Well, it’s that time of year again; The Golden Globe awards, the Academy awards, the Grammy awards, and the Tilt-Up Achievement awards. While the stars of television, film, and music are being honored in Hollywood, the stars of the Tilt-Up construction industry were honored in Las Vegas at the annual TCA Awards Breakfast, held in conjunction with the World of Concrete. Congratulations to all 33 award-winning projects, with a special recognition to the four projects crowned with an Excellence in Achievement: Briarcliff Village, USF Crosley Campus Center, Seven Farms Square, and Carson Tahoe Hospital.

In addition to our award winners, I also want to recognize our outgoing president, Laurence Smith. Laurence has been and continues to be a tremendous ambassador for the Tilt-Up industry. He has arranged for Tilt-Up seminars in his local market of Nova Scotia, Canada, and has been a yearly presenter of the “Basics of Tilt-Up Engineering” at the TCA Annual Convention. Most significantly, Laurence was a leading influence in helping Tilt-Up Today grow from a four-page newsletter to a top-tier magazine. He has also been integral in improving the transition between TCA presidents, in order to increase the importance and effectiveness of this one-year term.

While we celebrate the accomplishments of 2006 in this issue, this is also the time to look forward to 2007. Currently, our membership is strong at 456 members, including 26 sustaining members. For 2007, the Board of Directors has established a membership goal of 505 members. To assist in our member recruitment efforts, all member firms will be receiving a new member packet in the first quarter of the year. As you go about your business activities, we hope you will pass along these packets to industry colleagues and encourage them to consider joining.

In May of 2007, the Board of Directors will hold its Spring board meeting in San Diego, Calif. Prior to the board meeting, we will also be holding a one-day strategic planning session, setting long-range goals for the next three years. In addition to the board members, chairpersons of the committees will also be invited to participate in this planning event.

In October 2007, we will hold our second Annual TCA Convention in Baltimore, Md. This year’s convention will include two special half-day tracks focusing on the educational marketplace and the federal marketplace. Additionally, as part of the expanding agenda of the convention, we will hold our first Committee Day on the Wednesday preceding the opening tradeshow and we are looking to develop a significant involvement with architectural students in the area. This Committee Day will provide our committee members a chance to interact face-to-face besides their teleconferences throughout the year.

And, throughout 2007, the Technical Committee, with the assistance of S.K. Ghosh, will continue to focus
on strategically improving the increasingly stringent seismic and other structural requirements currently found in building codes.

I hope you enjoy the award recap in the pages that follow. Actually, I hope you will all be inspired to design and construct your own award-winning project in 2007, helping to advance the acceptance of Tilt-Up construction, one panel at a time.