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Association & Industry News
NRMCA congratulates the following 30 rising-star executives selected for the 2019-2020 Developing Industry Leaders (DIL) program:
The DIL program runs under the direction of NRMCA’s Workforce Development Committee. Its goal is to support future executive-level talent development. While in the program, participants gain insight into critical factors at a national and strategic level. Equally critical is the opportunity to work on a diverse team from across the country. This peer-centric program, with its accompanying industry mentorship with DIL alumni and senior NRMCA staff, encourages participants to make lifelong, career friends. The collective group will meet face-to-face during NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks, October 3-7, in Kissimmee, FL, at NRMCA’s annual convention in March 2020, and gather for a summer 2020 capstone seminar before becoming DIL alumni. They, with DIL alumni, can also attend the 2020 North American Concrete Alliance Fly-In in March 2020 in Washington, DC. For more information about the program, please contact Eileen Dickson at edickson@nrmca.org or 240-485-1164. 
Buildings
NRMCA has announced that Shamim Rashid-Sumar has joined NRMCA’s Structures and Sustainability Team. Based in New York City, Ms. Rashid-Sumar is vice president, fire codes and standards; she will work with national model building codes and standards organizations to advocate for non-combustible construction and provide technical support regarding codes, standards, regulations and legislation at the national, state and local level. Ms. Rashid-Sumar comes to NRMCA from a career in the fire protection engineering consultancy industry in the United States as well as the Middle East. Before joining NRMCA, Ms. Rashid-Sumar was Practice Leader-Middle East for Jensen Hughes, a safety, security and risk-based engineering and consulting firm. She is a founder of the UAE Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), where she was recently nominated to the grade of Fellow, and serves on the SFPE International Committee on Membership and Chapter Relations. Shamim Rashid-Sumar can be reached at ssumar@nrmca.org or 917-484-1960.
“Many in the group had never seen ICF construction before, let alone panelized ICF, so there was a sense of anticipation and excitement on the bus going down there,” O’Neill remarked. ICF panelization is when the ICF walls arrive at the jobsite as custom-made 50-foot panels. The panelization is done off-site at an assembly plant operated by ICF Panels of Scotia, NY. Michael Cleary, president of ICF Panels and tour guide for the day, has estimated that panelization will shorten the construction schedule by several months, allowing the building to be occupied significantly earlier than would otherwise be possible. “Owners and developers will see that building with ICF panels is literally money in the bank,” Cleary said. "Opening early allows them to gain access to hundreds of thousands of dollars that is otherwise unavailable.” Panels are delivered to the jobsite ready to be braced and poured (shown here). Bucks, weld plates and lintel rebar are installed prior to shipping. Most of the reinforcing steel is replaced with a steel fiber, a twisted steel micro rebar technology developed for the military that creates a stronger concrete with better consolidation and pour characteristics. Panelization offers several other benefits, such as reduced hazard insurance, less form waste, virtually no weather delays and improved worker productivity. It’s an attractive option for commercial developers, designers, ICF installers and others wanting to maximize profits and gain market share. The group returned to Connecticut with a much better understanding of not only how easy this form of construction can be, but also what the benefits to the owner are both short and long term. “Dominic did an amazing job organizing this event, from the breakfast at the meeting place to the tour by Michael Cleary with ICF Panels, to the lunch and return bus ride, the event couldn’t have run any more smoothly,” O’Neill remarked. For more information about panelized ICF construction, contact Doug O’Neill at doneill@nrmca.org.
Government Affairs
Please mark your calendars for the NRMCA-PCA Joint Government Affairs Committee meeting on Thursday, October 3, at NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks 2019 at the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, FL. This will be the second joint NRMCA-PCA government affairs meeting and will serve as NRMCA’s fall committee meeting. Room location and agenda will be circulated in coming weeks. You can view the full schedule for NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks 2019 here. To register click here. Congress returns from recess next week with a full agenda for the remainder of the year. With the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaching on September 30, Congress will need to pass all 12 FY2020 appropriations bills – individually or as packages – or pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open. In addition, reauthorizations including the National Defense Authorization Act and the National Flood Insurance Program need to be addressed by the end of the calendar year. Click here to read NRMCA’s Recess Update on congressional activity and actions on NRMCA priorities.
SEO
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule to not establish any new requirements for facilities required to have spill prevention, control and countermeasure (SPCC) plans for oil products contained at those facilities; more specifically being subject to section 311(j)(1)(C) of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The original proposal to amend this portion of the CWA was precipitated by a lawsuit in 2015, alleging EPA failed to “issue regulations to prevent and contain CWA hazardous substance discharges.” Through a consent decree in early 2016, EPA agreed to propose a rulemaking to essentially expand the types of materials that should be part of SPCC plans, beyond just oil products. After careful consideration from EPA and receiving comments from the public and stakeholders, EPA determined that this change not only wasn’t necessary, it would be redundant. As outlined to EPA by NRMCA, expanding the current rule would merely be duplicative, as the materials EPA was looking to further regulate were already covered by myriad other regulatory schemes across multiple regulatory agencies. As well, EPA relied on data it has collected showing that its current regulatory structure is adequately equipped to handle “the relatively small number of discharges and reported impacts”. NRMCA commends EPA and its final action. This development to not expand SPCC plans is not just a win for the ready mixed concrete industry, but will save the industry countless dollars, time and resources since it will not be required to keep SPCC plans for numerous other materials in addition to oil products. Click here to review EPA’s final rule and here to review EPA’s rule summary. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. This past spring, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that employers with 100 or more employees will be required to report data on all their employees, detailed by pay, hours, race, sex and ethnicity. The information reporting deadline was May 31, 2019 for demographics and then September 30, 2019 for the detailed pay and hours data. The pay/hours data due in September is required to cover both 2017 and 2018. The EEOC has also released filing support guidance materials. This spring’s development follows a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia that reinstated an Obama Administration rule, previously stayed by the Trump Administration in 2017. Specifically, this reporting requirement, referred to the EEOC as the EEO-1 report, is made up of two components, one of which requires employers to report their employee demographics (known as Component 1), and second requires those employers to break down those demographics with pay data and hours worked (known as Component 2). While the Component 1 portion has been a requirement for a number of years and was due May 31, 2018, the Component 2 is the added portion promulgated by the Obama Administration, recently restored by the court, with a reporting deadline of September 30, 2019. While this reporting requirement and its deadlines represent a burden to industry, the Trump Administration has appealed the court’s decision and is working toward a reinstatement of its previous stay before the September 30 reporting deadline. NRMCA, from the beginning of this issue, has opposed the Obama Administration’s Component 2 addition. With this new development, NRMCA again has signaled its opposition to Component 2 and its reinstatement. NRMCA is working with its like-minded coalition partners to explore legal, regulatory and legislative remedies. For more information on the EEO-1, how and when to report, please click here, here and here. You may also contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. 
Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. October 3 – 7, Kissimmee, FL October 22 – 24, Irving, TX October 22 – 25, Dallas November 11 – 15, Baltimore November 19 – 21, Orlando, FL November 20, Little Rock, AR December 10 – 13, Orlando, FL December 17 – 19, Dallas 
Pavement
On the day the Guide to Concrete Trails was released in electronic format on August 14, the Aggregate & Ready Mix Association of Minnesota included an introduction to the guide at a paving seminar held at Minnesota State University-Mankato. Attendees at the event were from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), consulting firms, ready mix producers and concrete contractors. Jon Hansen, senior vice president of the NRMCA Pave Ahead division and contributing author of this RMC Research & Education Foundation-funded guide book was the speaker. The Guide to Concrete Trails is available for download from the Foundation’s website; hard copies are available on request. For more information contact Jon Hansen at jhansen@nrmca.org. 
Business Advancement
Take advantage of NRMCA’s once-a-year discount to those who register for the Certified Concrete Sales Professional (CCSP) series-of-four workshops. Additionally, the class fee is reduced to companies that send three or more people to one sales class. Finally, NRMCA moved all four classes to Dallas, a central U.S. location. Each class will be held at the same hotel, just three miles from Love Field and 20 minutes from Dallas/Ft Worth International Airport. Rev up your sales staff for 2020! Each class stands alone so it does NOT have to be taken consecutively or collectively. The schedule is as follows: Click here to register for the 4-class discount. For more information about each class, click on the titles above or contact NRMCA's Jessica Walgenbach at jwalgenbach@nrmca.org or 240-485-1152. 2020 January 14 – 16, Des Moines, IA January 21 – 24, Cincinnati, OH January 28 – 30, Orlando, FL January 28 – 30, Dallas February 25 – 28, Miami March 7 – 9, Las Vegas March 10 – 14, Las Vegas March 17 – 19, Dallas September 27 – 29, Aurora, CO Engineering
The Portland Cement Association is offering a book that serves as a primary reference for the industry on concrete technology. This 3 ½ day course, Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures: The Course, provides fundamental and practical knowledge on concrete technology. It combines classroom instructions, lab demonstrations and hands-on training on the subject matter. It is scheduled for October 14-17 in Skokie, IL. Click here for more details. 
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Last week, Dominic DiCenzo of the Connecticut Concrete Promotion Council hosted a tour of a 16-story panelized ICF apartment building under construction in Mt. Vernon, NY, just north of New York City. DiCenzo, along with NRMCA's Gregg Lewis and Doug O’Neill, led the discussion during the bus ride to the New York suburb. 
