CFA Members Hone Presentation Skills for Foundation Seminar

The National Homebuilders Show, with the assistance of CFA members, has introduced a seminar on residential cast-in-place foundations to educate builders on the details of building basements. It has been presented in Kalamazoo, MI and Minneapolis, MN and is currently undergoing final review. The next step in the delivery of the seminar is developing a […]

CFA Board Update

Board meetings at the World of Concrete are always a busy affair with so many competing activities. The CFA board, however, tackled a host of initiatives and topics, several of which will result in additional member benefits and services. They are highlighted below. CFA CONSIDERS SAFETY PROGRAM A presentation on safety programs was made by […]

2003 Contractor of the Year Award

Talia J. Nelson, Marketing & Member Services The Concrete Foundations Association (CFA) presented the 2003 Contractor of the Year Award to Randy and Deb Friemoth of Walls Are Us, Inc at the Annual Meeting Dinner on February 17, in conjunction with the World of Concrete in Orlando. Members of the CFA since 1996, The Friemoths’ selection […]

Association Marketing and Branding Efforts Focus Largely on Public Relations

For the past two years, the CFA has put tremendous focus on public relations efforts. Lacking the vast resources and dollars needed to embark on a national advertising campaign, your Association Board opted to build the awareness of cast-in-place concrete foundations through the PR vehicle and take advantage of the third-party credibility achieved with this […]

CFA Board Member Changes Her Name

CFA board member Amanda Herbert married Josh Morris on Saturday, May 24th, 2003, in Allegan, Michigan. The couple exchanged vows in the company of family and friends, including CFA members: Charles Engelken, Bill Esker, Terry Lavy, Greg Peacock, and Arie Van Wyk. Congratulations Amanda Morris! Best wishes to you both!

Outsourcing Services – A Practical Alternative for Any Business

Large and small companies alike are seeing more value in outsourcing services as the demand for professional expertise increases and employee base and payroll budgets decrease. “Outsourcing” as defined by the Outsourcing Institute of New York is “the strategic use of outside resources to perform activities traditionally handled by internal staff and resources.” A premier building products company executive says “we outsource services because they specialize in areas that we don’t and […]

2002-2003 Residential Construction Market Outlook

Condensed from FMI Annual Construction Outlook Publication The U.S. single family residential construction sector of the construction market increased from $235.9 billion in 2000 to $246.5 billion in 2001. This 4% growth is the lowest annual increase in single-family construction since 1997. The value of construction put in place was expected to decrease 1% in 2002 and increase 3% in 2003. Forecasts are more optimistic for 2004 with […]

Foundation Contractor Wall Survey

The CFA Questionnaire received an excellent return with 53 of our contractor members responding. It will take quite some time to sort through all of the results but some of the easier to-tabulate summaries are listed below. These are based on the 53 returned questionnaires – not on the full membership. Number of basements poured in 2002: 12,467 Number of basements in past 10 […]

Sign-Up for Spring Foundation Fundamentals

The Foundation Fundamentals seminar will return to the Midwest for the Spring of 2003. The Holiday Inn Select in Strongsville, Ohio (near Cleveland) will host the seminar on Saturday, April 12, 2003. A seminar for building officials will be held on Friday, April 11, concurrent with the CFA committee and board meeting. If you have a building official you would like to attend, let us know and we […]

CFA Loses a Founding Father

Erwin “Buck” Sweet, a founder, long-time member, and past president of the Concrete Foundations Association passed away Sunday, November 10, 2002 at his residence in Sturtevant, Wisconsin. He was 75 years of age. Buck owned and operated Perma-Structo Inc. from 1965 until his retirement earlier this year. He gave of his time to his community […]