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Association & Industry News
The 2019 NRMCA Sponsorship Program is now available. With more than 6,000 members and partners in the ready mixed concrete industry who rely on NRMCA as a resource for training and information, NRMCA is a powerful force in the ready mixed concrete industry around the globe. Click here for the 2019 NRMCA Sponsorship Guide and examine the numerous opportunities available to reach key buying influencers in the industry. Regardless of your budget, you’ll find opportunities that can deliver to a powerful, receptive audience at an affordable cost. Sponsorship opportunities are limited and sold on a first-come, first-served basis. So act now to join the growing list of members who support NRMCA through annual sponsorship! For more information, contact Jacques at 240-485-1165 at jjenkins@nrmca.org. NRMCA has contracted a discounted room rate for the NRMCA 2019 Annual Convention at the Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, FL, of $239/night plus taxes. The hotel reservation cut-off date is Monday, February 11 or when the room block sells out, whichever occurs first. The discounted rate cannot be guaranteed after the cut-off date. Hotel reservations can be made by calling the reservations line at 800-729-8383 and asking for the "NRMCA” rate; however, we encourage you to make your hotel reservations online. Registration is open for the NRMCA 2019 Annual Convention, co-located with the Portland Cement Association’s Spring Board and Committee Meetings, scheduled for March 5 - 7 at the Saddlebrook Resort FL. Register before Tuesday, February 19, to receive more than $100 off your registration rate. For more information, please contact Senior Director of Meetings Jessica Walgenbach at jwalgenbach@nrmca.org. Click here to access the NRMCA 2019 Annual Convention registration and the resort's online reservations' link. 
Engineering
The 98th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) was held earlier this month in Washington, DC. More than 14,000 transportation professionals, academics and industry had been registered, though the exact attendance may have been lower due to the ongoing federal government shutdown and weather conditions. There were more than 5,000 presentations in 800 sessions and workshops. There was a workshop on Testing, Resourcing and Applying Concrete Pozzolans
SEO
Due to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvement Act of 2015, in August 2016 federal agencies were required to institute upfront “catch up” amounts to bring civil monetary penalties up to present day adjustments since many penalties had been at levels set in 1990. The new law also requires those agencies moving forward to tie the penalty amounts to “inflation each year based on the Consumer Price Index.” Effective once the government shutdown ends and the Department of Labor officially publishes the changes in the Federal Register, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) maximum civil monetary penalty increases are as follows: • Other-than-Serious: $13,260 • Serious: $13,260 • Repeat : $132,598 • Willful: $132,598 Click here for more information. You may also contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. NRMCA has crafted the fourth annual member survey to measure regulatory action within the industry to determine regulatory trends on specific issues, issue types and in geographic regions. This information, while strictly confidential, will help NRMCA better tailor its actions to address and/or combat any such issues and to keep a finger on the pulse of when, where, how and why regulatory agencies are targeting and/or levying enforcement actions against the industry. NRMCA urges you to take the survey at your earliest convenience. It is open until 5 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, February 28, 2019. Click here to take the survey. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. 
A few articles of interest to the ready mixed concrete industry:
For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. 
Buildings
The Minnesota Concrete Council (MCC) and the Aggregate & Ready-Mix Association of Minnesota (ARM-MN) recently hosted an insulated concrete forms (ICF) installation training event. The purpose of the training was to enhance the construction infrastructure to build with ICFs. ICFs are quickly becoming the method of choice for all forms of construction due to attributes such as safety and speed of construction, operation maintenance and energy savings, resilience, sound control and building insurance discounts. These benefits are creating ICF project demand and this training is delivering a knowledgeable contractor workforce that can augment its portfolio of construction services.
With trends pushing for environmental impact transparency, NRMCA members are urged to participate in the Industry-Wide EPD (IW-EPD), version 3.0. Due to market drivers (i.e., Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in green building standards, most notably LEED V4) NRMCA will develop a third version of the IW-EPD in 2019. NRMCA has recently delivered various correspondence (i.e., E-NEWS, blast e-mails and direct e-mails) and hosted a webinar to describe the market need, project purpose and reasons for participation. NRMCA is recruiting industry stakeholders until January 31, 2019. To participate, respond to other disclosure initiatives and compete in the green building marketplace, you must register your company: complete this form and e-mail to Jacques Jenkins at jjenkins@nrmca.org. As part of the Build With Strength campaign, NRMCA promotes sustainable concrete solutions for buildings. For more information, contact James Bogdan at jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138.
Pavement
Registration for NRMCA’s Spring Safety Course from April 9 - 11 in Orlando, FL, is still open; please note that this course will sell out very soon. This 2.5-day course teaches participants about OSHA safety compliance beginning with why safety is so important and details the reasons why an effective safety program actually saves money through loss prevention and control. Participants learn about the new silica rule, electrical safety, machine guarding, fall protection, hazard communication, confined spaces, personal protective equipment, firefighting and evacuation, maintenance shop safety, chute handling, fleet safety, pre-trip inspection and much more. Click here for location details, registration options and staff contacts. Government Affairs
The 116th Congress is under way and committee assignments and chair/ranking members are slowly being announced. This week the members and subcommittee chair/ranking members for the top committees were designated. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) will be chaired by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) will be the ranking member. T&I membership is being expanded to 67 members, making it the largest committee in the House of Representatives, with 37 Democrats and 30 Republicans. This means lots of new T&I members, and NRMCA Government Affairs will be busy on the Hill making introductions and familiarizing members and staff on important issues facing the ready mixed concrete industry. Many NRMCA champions who were already on the committee are returning and will be influential members. Democratic members like Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA) and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) – both co-chairs of NRMCA’s Ready Mixed Concrete Caucus – are returning to the committee. A number of Republican NRMCA champions will serve as ranking members for various subcommittees, including Reps. Rodney Davis (R-IL), Garret Graves (R-LA), Bob Gibbs (R-OH) and Bruce Westerman (R-AR). For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. NRMCA members have opportunities to lobby Congress at two industry fly-ins this Spring. The Third Annual Cement and Concrete Fly-In will take place April 9 - 10. NRMCA will join PCA, ACPA and the rest of the North American Concrete Alliance for this fly-in to advocate for issues related to the cement and concrete industry, including a broad federal infrastructure package. Click here for more information. The Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) will take place May 14 - 15. The TCC represents a broader coalition of industries to lobby for federal infrastructure investment and solutions to the approaching highway trust fund shortfall. More information will be made available at a later date. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. 
March 26 – 29, St. Louis April 9 – 11, Orlando, FL April 16, Denver April 23 – 26, Portland, OR Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. February 5 – 6, Phoenix February 11 – 15, Orlando, FL February 19 – 22, Charlotte, NC Sold Out February 27, Milwaukee 
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