Hail to the Chief...
Again this year during BCMC week, get day-by-day updates from our man-in-the-field, Jess Lohse, President of Rocky Mountain Truss Co. in Havre MT
Wow, what a first day of BCMC! I can't remember a day at BCMC being as jam packed with sessions and events as it was on Wednesday. I woke up early to catch up on some work and emails, checked in, and the next thing I knew, I was leaving the Armstrong Ballroom on the 8th floor of the Sheraton at the end of the day with a big ol' smile on my face.
Wednesday started with the Train the Trainer session, which encouraged people to become more involved with their chapters and hold educational sessions in their local markets for builders, engineers, code officials, architects or anyone who will listen. Great examples were given by chapter representatives from the Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and Montana Chapters. Steven Spradlin also shared his stick framing vs. components PowerPoint as an example of how to give a presentation. Don't worry if you missed it; this will be one of the sessions available online in November. A special thank you to David Mitchell, who filled in for Rick Parrino, who was finishing up work on the BCMC Build.
Throughout the afternoon, educational sessions continued, with three in all, back-to-back-to-back. I don't know about the other attendees, but my head was spinning by the end of the afternoon. I enjoyed as many sessions as I could and look forward to catching more on Thursday. Sessions included Metrics for Managers, Efficient Design Techniques, three different lumber sessions and Building Effective Teams. Thank you to all the people presenting at BCMC this year; their efforts make this show successful and encourage people to attend year after year.
The day ended with the Welcome Reception leading into the Kickoff Speaker. Greg Renner did a great job discussing the different obstacles we've overcome in the last year, including Southern Yellow Pine design value changes, and highlighting the great news for the housing market, noting a 15 percent increase in housing starts in September. The festivities included a stirring video on the BCMC Build and an appearance by Teddy and Karen Williams, the owners of the house we framed this week. They were very appreciative of all our efforts, and in that moment, all the aches and pains from Tuesday's hard work went away. I would also like to acknowledge the team who filmed and edited the BCMC Build video. Building a house in a day is quite a feat; taping it and putting together a lengthy video of professional quality is equally impressive.
The final speaker of the evening was a surprise. Greg Renner's introduction included words like "hope" and "change", which led one young lady from the audience to exclaim, "Oh no they didn't!" No, we didn't, but President Obama impersonator Reggie Brown looked and acted the part of our President, poking fun at both political parties and getting quite a few laughs out of the audience. Great job to the BCMC Committee for taking a chance on this type of speaker (and keeping it secret).
Well, I think I'm going to go out and explore Bourbon Street to see what it's all about. I can't stay out too late though because the BCMC Build 5K will have me up bright and early. More on that tomorrow.
Monday's Blog: It's Time to Get Excited
Tuesday's Blog: The Ride in to BCMC 2012
