What You Missed at Wintergreen!: Fall Convention Update

If you were not at Wintergreen for the VRMCA Fall Convention, you should have been. With a crowd of 165 and many great speakers, the members thoroughly enjoyed themselves. In addition to great speakers from outside the Association, we also heard from our own.

A report from our Safety Committee started off the day on Monday. Pete Hawes from Allied Ready Mix Company and Bill Shipe from Allied Concrete Company addressed such issues as the upcoming VRMCA Truck Roadeo and safety statistics regarding losses that companies can suffer if safety is not a primary concern. This was well-received by our members and many expressed a desire to become part of this committee.

Dr. Yvan Beliveau, Professor and Department Head, Building Construction, College of Architecture and Urban Studies, at Virginia Tech gave our members a chance to learn more about the commitment that our members have made to this department. For our monies, a lab in the new Building Construction building will be named by the Association. He was joined by Dr. Georg Reichard and Dr. Annie Pearce who answered the many questions our members had. There was a suggestion made that we have Dr. Beliveau back at some future date to give us an update on how things are going with the department.

We also brought back John Buteyn from Colorado Hardscapes. He talked to us in the Spring about the decorative concrete work that his company is doing. There was such an interest in his product, that we asked him back to tell us how to achieve these results.

We adjourned for our sporting events of the afternoon and then got together for dinner followed by a Casino Night.

Wintergreen did a great job and all our members enjoyed themselves, especially those who won the prizes.

On Tuesday, we had a report on ACI's Excellence in Concrete Award program followed by Carol Whitley, District Service Manager for Volvo Trucks / Mack Trucks and Kerry Miller, Senior Truck Engine Account Manager, for Carter Machinery. They spoke about how the new engine emission regulations will affect our industry.

Our main speaker of the day, Dr. Jerry Teplitz from Jerry Teplitz Enterprises, spoke to both members and their spouses about achieving excellence in our personal and professional lives. He demonstrated how much another person's feelings can affect our own in either a positive or negative way and what we can do to change all encounters to a positive experience for ourselves. He had us pair-up and put us through exercises that never failed to amaze. He was well-received and several expressed an interest in having him speak to us again in the future.

The convention ended with a report by Nick Collins from Allied Ready Mix Company, Bob Neal with Lehigh Cement Company and Roy Heaps from Titan America from our Technical Committee. VDOT has issued some new regulations regarding the use of concrete that will have a great impact on our industry here in Virginia.

We would like to thank Nick Collins for all the hard work he did to put together this informative agenda.

The VRMCA staff would like to thank Diggs Bishop for a job well-done on conducting his first convention as President. We look forward to working with him during his term.

Lastly, we would like to remind everyone that they can feel free to contact either me or any of our staff with any questions or comments you might have. Also, we look forward to seeing everyone at The Homestead in May.