Sowing the Seeds of Inclusivity and Reaping the Fruits of Diversity
Español | Translation Sponsored by TCA
Diversity has long been an asset and value of the Tilt-Up Concrete Association. From the beginning, the TCA has been composed of a diverse collection of professionals, and it continues to be so today. Inclusivity, though, has to be intentional. The formation of the TCA young professionals’ collaborative, Tilt-Up Industry Leaders of Tomorrow (TILT), has inspired new initiatives and has attracted a fresh perspective.
Through a new video series, the TCA is working with TILT to more closely examine the ways different generations engage, support, and benefit from the association. The series is meant to pose questions that keep us on our feet and encourage engagement from all generations.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The ten-episode series is called “I’m a young professional. I’m an adult.” Young Professional, or YP, is a young and hip woman working to make a difference but struggling to understand her place. Adult is a middle-aged man at the top of the corporate ladder just trying to keep things on track. Both fulfill every generational stereotype and are frustrated with each other’s fickle dispositions. Nonetheless, they continue to be surprised and encouraged by their shared interest in their professional organization.
Binge-watch all ten episodes online now at tilt-up.org/generations or on the TCA’s Vimeo page at vimeo.com/tiltup.
Directed by Jacob Moyer
Written and Produced by Mitch Bloomquist
Generational Consultant: Amy Lynch
Adult – Patrick Albanese
Young Professional – McKenzie Paulsen
All content copyright Tilt-Up Concrete Association 2019.
EPISODES
GET THE FULL STORY
Members of the Tilt-Up Concrete Association are invited to share personal stories from their career relating to those presented in this series. These stories will be posted at tilt-up.org/generations and will serve to round out the full story of generations working together. Through better awareness of the intentions, contexts, and prejudices involved in these situations, we are able to see that, despite our dissimilarities, we share goals, experiences, failures, needs, and successes. To quote Maya Angelou’s Human Family, “I note the obvious differences between each sort and type, but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
INTENTIONAL INCLUSIVITY
Informed by the video series and storytelling project, the TCA is working to maximize inclusivity. We are creating new programming and checking old programming to be sure it is inclusive of all professions, ages, sexes, ethnicity and career stages. It started with the formation of our new young professionals’ collaborative, TILT. With their input, we have renovated our model for engagement to be more transparent and accessible. We have expanded our awards program to better recognize the diverse collection of companies and individuals contributing to the industry. We have expanded our educational offerings to serve a broader audience, and we are nearly ready to announce a new mentorship program for the industry. Additionally, we publish many of our resources in multiple languages.
We do all of this because we benefit from the great diversity of our industry and our membership.
“…[I]t puts us all in it together in no uncertain terms – my contractor colleagues, structural engineers and many subcontractors all have common ground in this organization. That cannot be said for any other group we individually belong to, and that is where the future power of the TCA’s voice will be found – the diversity of professions that have tilt-up in common.”
Jeffrey Brown, FAIA, FTCA – Powers Brown Architecture