Like many, my involvement with CSI has grown as the years have gone by. Early in my career, I’d attend programs sporadically, usually picking and choosing to attend only the topics that interested me. And usually the topics of interest were things that I knew about or dealt with but wanted to learn more about. Seemed reasonable at the time, after all, why would I want to learn anything about hospitals when we don’t practice that kind of architecture? And that may sound familiar to you too. If you’re a product rep for a floor tile company, why attend a program about windows?
After becoming active with the Board, I began attending all of the programs to get a feel for what types were well-attended and what types weren’t. But in doing so I came to realize that by attending only the programs of interest to me, I was missing out on expanding my own knowledge. I found new people to network with and formed new professional contacts outside of my area of specializa-tion. While not immediately applicable to my work, I can tell you there have been multiple times that an opportunity has presented itself and I’ve been able to reach back to a person, a handout or notes from a program I may never have attended in my early days.
This year we’ve got a bunch of great programs lined up. Starting in September, with out Architectural Scavenger Hunt; a team-based race to solve clues and find local destinations of historical signifi-cance in the City. In October we’ll hear from Mike Traynor, the City’s Chief Economic Development Officer about this Renaissance Worcester has been experiencing and in November we’ll host “Where Roof Meets Wall”; a round-table discussion with contrac-tors, product reps and specifiers about the difficult envelope details we all deal with.
Last week, we met at the Bancroft Tower and brainstormed Spring program ideas with several members. Some of the topics which came out of that meeting included:
Specs: lessons learned from poor project manuals or discussion on whether specs will not exist in the future.
Labor: the shortage of skilled labor and its impact on the con-struction industry.
Historical: Where to begin when you’re tasked with working on a historical building, and renovation techniques pre-ferred by historical commissions.
Code: A “jeopardy”-type game involving the code require-ments of door hardware.
Residential construction permitting, and what the current code requires.
Spray fireproofing, possibly including a live performance demo at WPI’s burn lab.
What interests you? We want to know! Send me an email at admin@naultarchitects.com and share your thoughts on any of the topics above or ideas for something we haven’t even thought of yet.
Steve VanDyke,
CSI Worcester Chapter President