As the summer draws to a close, I wanted to take a moment to update you on some of the exciting things the chapter has been doing as well as some of the upcoming events.

Recently we accepted applications for scholarships for the upcoming Fall 2022 semester.  12 students from various schools submitted applications.  The Chapter will be awarding 3 scholarships for $3,000 each.  The scholarships are based on academic performance, work history, community contributions and an essay.  The winners will be announced in mid-September.  In addition, the Student Activities Committee will be working with construction programs at both Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona to establish ACI student chapters on those campuses.

A couple of upcoming seminars and webinars include the following.  First, on Thursday, September 15th, the ACI SoCal Chapter will host an introductory webinar with Drew Burns, Executive Director of NEU: An ACI Center of Excellence in Carbon Neutral Concrete. The session will go through the formation of NEU, its mission, and the path to carbon-neutral concrete.  Then on October 11th, the California Nevada Cement Association is hosting an economic outlook forum at the Four Points Sheraton in Sacramento.  Ed Sullivan, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Market Intelligence for the Portland Cement Association will present PCA's most current thinking on the near-term economy, construction markets and their impact on cement consumption.  This will be followed by a presentation on how the national outlook will translate to California and the surrounding region’s construction sector and cement performance. Moody’s Analytics will also share their outlook for the macroeconomy which will include region-specific data.  Following the September webinar, we’ll be back to our regular in-person dinner meetings.  For more information on these and other events please visit the ACI SoCal website.

Nationally, this year’s ACI Fall 2022 Convention will be held in Dallas, Texas.  The Chapter has elected to participate as a sponsor for this year’s convention.  Some of our ACI SoCal members serve on various committees and they will be attending the convention.  If you have an interest in learning more about the convention activities, please reach out.

Finally, this year’s Pankow Awards celebration will be held November 2nd.  Following up on the success of last year’s event, the dinner and awards presentation will be held at Banc of California stadium.  There are seven different categories including 3 structure categories, decorative, infrastructure, flatwork, and repair/restoration.  The deadline for entries is Friday, September 9th.  Please sign up early and join us for an exciting evening at an awesome venue. 

In closing, there are many exciting things coming with the Chapter.   I invite you to join us for one, or all, of these upcoming events and look forward to seeing you soon.

Donald Kahn
ACI Chapter President