Masonry Magazine April 1996 Page. 28
FASTEST Trowel on the Block
Mark Foeste of Kenny Foeste Masonry of Cape Girardeau, Missouri became the 1996 Fastest Trowel on the Block Champ, defeating eight other participants during a two day competition held at the convention center, New Orleans, Louisiana.
The goal of the contest was to survive an elimination heat, and then complete as much as possible of a 24' long wall of concrete masonry units during a 20 minute final round.
This is the first year back from hiatus for the fastest trowel. Originally the competition was discontinued due to lack of funding by its sponsor NCMA, but was brought back by popular demand. MCAA and NCMA now share responsibility for this event. To eliminate cost, the program has no regional competition, instead, a "call for entries" system is used.
Competing were: Randy Akers of Turnipseed Masonry; Steve Borman of Keystone Masonry; Gene Davis of Skinner Masonry, Inc.; Mark Foeste of Kenny Foeste Masonry, Inc.; Glenn L. Houghton, Sr. of Houghton Masonry; Rick Hunter of Skinner Masonry, Inc.; Leonard Simon of Rabalais Masonry; Jeff Voss of Voss Masonry; and Timothy Wells of Rabalais Masonry.
Participants were judged on the number of block used and overall workmanship. By the close of Sunday, Mark Foeste, Rick Hunter and Jeff Voss were left to compete in the final round.
Mark Foeste was declared 1996's Fastest Trowel Champ. Jeff Voss took 2nd place and Rick Hunter took 3rd.
Special thanks are extended to the following companies who so generously supported this event: Imer USA, Inc., Marshalltown Trowel, Spec Mix, Inc., State Block Inc., and Sterling Handling Equipment. -Daten Kay, Director of Meetings & Conventions for MCAA
TMS Review
TMS HELD its Annual Meeting in conjunction with Masonry Expo '96 in New Orleans and discussed many topics including:
The continuing work of the Architectural Practices Committee on the Architect's Guide. The first part of this book, an annotated specification for masonry, is nearly complete.
The Certification Committee is finalizing its plans to develop a national certification program for masonry inspectors.
The Codes and Standards Committee is finalizing a commentary on the Standard Building Code. SBC will incorporate this into the overall commentary on their code and it will also be available through TMS.
The Design Practices Committee is reviewing computer programs with two intentions: first, to publish a review in TMS News, and second, to determine whether TMS should market software.
The Education Committee recommended, and the board approved, a plan to offer seminars to local groups on a wide variety of masonry related topics.
The Research Committee is about to finalize a mongraph on mortar testing.
Other highlights of the meeting were seminars and a Disaster Investigators' Workshop. This workshop trains investigators to get the most out of inspecting disaster sites. This includes what to look for and what to bring.
The TMS Board also met to review and approve the requirements for the reward of the J.L. Noland Student Fellowship.
The next annual meeting will be from January 16 through 19, 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona.