On May 12, 2009, ASA and ABC hosted the BIM Boot Camp Part 2

    
More than 90 people attended the event and learned about the future of construction projects.

CLICK HERE for more information from and about that event.

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Thank you to:
 Ken Bailey, Dan Clappison and Norm Noordeloos of Rocford Construction
who came to the April 29, 2009 General Membership Meeting and participated fully in the discussion about
"Working Together to Improve Construction in West Michigan."
It was a very interesting, informative, and useful exchange of ideas.

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Meeting Summary - March General Membership Meeting – The BPI session was the highlight of the meeting. BPI, or Business Practice Interchange, is an open discussion activity where the business practices of GC's and CM's are discussed. Specific practices of Christman, Rockford and CSM were covered and various subs offered their experiences. Shown at the right is president Jack Austhof participating in the BPI discussion.

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Meeting Summary - February General Membership Meeting – Those who attended the meeting on February 18 first heard from Bryndley Byrd , (shown at the right), of the Capital Area Construction Council about the event they put on to help attract high school age students into the construction industry.  For more information you can contact Bryndley at bbyrd@camw.net or visit their web site at www.cacconline.org.

The second part of the program featured a panel of legal experts including (l to r)
Tim Ryan of McShane Bowie,
Nate Plantinga of Miller Johnson, and
Bob Stone of Smith Haughey. The panel members providede information about the Employee Free Choice Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, E-Verify, and related topics. They provide vey valuable and insightful answers to questions from the audience. As as always the Q & A  portion of the meeting provided significant additional value to the members who were present. You can contact members of the panel for additional information or services by clicking on their name above which will send the selected person an email.

The January General Membership Meeting was very well attended with more than 60 people in the audience.  They heard a very informative presentation by Rachel Snyder, of BCT Benefits. Rachel explained an interesting new concept that will help subcontractors meet “prevailing wage” requirements on jobs with that requirement. Since there are likely to be a significant number of new jobs with prevailing wage requirements coming out of President Obama’s stimulus package, you will want to learn about this solution and be ready. You can learn more about BCT Benefit Plans (an ASA of Michigan sponsor), at http://bctbenefitplans.com/

The main topic of the meeting, Design Liability, was presented by Steve Hilger, who is always interesting and informative. He helped those in attendance learn how to “Avoid the pitfalls of assuming design liability under a traditional construction subcontract. Subcontractors have protection against design responsibility as long as the contracts are properly drafted and the risks are properly avoided. Learn how the design liability can be avoided during the submittal process.”

Audio/video recordings of the meeting are available. Contact C.J. Shroll for details.

Our December General Membership Meeting

Jeff Burmeister presented information about how subcontractors can keep track of and manage the information that is important for successful projects , while at the same time increasing productivity by using the Autodesk Subcontractor software. More than ever, subcontractors are experiencing more complex projects, fiercer competition, more demanding clients, and shrinking margins. Those who attended the meeting learned how to respond to deliver better projects on time and with reduced cost. They learned how to increase productivity and professionalism, and at the same time improve processes and accountability across the organization.  More information about Subcontractor is available at

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=8838377

In our recent local meetings you have heard about the need to protect your payment rights by ensuring all of your lien documents are in place, you have heard about the need to reduce the ratio of overhead expense, you have heard about the importance of completing change orders in a timely manner, you need to be able to track RFI’s and responses across all projects, and you have heard about the need to document all aspects of your projects. Those Attending this meeting learned how to accomplish all of these requirements while reducing overhead costs and improving operations.

November General Membership Meeting Summary

This meeting will featured a panel of bankers and financial consultants who discussed: “How Subcontractors will be affected by the current and future financial environment.” Our thanks to panel members Tom Rosenbach of Beene Garter, Mark Hoffhines of Mercantile Bank, Fred Lake of Huntington Bank, Bill Paarlberg of Macatawa Bank, and Curt Walburg of Walburg + Associates (L to R above). The Q & A session answered may questions from the audience and produced some very interesting discussion. This was another meeting that continued our series helping subcontractors and related businesses, to improve their knowledge, operations, and success.

October General Membership Meeting Summary

Curt Walburg of Walburg + Associates provided a program about how companies can increase their profits – by identifying, controlling and reducing costs. In today's very competitive market, it may be difficult to raise the prices charged in order to maintain or increase profits. The other way to increase profit (the difference between revenue and cost) is to reduce your cost of doing business. This is first of what will be several meetings that will help subcontractors, and related businesses, to improve their knowledge, operations, and success.