I would like to start by thanking Dawn Faull Rogers for her dedication, hard work, and leadership to the NAHB Concrete Home Building Council (CHBC) during the formation of the council, and throughout her tenure at NAHB. Because of Dawn’s efforts, we have a strong foundation on which to build upon as we continue expanding the offerings to NAHB’s builder membership. I am also excited to welcome Catherine “Kate” Driscoll as the new CHBC Sr. Program Manager. Kate has been a Washington DC “insider” for over six years, with leadership experience to compliment the CHBC and our industry.

This has been another exciting year for the CHBC!  In addition to growing our membership, the number of CHBC sponsored education programs and activities continue to increase. The second annual Concrete Technology Tour was the largest to date, and showed the importance of this type of venue at the local and national levels. Since our industry offers many diverse cement-based building systems and products, moving the location of the tour around the country provides opportunities for keeping the program “fresh” every year. The Concrete Technology Tour also provides a great educational resource to NAHB’s builder membership at the local level.

We have again expanded our relationship with NAHB’s Home Builder Institute (HBI). Progress continues on a Masonry textbook scheduled for release in late 2007 with Thomson Delmar Learning, and plans for a Concrete textbook are being discussed. In addition, we recently completed three more education programs: Concrete Masonry Home Building, Insulating Concrete Forms Installation, and Precast Concrete Homes. An additional HBI education program under development, Disaster Mitigation for Residential Construction, is being drafted in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) and Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS).

Another exciting activity highlighting the accomplishments of this year, is the work we are spearheading with IBHS. At the CHBC meeting during NAHB’s Fall Board, we voted to financially support an IBHS residential construction training program for inspectors throughout the Gulf Region. Each CHBC Association member will work with IBHS to provide technical support for highlighting every segment of residential construction in an upcoming video. In addition, a PowerPoint presentation is being developed for local training efforts coordinated by IBHS, with more detailed resources for cement-based systems and products available at www.nahb.com/concrete. 

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season, and I look forward to working with you on one of the many exciting CHBC programs in 2007.

Sincerely,

Michael H. Weber
President,
NAHB Concrete Home Building Council      [ return to top ]