Networking, a humorous but intense competition, and a significant award were all part of our September 14 event.
Welcome to Our First In-Person Meeting
Chapter President Jaymi Fridley warmly welcomed the guests to Cattlemens in Livermore and said she is evaluating some different approaches for her 2021-2022 term to enhance the value of the Chapter to its members.
President Jaymi Fridley and Vice President Ash Wear
After an ample dinner, Vice President and Program Chair Ash Wear opened the presentations with a brief overview of the Chapter's activities, thanking everyone in attendance, and asking everyone how long they had been involved in the Concrete Industry and ACI.
The Sam Burks Award
Ash then described the Sam Burks Award, which honors the founder of our Chapter and who was a key figure in the growth and credibiliity of ACI in the decades following World War II. The Sam Burks Award has only been presented to 12 people over the 63 years of the Chapter's existence.
The design of the Sam Burks Award enumerates the recipient's attributes.
Ash Wear presented the Sam Burks Award to Robert Hightower, who served as Acting Chapter President and Budget Chair during the 2020-2021 term, and had also served as Chapter President in 2013-2014. During the last year, Hightower's efforts during the COVID-19 and AB5 challenges helped to keep the Chapter on track and to address the regional industry's need for consistent, high-quality Certification sessions. His important work as the Budget Chair has helped the Chapter steer a stable path.
Ash Wear and Robert Hightower, who was completely surprized at receiving the Sam Burks Award.
Learn more about the important role of Sam Burks in our industry - Click Here.
The Fun and Challenge of Concrete Jeopardy
The Concrete Jeopardy board of topics and amounts -- lots of good humor and knowledge challenges.
Ash designated each guest table as a team, and presented the questions after the table chose a topic and amount. He first used Cattlemens video projector but that had some glitches and so he used his tablet to ask the questions the team selected and read them the answers.
What followed will be subject to many interpretations over the coming months and years, but in general the amount of good-humored trash-talking was wonderful as the teams proclaimed their expertise in a topic and then failed to answer the question correctly. To be sure, many of the questions were mathematical in nature, and specific answers were required. The rise and fall of the teams' total winnings was constant as the questions continued. Eventually, a Double Jeopardy question wiped out one of the team's major winnings, and the team shown below surged in triumph. Laughter, suspense, failure and success!
The winning Concrete Jeopardy team had familiar faces.
Thank you to everyone who attended and to host Ash Wear. Congratulations to Robert Hightower!
Our next meeting on October 12 will be at Cattlemens. Details to follow!
Our meeting on November 9 will be the 2021 ACI Concrete Construction Awards dinner, and if you have been part of a worthy concrete project, be sure to review the entry material. You may have a winning project! Click Here.