tom Groark (Port Authority of NY and NJ), Chris Traylor (Traylor Brothers), Rick MacDonald (Weeks Marine), Jorge Martinez (Bechtel Infrastructure), Lee Smither (FMI), Gene Balter (HDR), and Bill Spragins (FMI).
Among the topics discussed were the development of the CI Directorates Symposium to be held in Dallas in late June of this year and the CI Regional Conference in New York late January 2008.
Last year, a major focus of the CI Board of Directors was the development of a CI Strategic Plan under the leadership of Rick MacDonald. The CI Strategic Plan is intended to be a “living” document to help guide CI in achieving its mission to “bring together all stakeholders to advance and improve the construction industry.” The establishment of this plan was a major initiative to help foster better communication between the CI Board of Directors, directorates, and technical committees. As you will see from this issue, The Construction Zone now includes content to help “spur” discussion among practitioners.
A next step in making CI a stronger organization is the development of an annual membership conference. Just as with any significant endeavor, the development of this conference has been taken one step at a time. A first step towards this endeavor was taken in June of last year when the first CI Directorates Symposium was held in Chicago. This event allowed technical committees to share their work not only with the CI Board of Directors, but with other technical committees. As mentioned, in late June of this year a similar event will be held in Dallas in conjunction with the CI Board of Directors meeting.
Construction Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers