CSC/NCR Conference, May 2006
The Construction Specifications Canada/North Central Region (CSC/NCR) Conference was an unqualified success. This year’s CSC national convention was held jointly with the NCR of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). The NCR has held joint meetings with other CSI regions in the past. I do not know if there has been a meeting with CSC, however.
Approximately 50 members represented the NCR. This is a smaller group than usually attends the annual NCR conferences, for sure, but probably not a surprising number. Since this was not a “home” conference for any NCR chapter the “traveling” attendance was probably not far off the average. Another factor limiting attendance is that many US companies do not operate or have sales territories that cross the Canadian border. Therefore, some NCR members who would normally attend would not have their company’s support. A third factor is that Winnipeg is not a short distance from any of the NCR chapters. Everyone who attended spent some time and/or money to get to Winnipeg. Next year’s CSC Conference will be in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have had the good fortune to attend a couple of conferences there. It is one of my favorite (or favourite) cities.
I arrived in Winnipeg on the morning of May 25. Gordon French of the Winnipeg CSC Chapter was there to pick me up and take me to the conference hotel. Along the way he provided an interesting travelogue of the history of Winnipeg. I followed the NCR Leadership Training “track” of seminars. Richard Sophir presented a seminar on Chapter programs. Sheldon Wolfe presented a seminar on Chapter newsletters and websites. John Rickert gave a presentation on Chapter education programs. All of these presentations were only constrained by the time allowed. They were very well received and prompted interested questions and discussions by the attendees.
The CSC has similar but different certification programs. I have not had time to learn the details, but there are Certified Technical Representatives (CTR) and Registered Specifications Writers (RSW). More on this later.
Luncheon speakers included Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian Foreign Secretary and Hannah Taylor, age 10 who has helped establish the Ladybug Foundation to help homeless people in Canada. Both speakers had inspiring messages.
On Saturday Lynn Javoroski and I attended the Registered Specification Writer’s meeting. It was an open meeting. It was literally an open forum, with everyone arranging their chairs in a large circle so we all were facing one another. The hour was filled with lots of discussion on various topics including: SectionFormat, open-book exams, outline specifications, manufacturer guide specifications, creation of a mentoring manual and creating a specification editing course. We were impressed with the openness and genuine interest of the members. I am not familiar with the CSC approach to their Certification programs, but it appears to be focused on mentoring, experience and education. I certainly enjoyed the open forum approach and the exchange among the members.
CSI
Approximately 50 members represented the NCR. This is a smaller group than usually attends the annual NCR conferences, for sure, but probably not a surprising number. Since this was not a “home” conference for any NCR chapter the “traveling” attendance was probably not far off the average. Another factor limiting attendance is that many US companies do not operate or have sales territories that cross the Canadian border. Therefore, some NCR members who would normally attend would not have their company’s support. A third factor is that Winnipeg is not a short distance from any of the NCR chapters. Everyone who attended spent some time and/or money to get to Winnipeg. Next year’s CSC Conference will be in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have had the good fortune to attend a couple of conferences there. It is one of my favorite (or favourite) cities.
I arrived in Winnipeg on the morning of May 25. Gordon French of the Winnipeg CSC Chapter was there to pick me up and take me to the conference hotel. Along the way he provided an interesting travelogue of the history of Winnipeg. I followed the NCR Leadership Training “track” of seminars. Richard Sophir presented a seminar on Chapter programs. Sheldon Wolfe presented a seminar on Chapter newsletters and websites. John Rickert gave a presentation on Chapter education programs. All of these presentations were only constrained by the time allowed. They were very well received and prompted interested questions and discussions by the attendees.
The CSC has similar but different certification programs. I have not had time to learn the details, but there are Certified Technical Representatives (CTR) and Registered Specifications Writers (RSW). More on this later.
Luncheon speakers included Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian Foreign Secretary and Hannah Taylor, age 10 who has helped establish the Ladybug Foundation to help homeless people in Canada. Both speakers had inspiring messages.
On Saturday Lynn Javoroski and I attended the Registered Specification Writer’s meeting. It was an open meeting. It was literally an open forum, with everyone arranging their chairs in a large circle so we all were facing one another. The hour was filled with lots of discussion on various topics including: SectionFormat, open-book exams, outline specifications, manufacturer guide specifications, creation of a mentoring manual and creating a specification editing course. We were impressed with the openness and genuine interest of the members. I am not familiar with the CSC approach to their Certification programs, but it appears to be focused on mentoring, experience and education. I certainly enjoyed the open forum approach and the exchange among the members.
CSI
posted by Robert Dye at 11:08 AM
1 Comments:
I certainly agree that CSC, its members and the people of Winnipeg that we encountered were very welcoming. We work in the same world and should increase collaboration!
What a shame that you weren't able to attend my membership workshop, Bob! Maybe next year.
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