March 30: Employment Practices HR Roundtable

April 3-1:  Introduction to Construction Plan Reading & Spec Documents

April 12: Contract Law

April 21: Texas Sales and Use Taxes for Contractors

March 6-9: OSHA 501: Trainer Course in OSHA Standards for General Industry

March 13-15: OSHA 502 - Update for Construction Industry Outreach Trainers

March 13-16: OSHA 3095: Electrical Standards

March 15-17: OSHA 503: Update for General Industry Outreach Trainers

March 15-April 12: OSHA 30-Hour Course

AGC Houston members are supporting this new network, which is an alliance of Houston construction companies, associations and related businesses. The Construction Safety Network meets monthly.

Have you explored the Construction Industry Compliance Assistance (CICA) Center yet?  The AGC-supported CICA Center is a unique, free resource on environmental compliance and sustainability that is open to the entire U.S. construction industry.  AGC is also pleased to announce and welcome StormwaterONE as CICA’s 2017 Platinum Level Supporter.

Find out why 14,000 visitors access the CICA Center each month with these top five reasons to explore www.cicacenter.org (link is external)!

Construction employment increased by 36,000 jobs in January to the highest level since November 2008 as employers increased pay in an effort to address a chronic worker shortage, according to an analysis of new government data by the Associated General Contractors of America. The association urged public officials to strengthen training and education programs to prepare more workers for careers in the high-paying construction field.

The Associated General Contractors of America and its Texas chapters launched a new campaign on January 25, 2017 designed to highlight the many benefits of working in the construction industry. The new campaign, called Texas Builds, relies on testimonials from dozens of construction workers throughout Texas to highlight the industry's commitment to safety and the many career opportunities that exist in the sector.

Congratulations to Aggregate Technologies on being named in the Houston - Best Places To Work 2016 feature by the Houston Business Journal. Best Places to Work Lists are compiled by Quantum Workplace, which sent a survey to employees of nominated companies. Quantum then compiled scores based on corporate culture, amenities, benefits, and worker retention and attraction strategies. Among its recent projects, the company was featured in Concrete Openings magazine on its work at the New Orleans airport renovations.

Houston-based Cokinos | Young, formerly known as Cokinos, Bosien & Young, announced on February their new name, logo and website while re-affirming its commitment to serving clients in the construction and real estate industries. "Houston is where we began 28 years ago and remains our largest office," said Gregory M. Cokinos. "With offices in Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas, we employ more than 60 attorneys and continue to uphold the values that have always been hallmarks of our firm – exceptional client service, the highest caliber of legal acumen and the best possible outcomes for our clients. We take great pride in the fact that our very first client when we established our firm in 1989, a prominent general contractor, remains our client today."

The Environmental Protection Agency's 2017 construction general permit, taking effect February 16, 2017, will make site operators jointly and severally liable for infractions. Several industry groups oppose the provision.

Congress is expected to focus on flood insurance reform in the spring, as the National Flood Insurance Program will expire Sept. 30. Some lawmakers support the development of a private flood insurance market as part of reform.

AGC Houston members are invited to join the Houston Revit Users group, which meets on the second Tuesday of the month. Revit and BIM application users range from beginner to expert skill levels. Since 2002, the Houston Area Revit Users Group (HARUG) has been the main resource in the area for Revit Users, AutoCAD Architecture (previously Architectural Desktop), AutoCAD and other BIM-related tools.

Attention OSHA Outreach Trainers!

The Kingdom Builder’s Center will be offering 15 qualifying historically underutilized businesses as well as minority, women and small business enterprise companies free assistance to grow their companies in commercial construction. The program is designed to prepare small contractors for the $6-$8 billion’s worth of public agency construction work. Qualifying AGC Houston   members may apply or, if you know of a small company that can benefit from this mentorship program, please click here for more information. Application deadline is March 14, 2017.

Setting up electrical services at a job site is one of the tedious details you have to handle before you can start work. Let Reliant's program for AGC make it a lot easier.

On February 23, 2017 AGC Houston launched its first Tech Talk quarterly workshop, designed to showcase technology in commercial construction and its applications in the field. The session focused on top software trends and how businesses are maximizing their digital experience to deliver positive customer service and increase project management efficiency.

Special thanks to Chandler Brooks, Procore Technologies;Jonathan Haywood, Andres Construction; and Tim Kelly, Assemble Systems for leading the presentation.

On February 24, in conjunction with the Safety Committee meeting,  AGC hosted the quarterly Texas Building Branch safety meeting, which is composed of safety directors from across the state's chapters and chaired by Chris Roberts, Brookstone, LP. TBB President Mike Chatron gave an overview of some of the legislative issues that the safety committee is monitoring and how to get involved. Special thanks to Linbeck Group, LLC for sponsoring the breakfast. Look for more information about the meeting to be published on Friday in The Leading Edge safety newsletter.