The Masonry Society's 2004 Annual Meeting
The Masonry Society (TMS) held its 2004 Spring Business Meetings from May 10th - 13th in Kansas City, MO. TMS committees met and conducted business for the entire four days. There were some things of interest to the mason contractor. The first was at the TMS Certification Committee. This committee is currently working on the certification criteria for IBC Special Inspectors of Structural Masonry. Most of the qualifications and study materials were developed by the Masonry Institute of America because they had previously been required to have all masonry inspected per the 1997 Universal Building Code. This effort is a valid one and MCAA is there ensuring that these inspectors are not just reading the plans and Specs, but rather taking the constructability aspects into account.
Another committee, the TMS Construction Practices Committee is in the process of developing a "Pre-construction meeting checklist". While the idea and premise is a good one, the MCAA believes that every project and therefore every preconstruction meeting is unique and should be handled on a per project basis. Providing a "checklist" will cause design professionals to believe that all of these things are necessary on all projects when in most cases they are not. Paul Hoggatt, President of Hoggatt, Inc and member of MCAA is the chairman of this committee, so MCAA will continue to watch the progress of this checklist to ensure it will not be detrimental to contractors.
The next TMS Meeting will be in Baltimore, MD in October of 2004. For further information, contact MCAA's Director of Engineering, Rashod R. Johnson.
About the Author
Rashod R. Johnson, P.E., is president of The Roderick Group in Chicago. He is the former Director of Engineering for the Mason Contractors Association of America and currently serves as a technical consultant to the association.