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.