Bolger Center

CRISP
2220 Bevis St., Houston, Texas 77008

Dallas, Texas

Sheraton Downtown Phoenix

4th Annual C3 Golf Tournament at Wildcat Golf Course

11 a.m. - Registration 12 p.m. - Shotgun Start (Lunch Provided)

4:30 p.m. - Awards Reception and Dinner

San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk
San Antonio, Texas

Register today for the CLC Leadership Development Conference. This year’s event is co-hosted with the San Antonio Chapter of AGC and will take place at the San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk. Highlights of the program include keynote speaker George "The Iceman" Gervin, former San Antonio Spurs player; Chuck Greco, Linbeck Group, LLC, and Senior Vice President of AGC of America; and a roundtable session that will allow attendees to learn best practices from CLC groups from across the country.

Caesar's Palace

Cooper Guest Lodge

The ACE Mentor Program of Houston invites you to join in The Third Annual Build It Forward Event. This event brings together students involved in the ACE Mentor Program and industry-wide professionals. For more information and to learn how you can get involved, please click here.

AGC Houston - Frontline Leadership is a six-session training program designed to equip new, current, or aspiring supervisors with the tools they need to effectively manage and develop their people and projects. The format consists of six half-day modules that can be taken as stand-alone courses or as part of the series.

Completion of this course meets the requirements of OSHA Paragraph 1926.50, and participants will receive an American Heart Association Heartsaver First Aid and CPR/AED wallet card valid for two years upon course completion.

For AEC professionals, the AGC Certificate in Management Building Information Modeling (CM-BIM) is an assessment-based certificate credential that denotes knowledge and understanding of concepts related to BIM adoption, practice and process transformation outlined in the AGC BIM Education Program.

This six-session class will focus the fundamentals of construction plans and document reading. Each class section meets every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for two consecutive weeks.

This course is designed to provide general guidelines aiding the construction industry in complying with various State of Texas tax laws. Topics include auditing tips, how to calculate and pay local taxes, and more.

The September AGC Houston Safety Committee Meeting will be held on Friday, September 26, 2014 starting at 7:15 a.m.  James Shelton, Compliance Assistance Specialist, Occupational Safety and Health Administration,  will be attending to answer questions members may have about the new OSHA/AGC Houston Chapter Partnership agreement and application.  If you have any questions regarding the Partnership or the process of becoming a member partner, please plan on attending Friday.

This course is designed for healthcare professionals who want to plan and present safety and health content to their employees/colleagues.The program covers topics specific to making safety and health training engaging, relevant and impactful for all healthcare workers.

This course is designed to provide Spanish-speaking entry-level construction workers with a general awareness on recognizing and preventing hazards on the jobsite. Participants will learn about the safety requirements contained in 29 CFR 1926, review specific OSHA requirements and gain tips on how to keep a construction jobsite safe.

This course will provide an overview of the risk management and insurance profession from the health and safety program perspective. Topics include recognition, avoidance, abatement, and prevention of safety and health hazards found in the workplace.

This advanced safety and health course is designed to provide participants with the skill and knowledge to identify key steps and develop implementation strategies to effectively apply leading measures in improving safety performance.

The National Institute of Building Sciences is requesting your help in advancing the discussion around the role of off-site construction in improving building processes and the achievement of high-performance building goals. The Institute’s Off-Site Construction Council is a knowledge center on issues of off-site construction and productivity in the commercial building sector. As part of that role, the  Council is conducting a survey of representatives from across building disciplines to understand the current extent of projects that use off-site construction technologies and practices, their successes or shortcomings, and the opportunity to address industry needs in utilization of these techniques.

We're excited to announce new AGC Houston emblem stickers available to all members!

Show your AGC pride. Contact AGC Houston today at (713) 843-3700 and get hard hat stickers while they last. They're free for members!

"The AGC Alternative," the first of its kind, nationwide private insurance exchange to serve the commercial construction industry, begins offering firms belonging to the Associated General Contractors of America quotes today.

October 29, 2014

Benefit from financial strength and superior loss control program. It is managed by a board comprised of CompGroup AGC members—general contractors and subcontractors from all parts of Texas are represented. It is a TDI-approved Workers' Compensation Purchasing Group.

Benefits Include:

• Discount - the benefit of the purchasing power of millions of workers' comp dollars to give you the best premium discount.
• Claims Management - aggressively managed claims ensure that injured employees are paid promptly and fairly and fraudulent claims are dealt with accordingly.
• Loss Control - Safety plays a large role in this program. Members receive jobsite loss control visits to assist in controlling claims.
• Dividends - available to members based upon a Program then Individual loss ratio. Under Texas law, dividends cannot be guaranteed until they have been declared.

Learn more about membership benefits in the CompGroup AGC, Inc. today! Contact your insurance agent and tell them you want a CompGroup AGC quote or contact Program Administrator Roberts & Crow at 800-406-9614 - ask for Julie Schatz.

As previously reported, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stopped work to promulgate a new national rule to restrict the discharge of stormwater from developed sites (after construction is complete). However, the EPA continues to carry out the objectives of its deferred rulemaking via its existing permit process for municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s), which is legally questionable. AGC members should be on the lookout for new requirements that limit stormwater flow or impervious surface area at developed sites, as well as unmanageble mandates to retain runoff onsite to mimic pre-development conditions. For more information, contact Leah Pilconis.

A final rule announced September 11, 2014, requires employers to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. The rule, which also updates the list of employers partially exempt from OSHA record-keeping requirements, will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015 for workplaces under federal OSHA jurisdiction.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released its annual report, which tabulated the number of fatalities and catastrophes nationally. OSHA’s report found that the Houston metropolitan region had the highest number of workplace fatalities in the country, with 20 deaths between October 2013 and today. Although Texas' construction injury rate has declined by half during the past decade according to the Associated General Contractors of America, this report shows that there is still room for improvement.

The Obama administration recently announced a series of measures to help shore up crumbling U.S. infrastructure, including half a billion dollars in loans for the electric grid. The moves are part of the administration’s efforts to address what it says is a $1 trillion funding gap for transportation, water and electricity needs in the next six years. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said investing in infrastructure has historically been one of the best ways to create jobs and boost economic growth, but spending has fallen during the past decade, as two-thirds of roads are now in disrepair, and one out of nine U.S. bridges have structural deficiencies.

AGC members and industry partners filled the Westin Houston/Memorial City hotel to celebrate some of the industry's best projects at the APEX 11 Gala on Saturday, September 13, 2014. The evening also served to honor posthumously legendary AGC Houston member Leo Linbeck, Jr., Linbeck Group, LLC with the Master Builder Award. 

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced the results of a study of job postings from across the United States, revealing that demand for the LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP) and LEED Green Associate credentials grew 46 percent during a 12-month period. Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, USGBC states, "LEED is a transformative force within the building sector, and every day, our network of more than 197,000 LEED APs and Green Associates are helping to advance the industry and push building projects to new heights of performance and resource efficiency." Top fields being advertised included available positions in mechanical, electrical and civil engineering; construction management; architecture; software development; sales management; property management; and interior design, among others.

Construction spending reached its highest level since 2008 in July, according to the Census Bureau, and industry economists are forecasting similar spending patterns in the future. Spending on both private and public construction increased in July, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $981.3 billion. The report "provides further evidence that a vigorous nonresidential construction recovery is finally at hand," said Anirban Basu, chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors. "Increased job growth, booming energy production, expanding industrial production and normalizing capital markets are all contributing to nonresidential construction's renewed momentum, and confidence among developers and other significant consumers of construction services is high, signaling ongoing recovery."

The increased coverage around Obamacare and the state’s strong economy has led to more people being covered under employer insurance, which has played a role in bringing the number of uninsured down. However, due to Texas' lack of a comprehensive Medicaid program, Texas has seen a much larger drop in the percentage of uninsured. This will begin to affect employers, especially those who hire low-income, uninsured workers. Employer penalties for uninsured employees will start in 2015. Dr. Vivian Ho of the Baker Institute states, "If these workers aren't insured, it’s more people these employers will have to take a penalty for because it’s expected the employers should provide insurance for uninsured people."

The Texas Supreme Court just issued a blockbuster opinion affirming the limited scope of no-damages for delay clauses. The Court recognized the traditional exceptions to the enforcement of no-damages-for-delay clauses. These include an owner’s "active interference" with a contractor "or other wrongful conduct," including "arbitrary and capricious acts." The Court reasoned that the purpose of such exceptions is to "preclude a party from insulating himself from liability for his own deliberate, wrongful conduct." No longer is there uncertainty about the applicability of the traditionally recognized exceptions to no damages clauses. Texas now falls in line with the majority of states.

The demographics of the state are changing in ways that impact the workforce head on. According to State Comptroller Susan Combs, "unskilled" jobs are becoming a thing of the past, and the workers of today need to be adaptable to the point that they are lifelong learners. She argues that lawmakers need to tackle several issues including increased funding for adult education programs, multimedia information campaigns to promote industry-based certification, and economic incentives for companies to create apprenticeship programs. She also urges the state to make more money available for programs in order to streamline the process to reduce waiting lists for training programs.

There are more than 9.1 million women-owned businesses in the U.S. that generate more than $1.4 trillion in revenues, employ 7.9 million people and account for 30% of all enterprises. The number of women-owned firms continues to rise at rates exceeding the national average, yet women-owned businesses still have fewer employees than the average firm. Although several industries are continuing to see a large increase in women-owned businesses, the construction industry ranks at one of the lowest with just 7 percent of businesses being women-owned.

Sam Houston State University

The Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M has reached out to AGC in the search for an assistant professor, tenure track. The department is seeking a new, full-time faculty member to teach and conduct research in the project controls area, particularly estimating, scheduling, project controls and the technology involved with them, including Building Information Modeling [BIM]. The department is also seeking a lecturer or an assistant instructional professor.