CSI Puget Sound Chapter

News

September 9 Chapter Meeting: Are Washington State Buildings Meeting Green Building Standards?

Posted: August 25, 2010

Registration is now open for the September 9 Chapter Meeting: Energy Modeling. Visit http://psccsi.org/events-listing/event/20100909Meeting/ for more information and to sign up.

Hotel Space Limited

Posted: May 20, 2010

Conference Logo Have you registered yet for Northwest Region Conference 2010: Earth, Wind & Fire - Getting Back to Nature? Word on the street is that hotel rooms are filling fast. The conference will be held in beautiful West Yellowstone, Montana, September 23-26. Hosted by the Idaho and Big Sky Chapters of CSI, this is sure to be both a great conference and a pleasant excursion. Don't miss it!

Visit the conference website.

CSINext – A Virtual Chapter!

Posted: April 27, 2010

By Daniel Hargreaves, CSI, RAS

“The meeting’s too far
It’s not convenient,
My family comes first…”

The holidays are over and it is time for a changing of the guard… digital guard that is.

At the November 17, 2009 CSI Board Meeting, the first virtual chapter was chartered, named CSINext , the brain child of CSI Member Brent Williams. With social media storming through the internet like wild fire, CSINext is the next evolution of the CSI chapter.

You may be familiar with Blogging, Facebook, and Twitter which is social networking. This is where CSINext comes in, taking the traditional chapter model to the digital world via social networking. Basically, allowing access to potential CSI members all over the world.

The chapter can be found at www.csinext.org.

On February 16, 2010 the acting CSINext board held its first meeting. The Board Members include: Daniel Hargreaves, Joy Davis, Bryan Varner, Robert Dye and Blake Wagner were present. Not present were Robert Mallory, Lauren Paulson and Brent Williams.

Brent Williams’ resignation, in writing, as president was regretfully accepted. Bryan Varner made a motion to appoint Daniel Hargreaves as President for the rest of FY2010. Robert Dye seconded the motion and the motion passed. The other officers are President Elect – Robert Mallory, Secretary – Bryan Varner, Treasurer – Robert Dye. Board of Directors - Lauren Paulson and Blake Wagner.

The chapter’s goal is to establish a social network that strives to function just like a traditional chapter. Once a member logs in, the first thing each member needs to focus on building is their profile. This is a snapshot of the members information that they will need to fill in as they see fit, including a place to upload a picture of themselves. Just like any good chapter, it always helps to place a face to a name. The user list lets each member visit each other’s profile; also the last five members to visit are listed on the home page. Each member has access to the Private Messaging System. Think of this as a local email account. This is feature rich and integrated with the member’s profile. What this does is if the member visits the User List and clicks on a name, there are several new options for sending a message to another member. They can use the Quick Message or select Private Message. Then just type away and hit send to begin communicating amongst each other. They can also post comments on the Wall, basically a way to talk out loud in the room for all to hear (or in this case to be seen).

Another feature is Article Comments. At the bottom of each article is a comment box. Sharing of comments, thoughts and ideas is one of the best ways to interact with each other. All the user will need to do is login, go to the article and at the bottom add their comment. Then hit send… have you noticed in the computer world everything requires you to hit send. There are other features such as an event calendar, photo gallery, guest books, and article and web link submission.

The focus of the chapter is communication and networking. Having a web presence allows for everyone to access the CSI community.

Daniel Hargreaves, CSI, CDT, RAS, is a member of CSI since March of 2000. He was President of the Dallas Chapter in 2005, Institute Director in 2006-2009 and President of the South Central Region in 2010. He is the current electronics’ chair for the Dallas Chapter. He has authored several websites for CSI chapters and businesses. He has been in Architecture over 25 years. His day job is Project Manager for MPI Architects located in Dallas, Texas.

Curmudgeon’s Corner; Moving on

Posted: April 27, 2010

By Sheldon Wolfe, RA, FCSI, CCS, CCCA

We just went through another round of bylaws amendments, and unless we decide to throw everything out and start over, we should be about done. The reason behind many of the amendments goes back to the governance initiative recommended by the Board and approved by the members just a couple of years ago. As you may recall, one of the biggest changes was to reduce the board of directors from twenty-nine members to eighteen. We’re well on the way now; we soon will be down to twenty board members.

The intent of the governance amendment was to create a smaller board, one that would be more nimble, more efficient, and more forward thinking. With that in mind, let us consider two Board activities: creation of a new committee to oversee the way members use their dues, and expanding CSI’s visibility and influence through increased participation of corporations.

Region Allocation Program Oversight Committee

Along with the reduction in size of the Board came a division of responsibilities. Institute Directors now will focus primarily on matters pertaining to operation of the Institute, while operation of the regions, formerly part of the Institute Directors’ duties, now is delegated to the regions. This created a problem; while Institute Directors had annual travel budgets for visiting chapters, region officers would now have to find other sources of funding for region business.

The response was the Region Allocation Program (RAP). Under this new program, regions no longer have to rely on chapter assessments for operating funds. Instead, the Institute sends a percentage of the basic membership dues directly to the regions. At one stroke, this addressed three problems: the lack of funding for region travel, the difficulty of collecting assessments, and the “missing” income that was not collected from at-large members. This is essentially the same process used for chapter dues - the Institute collects chapter dues, then sends the money to the chapters. As far as I know, this system has worked well for a long time without any special attention.

However, it was decided that the transfer of funds to regions required supervision by the Institute, and a Region Allocation Program Oversight Committee was formed, the intent being to “administer the Region Allocation Program (RAP) and evaluate the program’s effectiveness.” The oversight committee has since been quizzing regions and chapters, trying to figure out what’s going on in chapters and regions.

In either case, is it not the members’ money, to be used as the regions or chapters determine? The Region Allocation Program was a good idea, but do we need an oversight committee to decide if regions are spending their money wisely?

Increased participation of corporations

Another topic, which our board of directors has discussed many times, is corporate participation in CSI. To put this in the proper perspective, our bylaws state that “Firms or corporations are not eligible for membership” and I certainly don’t want to try to change the bylaws to allow corporate membership. However, it seems that we should be able to allow companies to participate in CSI without being corporate members, and to show their participation through use of the CSI logo and some expression of their relationship with CSI. This would benefit both the company and CSI by showing the company’s support and by making CSI more visible. AIA and USGBC have shown the value of cooperation between companies and organizations; it’s time CSI stopped trying to ignore the importance of those companies that pay the bills.

We often have lamented the fact that while ordinary people are aware of AIA, they have no idea what CSI is. And in only a few years, USGBC has become possibly the most-recognized construction organization. Should CSI pursue greater participation by companies? Should corporate participation be acknowledged by allowing companies to display the CSI logo? Isn’t it time to gain more visibility by promoting CSI through every means possible?

Express your opinion!

How are the Region Allocation Program and corporate participation related? They’re not, but members should take advantage of this year’s annual meeting to express their views on these subjects. Given a choice between the two, members will be better served by more visibility and recognition than by an oversight committee. And I believe it is a choice. Board members have only so much time, and the total time available is much less than what it was. It is more important than ever that the Board focus on those things that will make CSI more important and attract new members, and avoid activities that sound good but do not contribute to the mission.

While it is too late to submit a resolution, these and other issues still may be brought to the annual meeting as “Other Business.” The governance amendment made it possible to bring meaning to the annual meeting, so take advantage of it to tell your board of directors what you think is important!

ProSpec Sold Out

Posted: April 14, 2010

Thank you, Anderson Specialties, for purchasing the last table at ProSpec. Anyone interested in attending ProSpec as a guest please send an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Visit http://www.csi-prospec.org for more information.

Mt Rainer CSI Meeting: Design & Construction of the New Olympia City Hall

Posted: April 13, 2010

Mount Rainer Chapter CSI will hold their April 23 lunch meeting in Olympia. The program is titled "Design & Construction of the New Olympia City Hall" and will be presented by Court Olson from OAC Services and Greg Benton from Belay Architecture. Please visit http://www.csimtrainier.org for more information and to register.

Awards Nominations Open

Posted: March 29, 2010

The Awards Committee is now accepting nominations for the chapter’s 2009-2010 awards program. Visit www.psccsi.org/awards for complete information and a nomination form.

Awards Banquet Coming