April 2013: Chairman's Message

Words: John Smith Jr.

April 2013

Chairman's Message

First South of 40 on Location Seminar

John SmithJohn Smith President Mason Contractors Association of America

I am very excited to announce that the MCAA’s South of 40 committee will present their first on-location seminar, scheduled in conjunction with the MCAA legislative conference. The program will be held on Monday, May 6, in Washington, D.C. The truly exciting part of the event is the location and topics. The program will be held at the historic National Cathedral Auditorium and will begin at 8 a.m., capped off with a reception at 5:30 p.m. near the Capitol.

The program includes seminars from the cathedral’s Head Mason, Joe Alonso. He will deliver a presentation on the earthquake damage done to the cathedral, touching on the construction of the cathedral. Later, he will also give a behind-the-scenes tour of the cathedral, a tour not open to the public and specifically focused on the masonry of the building. It will show you amazing parts of the cathedral you typically would not have access to.

After Mr. Alonso’s presentation, a program will be delivered by Dr. Javier Irizarry from Georgia Tech on “Innovation in Construction Information Technology.” In a nut shell, this will help contractors learn and understand how and which technology is available for use on the jobsite today. Directly after him, David Biggs, PE, and leader of the national Masonry BIM effort will deliver a program on “BIM and How it Will Impact the Mason.”

There will be a public tour of the cathedral as well as a Congressional tour of the U.S. Capitol before the day ends. This event will be held the day before the 2013 Legislative Conference which will be held on May 7 and 8. For more information on both these programs, go to the MCAA website at www.masoncontractors.org.

Please hurry and secure your registration. Hotel space and cathedral space are limited and will likely be gone by mid-April. You will not want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore one of our greatest masonry landmarks our country has to offer. I, for one, am very excited and plan to be there. I am off now until next month, I need to secure my room and registration to this event. I hope to see you in D.C. next month.
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