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.

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.

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.

Participants will learn notice deadlines and requirements for filing lien and bond claims; How to obtain forms to use for claims; How to obtain project information; How to avoid project information; How to avoid common problems when lien and bond claims; How to document a claim and what is is not covered by a lien or bond claim.

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.

BIM Technology explores the major applications and classes of BIM tools across all project phases; how BIM processes for QTO, shop drawing and fabrication, and construction scheduling can improve projects; and the impact models have for improving estimating, scheduling, and coordinating.

Gain an awareness of how pre-project planning affects the potential success of a project and understand the different areas of planning for the construction phase of a project. Broaden your understanding of the impact building codes, permits, reviews and inspections can have on a project. Learn how Building Information Modeling (BIM), LEED, environmental issues and lean construction are impacting the construction industry.

This session will build on the Liens and Bonds speech with an advanced discussion of liens and how they are enforced. The session will also cover a variety of payment topics such as spotting important issues in joint check agreements, the new law related to releases and the construction trust fund act.

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.

Attendees will review best practices to better protect themselves and others from hazards. Topics include confined space awareness overview, hazard control, hazard recognition and entering a permit-required confined space. Click here for information about the Spanish session.

One of the many goals of this course is to help students make better risk-informed decisions by introducing more structured decision-making processes that focuses on five critical, yet interrelated, steps. These steps are as follows: identifying potential undesired outcomes, assigning an order-of-magnitude consequence severity to each outcome, assigning an order-of-magnitude occurrence likelihood to each outcome, assessing total risk magnitude, and making riskinformed decisions based on assessed risk magnitudes.

This free training class focuses on preventing frequently cited construction hazards. The Focus Four Hazards in Construction are conducted as four-hour awareness training focusing on the greatest dangers of working on a construction site. Click here to learn more about the Spanish session.

This class addresses the practices and procedures necessary to disable machinery or equipment, to prevent the release of hazardous energy while employees perform servicing or maintenance activities. Click here for information about the Spanish session.

This course covers the OSHA Standards, policies, and procedures in the construction industry. Topics include scope and application of the OSHA Construction Standards, construction safety and health principles, and special emphasis on those areas in construction that are most hazardous.

Please considering the following companies for your business needs:

The construction industry has been booming with the completion of some outstanding projects and it's time to show them off! Apply today for the 2015 Alliant Build America competition or the 2015 AGC in the Community competition. All member companies in good standing who meet the competition requirements are encouraged to apply and receive some well-deserved recognition for the hard work and dedication that goes into each project.

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. 

October 29, 2014

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.

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 or call 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.

Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, Inc. has been awarded its biggest project yet by the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. Construction on the 592,000-square-foot high school, located at FM 529 and Westgreen Boulevard, is scheduled to begin immediately.The $128 million project will consist of four buildings: a three-story academic wing, a community building for fine arts and indoor athletics, and a dining facility and central utility plant building. Satterfield & Pontikes will also construct baseball and soccer fields, tennis courts, soccer fields, track and field facilities and football fields. We are excited to see the finished project!

Kopke & Marek Investments, a real estate development firm, broke ground earlier this month on a 19,000-square-foot flex warehouse space that will provide space for several office and warehouse tenants. The warehouse is located at the intersection of Highway 105 and Loop 330 along the outer loop of Conroe. Kopke & Marek bought the property about a year ago and is currently searching for more property in the area to develop for warehouse space. With the high demand for office and warehouse space in North Harris and Montgomery counties, there is surely more development to come!

Leadership AGC, a nine-month leadership training program to develop the next generation of commercial construction leaders, launched its Class of 2015 with an overnight stay and team-building exercises September 18 and 19, 2014.

WHR Architects Principal Marie Hoke helped to kick off the new Patrick J. Kiley Excellence in Leadership breakfast talk series on Wednesday, September 24, 2014, at the HESS Club. PKEIL Committee Chairman Stan Marek, Marek Brothers Systems, Inc., welcomed and introduced Hoke, who is lead architect on the transformation of the convention center.

In case you missed the APEX 11 Gala or want to see more of the fabulous soirée, AGC Houston's website contains four photo galleries that feature images of the event and the winning projects.

The RSA/RDA lecture series, Near Future, brings to Houston five visionaries from a mix of professions whose creative work attempts to forecast the future. AGC is proud to have been a Corporate Supporter of the Rice Design Alliance for the past 24 years.

October 9, 2014

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.  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.

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, the state 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 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 assistant instructional professor.