TMS Committees have productive Spring Meetings 

The Masonry Society's Spring Meetings, which were held in Orlando in mid-May, were highly successful, and progress was made on a number of projects and resources. A summary of some of the major highlights of the meeting can be accessed here. TMS extends its thanks to all the attendees and the sponsors who helped make the meetings a success.

• To facilitate information distribution from TMS, a new Information Outreach Committee has  been formed, and it will undertake work formerly undertaken by the Electronic Communications Committee, Publications Committee, and Education Committee. James Farny, Market Manager at the Portland Cement Association, has been appointed to serve as Chairman of this new Committee and can be contacted for additional information on the Committee and its activities.
   

• The MSJC has completed responding to TAC comments and is preparing for the Public Comment Period on the proposed 2011 provisions. In addition, the 2013 MSJC met to begin work.
   

• The Construction Practices Committee completed ballot on a number of Preconstruction Topic Sheets and will be forwarding those to TAC for review this summer.
   

• The Existing Masonry Committee completed another successful ballot on its Facade Inspection Checklist. Further balloting is expected this summer.
   

• With the publication of the Direct Design Handbook, The Design Practices Committee has turned its attention to developing a Standard on Dry-Stack Masonry and to future updates of the Direct Design Handbook.
   

• The Standards Development Committee completed a successful ballot to respond TAC comments on the Standard for Masonry High Wind Residential Construction. Additional balloting is anticipated this summer.
   

• The Board of Directors accepted a balanced budget from the Executive Committee for Fiscal Year 2011 which will include support for the North American Masonry Conference, a number of seminars, and development of new resources for the Society. To reduce Society expenses, while being more environmentally conscious, the Society will continue to move towards more electronic offerings, including distributing TMS Journal and TMS Responds to Members electronically. Members will be able to subscribe to printed versions of these resources for a small fee if they wish to continue having copies mailed to them. To review the approved budget, contact Phillip Samblanet. Some of the planned 2011 activities include:

  • Member Service

  • TMS Journal (Electronic Distribution, with Printed Copy Subscriptions)

  • TMS Responds (Electronic Distribution, with Printed Copy Subscriptions)

  • TMS E-Newsletter

  • TMS Sustainability E-Newsletter

  • Website Maintenance

  • Journal/Proceedings On-line Library

  • TMS Annual Meeting Seminars and Educational Program

  • Structural Design Seminars/Webinars

  • Special Inspection Seminars/Webinars

  • Direct Design Seminars/Webinars

  • Field Technician Training Seminar/Certification Development

  • Committee Activities

  • North American Masonry Conference

  • Publish 2011 MSJC Building Code and Specification for Masonry Structures (TMS 402 and TMS 602)

   

• Because of the recession, TMS has experienced severe membership losses, reduced non-dues income from publication sales, and reduced registrations at seminars and meetings. As such, TMS's cash position has decreased, and we are expecting to have a sizeable deficit by year's end. While this loss was anticipated in current budget, and while we have reserves to cover this loss in the short term, we had hoped that the economy would improve more rapidly and that our upcoming fiscal year would be more favorable. That does not now appear to be the case. As such, the Executive Committee and Board made difficult decisions on reducing expenses as much as possible. This included temporarily ceasing staff retirement benefits.
   

• Based on comparisons of membership values with other similar organizations, and based on enhanced member benefits, the Board of Directors accepted Membership Dues increases for 2011 to help support the Society.