Seminars for Masonry Designers Staged by TMS
Words: William Abood
The Masonry Society's primary purpose for existence is education on the technical aspects of masonry. That does not mean that the educational efforts are restricted to engineers; architects, materials suppliers, and contractors also need to know about the newest advances in masonry and TMS is meeting that need. TMS provides education in a variety of ways including publications, periodicals, committee meetings, conferences, and conventions. But TMS has not overlooked the traditional educational effort most commonly referred to as seminars.
Seminars, short courses, workshops, or symposiums are all basically the same thing: a group of people gathered for a brief intensive lesson on a particular topic. These programs abound in the business community. Competition is fierce and even within a single industry there are many choices. Local groups compete, often indirectly, with national groups. National groups, both the "trade" groups and professional groups, compete with each other. Universities looking to leverage their educational expertise, compete with everybody. Prices vary widely. Local trade groups will stage a one-day seminar including handout material for less than $100.00 A large national engineering group will offer a similar one-day program for $400.
So what is the difference and why would a person pay the higher price? The price differential is usually a result of how "break-even" is calculated. Local groups often develop and conduct programs with volunteers, hand out photocopied materials, use a meeting facility donated by one of their members, and get a subsidy from local manufacturers. This sometimes results in a good program and sometimes not. National groups, on the other hand, bring in nationally-known speakers; people guaranteed to understand their subject. They promote to a larger audience, hand out professionally published materials, and pay both the speakers and the staff that develops the program. As an attendee you can expect a high-quality professional program. However, in exchange, a considerably higher registration fee is needed.
TMS is trying to be somewhere between these two extremes. We are working with local groups to help them conduct their own programs using TMS-developed materials and TMS-member speakers. We are also conducting our own seminars by bringing in national speakers, while still working with the local masonry groups to reduce some of the expenses. TMS has developed a number seminars that we are willing to share with local groups or even single companies.
Here is a list of the programs that TMS has conducted recently or will conduct soon:
Designing Masonry Under the 1995 MSJC Code Requirements
This newest TMS seminar covers all requirements of the new ACI 530/TMS 402/ASCE 5. Speakers include those who participated in the development of the code.
Construction Inspection of Masonry
Developed by the Florida Concrete and Products Association, this program will soon be available nationally through TMS.
Construction Requirements of the MSJC Specification
This program was developed by CMR for architects, builders, engineers and building officials. Mario Catani is the principal speaker.
Designing and Building Masonry Veneer and Glass Block Walls Under the MSJC
Anyone who designs this type of masonry would appreciate this program. Instruction is provided by Bill Bailey or Gregg Borchelt.
Design of Prestressed Masonry
A new section on prestressed design will be added to the 1998 version of the MSJC Code. David Biggs describes how to handle it.
Evaluation and Repair of Masonry Structures
Includes information on NDE. Taught by Mike Schuller.
Masonry Technology Short Course
This is a full five-day course on all aspects of masonry technology, taught by Ed Huston.
Designing Masonry with the Masonry Designers' Guide
This program is aimed primarily at structural engineers. Speakers include most of the authors of the Design Guide.
For more information on any of these programs, contact Bill Palmer at the TMS offices, (303) 939-9700.