The Builders Association is proud of the importance that its General Contractor and Subcontractor members place on safety. The Contractor Safety Award Program honors those firms demonstrating effective safety and health procedures each year at our annual Spring Summit, where exemplary member companies receive the Safety Excellence Award, Recognition Award, and Most Improved Safety Record Award.

The Builders Association will be at the ASA Chicago Construction Expo & Safety Conference on March 8th at the Drury Lane Conference Center in Oakbrook Terrace. Registration is open at www.asachicago.org. Visit us at booth #910 for the latest BA happenings!

The Builders Scholarship Foundation received an unprecedented number of applications for its 2015-2016 application cycle. The Foundation is proud to have also awarded a record number of scholarships to deserving students from the Chicagoland area. Congratulations to the following student recipients on their hard work:

Cierra Charbonneau – Purdue University
Jack Finn – Iowa State
Gerardo Licon – University of Illinois at Chicago
Darius Mahome – Indiana State
Aine Naughton – University of Wisconsin
Nora Schneider – Purdue University
Justin Vogel – University of Illinois
Samantha Wagner – Marquette University
Brandon Wenzel – Milwaukee School of Engineering

The annual Builders Foundation Scholarship Golf Outing is the sole source of revenue for the scholarship fund. You can help support these students by attending this year's outing at Ruffled Feathers in Lemont on July 13. Save the date!

The December edition of the Builders Blueprint reported that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had been pushing for a five-year extension to the current Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise Construction Program (M/WBE). Not only did the extension pass, but opportunity has been widened for M/WBE contractors.

The set-aside for companies owned by minorities has been at 24% through 2015. The set-aside has now been raised to 26%. WBE companies will now see a 6% share of city construction contracts, whereas the program used to offer 4%.

This year's Safety Stand Down will take place throughout the week of May 2nd. The Builders Association is currently collecting commitments to participate from General Contractor and Subcontractor members. BA Safety Stand Downs enable companies to voluntarily cease work for approximately thirty minutes during one day of the Stand Down week to provide focused training on a particular topic.

The AGC has recently lauunched a new member discount program, Citrix ShareFile. The new program provides AGC Members a 10% Lifetime Discount on all Citrix Cloud products such as GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, ShareFile, ShareConnect and RightSignature.

The AGC Bookstore offers a variety of safety products for construction. From safety booklets and DVDs to OSHA regulation manuals, these products will provide a safer worksite for construction. These resources are invaluable for educating supervisors and construction employees alike. These products will provide essential information to keep the worksite safe and hazard free. Save 20% off all safety products with promotional code SAFE20 during checkout.

There is an average of one active shooter incident every three weeks in America.

69% of those incidents are over in five minutes or less.

Having a plan in place can be the difference between life and death in active shooter scenarios. Steve Stetson of member company DSP Insurance Services has over 20 years of safety experience and will be instructing the Contractor Safety Forum on March 3.

The Builders Education & Training Foundation is excited to host another round of the Project Management Series instructed by Brad Benhart of Purdue University. "Personal Success for Project Managers" and "Top 10 ‘Risky’ Items Every PM or Superintendent Should Know", back by popular demand, will be held at the Carpenters Training Facility in Elk Grove Village on March 9 and April 29, respectively. Both of these courses will begin at 8 AM and end at 11 AM.

The PM Series has received rave reviews over the years. One participant from the most recent series described the program as a "concise presentation that keyed in on very important concepts that make everyone more efficient." Another attendee reported that it "hit the important concepts with usable items to effectively implement immediately which will have the greatest impact on improving both professional and personal life."

OSHA is making it easier than ever before to report severe injuries and fatalities by implementing an online reporting system. All employers under OSHA jurisdiction are required to report to OSHA upon a workplace fatality, or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye. Fatalities must be reported within 8 hours and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss must be reported within 24 hours.

Congratulations to The Lombard Company on its 60th year in business. The Lombard Company joined the Builders Association one year after the business began in 1956. George and son Mike have both served as Board members of the Association.