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Let the ‘Voice and Choice’ of the Construction Industry Meet Your Environmental Training Needs With stormwater runoff rules, water and wetlands jurisdiction, and energy and climate change policies making national headlines daily, most construction firms have put environmental issues on their agenda.  If you are unsure of what it is you should be doing to identify, analyze, and manage your environmental risks – as well as the opportunities – then you’ll want to attend the 2014 Â鶹´«Ã½ Contractors Environmental Conference in Arlington, Va., on June 12-13, 2014.

The following is an update of Â鶹´«Ã½ of America’s Training, Education and Development (TED) staff and who is responsible for various activities.

The fifth course in Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Lean Construction Education Program (LCEP) titled Unit 5: Lean Supply Chain and Assembly is now available! This is an eight-hour, facilitator-led course that introduces the lean strategies and tools used to deliver materials, equipment and prefabricated assemblies to the jobsite in a manner that facilitates flow.

At the Â鶹´«Ã½ Annual Convention in Las Vegas, the Building Division by acclimation elected Rick Andritsch as Chairman for 2014-2015.  He is Partner, Vice President of Business Development of VJS Construction Services in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. Rick’s current main duties include partner in charge of Business Development for all divisions of VJS and CEO of VJS Lincoln, VJS’ general aviation construction division. Rick has been involved with the Â鶹´«Ã½ of America for 14 years. He has served on several committees, chaired the Business Development Forum, was past Vice-Chair of the Building Division, and serving his second year on the Â鶹´«Ã½ Board of Directors.

The ConsensusDocs Coalition has published a new Construction Management Agency standard agreement. The ConsensusDocs 831 Agreement Between Owner and Construction Manager (CM Does Not Provide General Conditions) provides an alternative to the recently released ConsensusDocs 830 Agreement, in which the CM provides General Conditions. The new agreement was created to provide greater clarity in defining costs, fees and profit to avoid potential claims. Current standard contracts vary greatly in defining fees, profit and overhead on general conditions items. This agreement was structured to minimize those disputes.

After consecutive months of contracting demand for design services, there was a modest uptick in the Architecture Billings Index (ABI). As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the January ABI score was 50.4, up from a mark of 48.5 in December. This score reflects an increase in design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 58.5, down a bit from the reading of 59.2 the previous month. Continue reading here. 

Gray Construction of Lexington, Ky. was named the nation’s safest construction company in 2013 by Â鶹´«Ã½ of America. The association, which oversees the Willis Construction Safety Excellence Awards, an annual ranking of construction safety programs, noted that 51 other companies were selected as winners for the quality of their safety programs.

Please join the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and the Young Architects Forum (YAF) on twitter, Wednesday, March 12 at 2 p.m. ET for a joint TweetChat hosted by the CLC and YAF. This month, we will be focusing on Architect/Contractor Collaboration. If you are new to the twitter sphere, we recommend you use TweetChat (http://tweetchat.com/) and #clcyaf2014 to follow along in the conversation. If you would like further information on how to participate in a tweet chat, please contact Sarah Gallegos at gallegoss@agc.org.

Construction employers added 15,000 workers to payrolls in February despite harsh winter working conditions, raising industry employment to the highest level since June 2009, according to an analysis of new government data by Â鶹´«Ã½ of America.  However, association officials noted that as the industry adds jobs many firms report they are already having a hard time finding skilled workers.

Construction employment expanded in 192 metro areas, declined in 84 and was stagnant in 63 between December 2012 and December 2013, according to a new analysis of federal employment data released today by Â鶹´«Ã½ of America. Association officials said that even with so many metro areas adding jobs for the year, only 20 metro areas topped previous construction employment peaks for the month.