Tight on money? The AGC Bookstore has dropped the price for the HAZWOPER 40-Hour Course, HAZWOPER 24-Hour Course and HAZWOPER 8-Hour Annual Refresher. Tight on time? Now is your opportunity to save time by taking these courses online.

Online Institue - HAZWOPER 40-Hour Course
        New Low Price! $375
This course is specifically designed for workers who are involved in clean-up operations, voluntary clean-up operations, emergency response operations, and storage, disposal, or treatment of hazardous substances or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Topics include protection against hazardous chemicals, elimination of hazardous chemicals, safety of workers and the environment, OSHA regulations. This course covers topics included in 29 CFR 1910.120. Note: The Online 40-Hour HAZWOPER training course meets the requirements set by the 29 CFR Part 1910.120 (e)(3)(i) for the 40-hours of instruction offsite training requirements, an additional three days actual field experience under the direct supervision of a trained, experienced supervisor.

Online Institue - HAZWOPER 24-Hour Course
        New Low Price! $225
This course covers broad issues pertaining to the hazard recognition at work sites. OSHA has developed the HAZWOPER program to protect the workers working at hazardous sites and devised extensive regulations to ensure their safety and health. This course, while identifying different types of hazards, also suggests possible precautions and protective measures to reduce or eliminate hazards at the work place.

Online Institue - HAZWOPER 8-Hour Annual Refresher
        New Low Price! $49
This course meets the requirements in OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 for eight hours of annual refresher training for workers at hazardous waste sites. This course is designed for general site workers who remove hazardous waste or who are exposed or potentially exposed to hazardous substances or health hazards. Topics include HAZWOPER regulations, safety and health plans, hazardous chemicals, safety hazards, air monitoring, medical surveillance, site control, decontamination, personal protective equipment, and respiratory equipment. Course Prerequisite: The 24 or 40 hour HAZWOPER course must be completed before taking the 8 hour refresher course.

Any questions can be directed to Meri Woods at woodsm@agc.org.

The challenging economy is the subject of conversation anytime construction executives get together these days. Most businesses are down, and everyone has hunkered down into survival mode until the second half of 2009.  One area, interestingly, that is seeing growth is the CEO Performance Roundtable Program. This program actually picking up steam as the recession lengthens.

According to a Reuters article from Tuesday, March 10, 2009, benchmarking or peer groups are, “…picking up steam as the recession worsens. Around the county, the heads of small to midsize firms are increasingly turning to each other for the support and confidence needed to keep a stiff upper lip as the mood at their companies darkens.” The goal of these performance or benchmarking groups is to serve as a makeshift board of advisors for each other, vetting a host of business problems ranging from succession issues to changes in market strategy to cost-cutting measures to delicate personnel decisions and more.

The value of a roundtable group in a recession can be tremendous. According to Charlie Harbutt of Garbutt Construction in Dublin, Georgia, “The tools our facilitator has delivered to us have been very helpful. He helped us analyze our general and administrative costs. Instead of doing low impact cost savings, items like cutting our coffee and soft drinks, he’s helped us drill down on high impact items to see exactly where our money is being spent. That’s had a good payoff.”

Mike Zingg of Design Structures will offices in Wisconsin and Oregon had this to say: “When we hosted this past fall the focus was an in-depth analysis of our financial and organizational health. We came away with a wealth of ideas on ways to improve. Since that meeting, we have cut overhead 50%, we have eliminated some people who didn’t fit our business plan, we have revisited our approach to market on the west coast, and we went from three partners to two. These positive changes were a direct result of feedback from our peers. We were able to look at our numbers and compare them to those of our industry and see exactly where we were doing well or not so well. This opportunity to ‘look behind the curtains’ of similar sized companies is unique to the CEO Performance Roundtable.”

If you as an executive, are looking for ways to become leaner and more efficient, the CEO Performance Roundtable Programs may be just the solution. For more information, contact Jack Ford at 877-326-2493, extension 231, or email at roundtables@familybusinessinstitute.com, or contact Chris Monek, AGC Senior Executive Director, at 703-837-5323, or email at monekc@agc.org.

Gain insight into the green incentives and sustainability provisions contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Understand the details of these provisions as well as the potential impact on construction project financing and lending standards. Information will be provided on the current credit and lending issues as well as the impact on financing contained in portions of the ARRA, specifically green incentives. Andy Lutz is a Managing Consultant in the Denver, CO office of Navigant Consulting, will explore ARRA its impact on the construction market on June 3 from 1:30 – 3:30 pm EDT. Register today.

For more information, please contact Carrie Harper at harperc@agc.org.

Designed specifically for the construction industry, AGC of America and the AGC of Houston Chapter will present a full-day project scheduling course on June 11, 2009.  Strive to improve your overall project management ability by better planning and scheduling. Learn modern scheduling techniques including the Critical Path Method (CPM), bar charts, computer printouts, plots and more.

This course includes:
• The Philosophy of Scheduling
• Defining Project Types
• Understanding Contract Requirements
• Creating the As-Planned CPM Schedule
• Updating the Schedule
• Identifying Delays
• Claims Prevention

This program qualifies for .7 IACE CEUs and 7 AIA LEUs. Register today.

For more information, please contact Carrie Harper at harperc@agc.org.

Front: Mike Fabishak, CEO of AGC of Greater Milwaukee; team captain Jamie Zimdahl; Dr. Hermann Viets, MSOE President Middle: Josh Wilsmann, Chad Kucik, Ryan Mack Back: Derek Burdick, Chris Cichon, Robert Lemke, associate professor. Photo by Paul W. Roberts, MSOE

 MSOE Architectural Engineering and Construction Management students won the Design-Build national championship at the Associated General Contractors (AGC) national student competition in San Diego on March 5. They prepared an architectural design, construction estimate, construction schedule and sustainable design plan for an $80 million Colorado History Museum, and gave a presentation to a panel of architects and construction professionals-all within a 30-hour period. "MSOE was a well-oiled machine that you could see worked exceptionally well together," said Brian Hansen, competition judge.

Mike Fabishak, CEO of AGC of Greater Milwaukee, presented the traveling trophy to MSOE students at an award ceremony in Milwaukee April 20. He offered his congratulations and told the team they are at the top of the mountain in terms of their abilities and MSOE's reputation. Participating in AGC's student competition bodes well for their future, as employers recognize the skill and knowledge needed to be strong competitors.

The highly competitive national student competition was held in conjunction with the AGC annual convention. MSOE's Design-Build team took second place the last three years when the competition was co-sponsored by the Associate Schools of Construction. MSOE has had six national champions and placed eight times in the student competition, more than any university in the country. And last year, the Commercial Construction team took third.

For this year's event, the Design-Build team prepared an architectural design, construction estimate, construction schedule and a sustainable design plan for an $80 million Colorado History Museum, and gave a presentation to a panel of architects and construction professionals-all within a 30-hour period. The building had to be designed to LEED gold certification standards. Competition judges praised the students' exceptional teamwork and professionalism, and also commented that the team's written, verbal and design presentation were top notch.

MSOE Design-Build team members are Derek Burdick, Chris Cichon, Chad Kucik, Ryan Mack, Josh Wilsmann, Jamie Zimdahl and coach Robert Lemke, associate professor. Each winning team member was awarded a trophy, a briefcase with over a $2,000 in AGC benefits. The MSOE Construction Management program received $3,000, and the team holds the first traveling trophy until 2010.

 MSOE competed against teams from Clemson University, Roger Williams, Iowa State University, Texas A&M, Arizona State University and Oklahoma State University for the national championship.

Reprinted with permission from MSOE, originally published 4/20/2009.

AGC regrets to inform you that due to low registration and participation, the Construction Education Committee Meeting scheduled for June 9-11, 2009 in Hot Springs, VA has been cancelled. The CEC and its subcommittees will conduct committee business and any immediate agenda items via a conference call or virtual meeting. These meetings will take place within the next 30 days. Please look for upcoming announcements in the next week.

The AGC Building Contractors Conference will go forward as planned. For more information, please visit our website or contact Cassia Griffin via email at griffinc@agc.org. 

AGC apologizes for any inconvenience. Please be sure to cancel your hotel reservations at The Homestead. You can reach reservations at 866-354-4653. Cancelations are accepted up to seven days prior to arrival.

If you have any questions please contact Allison Brotman at brotmana@agc.org or Barry Paceley at barry@paceley.net.

Additional Spots Opened for AGC's Sold-Out BIM 101 Course in Dallas: Deadline May 21!
BIM 101: An Introduction to Building Information Modeling is the first part of AGC’s newly launched BIM Education Program. BIM 101 is a full-day course designed for construction professionals, building developers, designers, owners and others in the AEC community eager to learn the essential concepts of BIM.

Additional seats have been made available for this sold-out program–May 27 in Dallas, TX–space is limited!

This high-quality, content-rich program will prepare participants to proactively move forward with BIM adoption. Course objectives include:
• Recognize the importance of BIM
• Define common BIM terminology
• Discuss how BIM can be used as a communication and collaboration tool
• Explain the benefits of BIM
• Compare examples of successful BIM usage
• Discuss issues associated with starting BIM
• Discuss BIM usage with scheduling, estimating and facility management
• Create a BIM Action Plan

Register for this program today. Questions? Contact Amy Fields or Stephanie Mullins at curriculum@agc.org or (703) 837-5387 for additional information on this course, additional offerings of BIM 101 at AGC Chapters.

AGC’s BIMForum will hold its spring meeting immediately following BIM 101. This meeting requires an additional registration. More information can be found here.

AGC of America’s Education e-Forum currently has several hundred members involved in all areas of employee education, training and professional development. This is a great tool to connect to your AGC peers about questions you may have. Recent topics have included green construction training, pre-apprenticeship programs, construction summer camps for elementary students and glazier training.

Although you can just sit back and receive e-Forum messages silently, we encourage you to actively participate in the Education e-Forum so that others may have the benefit of your knowledge and opinions.  To submit a message to the e-Forum so that all list members will automatically receive it, send an e-mail message to education@agclists.org.

The following guidelines apply: 
• Not every topic, question or bit of information will be of interest to you, so just delete what you’re not interested in.  If you find that you are receiving too many messages that are not relevant to you, go the List Manager interface on the Web .  From there, you can change how often you receive e-Forum messages, as well as view past messages.
• To reply to an e-Forum message so that all members of the list will receive your reply, use your “reply to all” function.  If you use your regular reply function, your reply will go only to the sender of the original message.  Use this function only when you wish to keep your reply private or when the content is inappropriate for the group.
• Use this e-Forum only for messages that are related to education and workforce development and training.
To join the Education e-Forum, contact Crystal Yates at yatesc@agc.org.  Participation is open to all AGC members in good standing and chapter staff. 

Please note that e-Forum participation is subject to certain terms of use, posted in the Technology section of our website: www.agc.org.

AGC of America is working for you developing new programs and updating existing curriculum to bring you the most relevant training programs. In the next year AGC will be releasing several programs that we want to update you on:

BIM Education Program
● Unit 1: BIM 101 An Introduction to Building Information Modeling was released on April 16, 2009 and courses are scheduled at AGC Chapters. 
● Unit 2: An Introduction to BIM Technology will be released in Fall 2009. This multi-day course will be delivered in three sessions—two in-seat, eight hour courses and one online component that will provide participants with an opportunity to test-drive and use BIM technology. The material will be piloted in August 2009.
More information can be found at www.agc.org/BIMEP.

Green Training
More information can be found at www.agc.org/green.

Supervisory Training Program
● Unit 6: Understanding and Managing Project Costs is being updated to reflect changing industry standards and concepts. This unit will be released in October 28, 2009 at AGC’s 3rd Annual Training & Development Conference.
More information can be found at www.agc.org/STP.

AGC will regularly update you on developments with these programs. If you have any questions on these updates and new projects contact AGC of America at curriculum@agc.org.

AGC has renegotiated the hotel rates at the Harrah’s Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas. The new rates for this event are $69 for May 19 and $49 for May 20 and 21. The Harrah’s is located at the heart of the Strip with over 2,500 rooms and suites, 86,664 square feet of casino space, seven outstanding restaurants and outdoor swimming pool.

The 2009 Estimating Academy presented by AGC of America and the American Society of Professional Estimators will be held on May 20-22, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV at The Harrah’s. This two-and-a-half-day course will cover current topics like LEED® - Estimating for Green Buildings, Estimating with Electronic Documents, Managing Preconstruction and Conceptual Estimating. In addition, attendees can take part in a half day of specialty instruction featuring mechanical or electrical estimating. Space is limited, please register today.

This program is most appropriate for Junior and Senior Estimators. This course qualifies for 2 IACET CEUs and 19 AIA LUs for those who successfully complete this program. For more information and to register for this event, please contact Carrie Harper at harperc@agc.org.