Educate Your Staff

If someone were to ask you where you rate training/education in the success of your company, what spot would you give it? I would place it in one of the top two categories to success. In our business, if you aren’t up to speed, whether on new tools, products or technology (you don’t constantly sharpen your saw), you are putting yourself behind the eight ball.

One of my goals as president has been to promote quality educational programs. I believe that AWCI’s Education Committee has done a remarkable job of providing cutting-edge seminars. The two topics for Academy—Blueprint Reading, presented in Spanish, and Project Management—are expected to be well attended in Denver. The seminars planned for the AWCI Annual Convention in Las Vegas, March 23–28 will no doubt get people off the casino floor and into the classroom. The session on consensus documents will give us a better understanding of the new uniform contract documents. Attendees will also learn about LEED through the session on building green. And, the overview of the Steel—Doing It Right program plus a seminar called “Improving Your Profitability through Safety” will be beneficial to those in attendance. As we all know, the Hispanic work force is a hot topic these days. Our program on understanding this group should be a huge hit. BIM (Building Information Model) as well as “productivity nightmare” software applications that don’t talk back will reach out to the IT in us.

Other means of reaching AWCI members include through the Doing It Right series, for both EIFS and steel. They are going strong, and we will be unveiling a stucco version soon. I am excited about these programs and how AWCI is staying on top by constantly adding new topics.

I urge everyone to invest in the education of your staff, both in the field and the office. If there are topics that you feel we should be undertaking, please let me know. You can e-mail me at [email protected], or give me a call at (716) 655.3400