New Year, Mid-Year—We Keep On Keeping On

Every once in a while, it strikes me that I start talking about the new year while in the midst of the current year. Yet, in our everyday lives, autumn ushers in so much newness. In fact, one could really argue that the truest sense of the term “new year” does, in fact, occur in the middle of the calendar rather than on the prescribed date of January 1st.

While the calendar designates January 1st as the first day of the new year, that date always comes in the middle of the winter; the middle of the school year; and the middle of football, basketball, and hockey season. This 1st is even the middle of the build-up for attending World of Concrete. The middle of the calendar, however, is found to be at the start of what is CFA’s fiscal calendar and “new year.” We add with this a new Convention, every other year a new CFA president and adjusted executive committee.  With this issue of Concrete Facts comes an awareness of a successful “new” Convention, new members of the CFA Board of Directors, and newly recognized individuals representing the hard-working CFA members and contributors to our mission and vision.  We celebrate the start of a new CFA year with a bang.

So, it seems fitting for me to also be writing at this time about newness in the organization that is the Concrete Foundations Association. We continue to publicize new members that are joining seemingly every week now, as we have hit a nice stretch of decision-making for contractors and manufacturers looking to get started in CFA membership. We will be implementing a new membership portal, upgraded website and a new form of the CFA Hotline with searchable subjects and contributors for developing greater consistency and contribution to the thought leadership of this Association. We are also setting our sights on a new ACI committee, numbered 380, which will handle the codified development of Structural Plain Concrete through research and reporting. The premise of this committee is to establish an code-accepted method by which the design value used for the modulus of rupture for concrete (f’c) is determined through testing; and continue developing best practices into supportive design procedures and prescriptions for advancing the technology of performance mix design.

Newness is important in an Association. Equally as important is legacy, history, stability and fortitude. This issue of Concrete Facts recognizes those values by covering the professional recognitions bestowed this year. This is evidence of this Association’s excellence and maintenance of the initial concept that brought concrete contractors together in 1974: to establish an organization that could look after the industry and the contractors’ interests and foster networking and education for advancing solutions that are delivered today.

If you are reading this letter and preparing to read the content of this Fall 2019 issue of Concrete Facts and either do not know if your company is a member or have not yet made the decision to join – I challenge you to contact us about membership. I challenge you because, above all else, it can and will matter to you. Forty-five years of history, legacy and annual newness proves it over and over. There is a reason why the members of the CFA embody excellence and thought leadership – and they want you to be part of it.