NRMCA Elects Board Chairman, Officers Recognizes Industry Leaders at Recent Annual Convention

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) has elected the following slate of officers during its annual convention held earlier this month in Las Vegas just before the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Show. The Association’s new chairman is Scott Parson of Producer member Staker Parson Companies and Oldcastle Materials Co., Ogden, Utah. Parson succeeds Ted Chandler of Chandler Concrete Co., Wilmington, N.C. Elected vice chairman was Rodney Grogan of MMC Materials, Inc., Madison, Miss., and the new secretary/treasurer is William Sandbrook of U.S. Concrete, Inc., Euless, Texas.

 “Ready-mixed concrete is one of the most flexible, durable and widely used building materials and is included in nearly every construction project,” says Parson upon being elected. “I am humbled and honored to have been chosen by my peers to help lead the NRMCA. Our association provides a wealth of resources to help members succeed by improving the products we produce, the projects we supply and our people working in the industry. NRMCA’s advocacy, education, engineering, operations, promotion and research teams are hard at work every day strengthening our industry for our members and customers.”

Each of the three new officers has begun serving a one-year term which concludes at NRMCA’s 2018 convention. In addition to the election, the Association presented the following awards during the convention:

2016 William B. Allen Award – Martin Ozinga III is this year’s winner of the William B. Allen Award. The Ozinga name is very well known within the ready mixed concrete industry at large and also NRMCA by way of his longtime service on various committees and input on key issues facing the industry. Ozinga Bros. is widely respected throughout business circles in metropolitan Chicago, where the distinctive company mixer trucks are a common sight. Ozinga Bros. is one of the leading ready mix producers in Illinois and also one of the most innovative, with a lengthy history of technological advances aimed at satisfying its many customers, maintaining a large truck mixer fleet and a growing number of employees. Mr. Ozinga is a key part of this success story. The Evergreen Park, Ill., native graduated from Calvin College in the early 1970s and shortly thereafter was named general manager of the family-owned business. After decades of hard work, he proudly describes Ozinga Bros. as the largest private, family-owned concrete company in the U.S.

The Allen Award is given for a lifetime commitment and recognition of outstanding leadership to promote the success of the ready mixed concrete industry and to improve the financial health, performance and sustainability of the industry. The Allen Award is named after one of the ready mixed concrete industry’s most distinguished and accomplished figures, Bill Allen, who had more than 55 years of concrete and aggregates-related experience and had long been involved with many NRMCA activities and events.

2016 National High School Essay Contest – This year’s essay contest winner is Adam Tarlowski, a student at Venice High School in Nokomis, Fla. Adam’s assignment required each student to draw one word from a hat and proceed to write a creative piece. Adam was hoping to choose a fun word such as sports or science, but to his surprise, Adam drew the word “concrete.” Adam knew that he had lots of research to do in order to conquer concrete and soon began to see the significance behind concrete. As he increased his knowledge, he felt confident to write a poem for his assignment and was more than excited to turn in his creative piece. As part of his prize, Adam and his mom Linda Tarlowski traveled to NRMCA’s convention and received his college scholarship check in the amount of $2,000.

2017 Promoter of the Year, Buildings – NRMCA’s Building Promoter of the Year Award is presented for outstanding contributions in support of concrete building promotion by an individual from an NRMCA Producer member. This year’s winner is Bill Childs of Maryland-based Chaney Enterprises. Childs’s entire professional career has been in the construction industry. He joined Chaney Enterprises in 1992 as vice president of sales and marketing and has served as president and CEO since 2000. He served on the boards and committees of the Maryland Ready Mix Concrete Association (MRMCA), NRMCA, the RMC Research & Education Foundation, MIT Concrete Sustainability HUB Advisory Council, Maryland Transportation Builders and Materials Association, and the Eugene Chaney Foundation. He is a past chairman of NRMCA. He was involved from the start in helping shape the new Build with Strength program.

Thanks to his leadership in Maryland, Chaney Enterprises along with MRMCA and NRMCA staff, helped draft fire safety legislation that is being considered by state lawmakers. The legislation rolls back height and area limits in the state’s building code to more sensible levels, mandates two-hour non-combustible fire walls, provides additional sprinkler protection, and other safety measures that will allow the fire service to better deploy and ensure the safety of occupants and fire fighters. In addition, Childs has successfully promoted concrete-based construction throughout Chaney’s service area and publicized his efforts through the state association and NRMCA in an effort to have more ready mix producers follow Chaney’s promotion methods.

2017 Promoter of the Year, Pavement – NRMCA’s Promoter of the Year Award, Pavement, is presented for outstanding contributions in support of concrete promotion in recent years by an employee of an NRMCA Producer member. Dave Gray, market manager for GCC America, is this year’s winner. Gray has been in the cement and concrete industry for 26 years and with GCC America since 2006. Most recently, he has become deeply involved in the promotion of concrete overlays of asphalt parking lots. He has worked with NRMCA staff and the Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association to organize a concrete overlay seminar. From that seminar, a local contractor successfully promoted and completed a 52,000 sq. ft concrete overlay for the John Elway auto dealerships in Denver. The project was just the first in a number of projects for Elway and became a springboard for other overlay projects in Colorado.

Now encouraged by these successes, Gray developed a marketing plan targeting the top 25 companies in various groups, including golf courses, hospitals, hotels, general contractors and engineering firms. He also produced a video that showcased all aspects of concrete overlays. Working with NRMCA, Dave organized three Selling Concrete Parking Lots Boot Camps in Tulsa, Okla.; Rogers, Ark.; and Sioux City, Iowa. The Boot Camps brought members of the GCC sales team and one select contractor from each market together for an intense, 10-hour training program. As a result of the Boot Camps, several projects have been secured.

Chairman’s Award – In addition to receiving the 2017 Promoter of the Year, Buildings, Award (see above), Bill Childs also received NRMCA’s Chairman’s Award for his lifelong dedication to the ready mix industry. In receiving the award, he was praised for his presiding over a successful ready mix and concrete materials company, Chaney Enterprises, but also his involvement with NRMCA, having served on the Board of Directors for the first time in 2002 and now having participated in every committee of the association, including joining the NRMCA Executive Committee in 2007. During the economic downturn in 2008, Childs was instrumental in helping the association move into promotion for local paving. When the Ready Mixed Concrete Research & Education Foundation entered into its agreement as part of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub in 2009, he became a trustee of the foundation and a member of the original group of the MIT Industry Advisory Group helping to guide the work at the CSHub which he continues to this date.

2016 State Association of the Year – NRMCA is pleased to announce the Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association as the winner of the 2016 State Association of the Year. This is the 13th annual award and the first time CRMCA has received this recognition. Some highlights from CRMCA’s nomination include:

• CRMCA’s promotion efforts included training sessions, presentations, marketing booths, sponsorship packages and seminars attended by over 1,000 people in the concrete industry.
• CRMCA took an interactive role and introduced the “Build with Strength” campaign at its annual meeting in November 2015. In late 2016, CRMCA engaged in a plan to drive the initiative throughout Colorado.
• CRMCA continues to expand its outreach through social media by utilizing Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to inform, educate and communicate concrete promotion. In addition to social media, CRMCA maintains its own publication while developing articles for other publications such as the Colorado Concrete Magazine, Colorado Public Works Journal, and the Concrete Products magazine.
• A wide variety of educational offerings included hosting NRMCA’s Plant Manager, Concrete Mixture and CCSP courses, facilitating 44 ACI Certification sessions, including the Concrete Flatwork Finisher and Technician certification.
• CRMCA has worked jointly with NRMCA staff to implement CRMCA’s Pre-Construction Checklist. The checklist is being used by more producers and contractors as distribution continues to reach across the state. NRMCA released the checklist nationally under the title “Concrete Acceptance Testing Checklist.”

Richard D. Gaynor Award – The Richard D. Gaynor award is presented to an individual that has demonstrated lifetime excellence and commitment on technical initiatives that have benefited the ready mixed concrete industry. It is named for Dick Gaynor who retired as the executive vice president of NRMCA’s Engineering Division. The recipient is selected by the NRMCA Research Engineering and Standards (RES) Committee. For 2017, the Gaynor award was presented to Thomas H. Adams, executive director of the American Coal Ash Association. Adams has more than 35 years of experience in the industry and has held leadership roles in the Michigan Concrete Association, American Concrete Institute and American Shotcrete Association. He has been an active member of the RES Committee since 1980 and is a past chair of the committee. He has served as a member of the NRMCA Board of Directors. Years ago, he initiated discussions with Dick Gaynor and NRMCA staff on the need to educate concrete salesmen.  He worked with a small group to support the eventual development of the NRMCA Certified Concrete Sales Professional program.

He joined the ACAA in 2008, just prior to the massive coal ash spill at a power plant in Kingston, Tenn. He worked closely with various stakeholders to prevent the U.S. EPA from promulgating regulations that would designate fly ash and other coal combustion products as hazardous waste. This would have eliminated the beneficial use of fly ash as an important supplementary cementious material in concrete for better economy and performance. The initiatives were several pronged from technical, environmental, regulatory, legislative, and legal.

Adams attended Wayne State University in Detroit and Aquinas College in Grand Rapids.

Gaynor award recipients are listed here.

Joseph E. Carpenter Award – The Operations, Environmental & Safety Committee (OES) of NRMCA has named Jeffrey Hinkle, transportation manager of Chandler Concrete Company, Burlington, N.C., its 2017 Joseph E. Carpenter Award recipient. The award is named in honor of Joseph E. Carpenter of Rinker Materials, West Palm Beach, Fla., who was instrumental in the formation and early operation of the NRMCA Committee on Maintenance.  The award was instituted in 1988 and is presented annually to persons who have demonstrated outstanding lifetime contributions to the ready mixed concrete industry in the fields of operations, environmental and safety.

Hinkle was named the 2017 award recipient for his longtime commitment to the OES Committee and the ready mixed concrete industry. He has been involved in the fleet maintenance industry for over 30 years with the last 18 years in the concrete industry while working for Chandler Concrete Company. He has served the OES Committee in numerous leadership roles, including an operations task group vice chairman, committee vice chairman from 2012 -2014 and served as committee chairman from 2014-2016. He is one of the original developers of NRMCA’s National Mixer Driver Championship program and has participated as a judge in each of the annual competitions since its inception. He has also been a judge in the NRMCA Driver of the Year Award program. In 2013, on behalf of NRMCA, he testified before Congress on “Hours of Service” regulations; his testimony is directly linked to the ultimate 30-minute break exemption that the ready mixed concrete industry currently enjoys.

Hinkle is an Army veteran who served for three years as a paratrooper in the 82^nd Airborne Division. Click here for more information on the Carpenter award and a list of past winners.

Children’s Art Contest – There were 60 entries to NRMCA’s fourth annual Kids Art Contest, sponsored by the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau. Entries were judged only against others in their grade category on originality, effort, creativity, composition, and interpretation of the theme. This year’s theme was: “Build with Strength – Building to Withstand the Test of Time”. We are pleased to announce the following winners:

Pre-K - K Winners:

1^st: Oliver Lootens, sponsored by Duane Chadez, Chadez Concrete, Marsing, Idaho

1^st: Tucker Lootens, sponsored by Duane Chadez, Chadez Concrete, Marsing, Idaho

2^nd: Elliott Kupietz, sponsored by Mark Kupietz, CalPortland, Winlock, Wash.

3^rd: Austin Tibb, sponsored by Lenny Price, CalPortland, Rancho Mission Viejo, Calif.

 

1-3 Grade Winners:

1^st: Javier Ortiz, sponsored by Raymond Balli, Right Away Ready Mix, Pleasanton, Calif.

2^nd: Daniel Robles, sponsored by Cezar Robles, Central Concrete, San Jose, Calif.

3^rd: Mariaelena Molina, sponsored by Miguel Amaya, Right Away Ready Mix, Brentwood, Calif.

 

4-6 Grade Winners:

1^st: Summer McCollum, sponsored by Becky McCollum, Chaney Enterprises, Chesapeake Beach, Md.

2^nd: Bella McCollum, sponsored by Becky McCollum, Chaney Enterprises, Chesapeake Beach, Md.

3^rd: Cameron Boyd, sponsored by Rob Boyd, Delta Industries, Tylertown, Mass.

 

7-12 Grade Winners:

1^st: Tae-Kyung Kim, sponsored by Yao-Jae Kim, Texas State CIM faculty/NRMCA member Austin, Texas

2^nd: Nathanael Kupietz, sponsored by Mark Kupietz, CalPortland, Winlock, Wash.

3^rd: Alexis Young, sponsored by Sheilah Young, Right Away Redy Mix, Oakland, Calif.