Hello ACI Members,

As we transition into Fall, I hope this message finds you excited about the pending holiday season.  Here’s to finishing 2024 on a positive note and generating momentum for 2025!

I’d like to start off with a recap of some of the chapter’s events this past quarter.  In July, we held our 2nd Annual Pickleball social at iPickle in La Habra.  This event was well attended and welcomed players of all skill levels.  The evening culminated with our single-elimination tournament, which was won by Marcus Brown from National Ready Mix and Robert Pelayo from Drinkward Construction.  Congratulations, gentlemen! We look forward to you defending your title at next year’s event!  After being dark in August, we returned on September 11th for an informative dinner technical presentation on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona.  At this fabulous venue, we celebrated and welcomed many students from our first ACI Student chapter.  Tarak Kahn presented on the informative topic of Embodied Carbon Footprint and the Role of the Engineer.  Speaking of those students, ACI SoCal is proud to be sponsoring a group from CPP to attend the Pervious Concrete Competition at the National Convention in Philadelphia later this month.  Good luck Broncos!!  On October 24th, we held our marquee event of the year, the ACI Concrete Awards.  This was a spectacular gala held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, where the chapter recognized outstanding achievements in concrete construction.  Congratulations to the Intuit Dome project, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, which took home the Charles J. Pankow Jr. Award (AECOM/Hunt/Turner JV, Walter P. Moore, Largo Concrete, Catalina Pacific Concrete).  The winners of the various categories will be submitted for recognition at the ACI National Concrete Awards. A special thanks to Heather Todak and her committee for their efforts in planning such a memorable evening. 

Looking at the calendar ahead, we have our Top Golf event again on November 20th in Ontario. This was a sold-out event last year, so if you have not registered yet, don’t miss out!  We are also still accepting sponsorships for this event as well.  We are planning on having our Young Professionals/ACI Holiday Social in mid-December at Brewheim in Anaheim.  This will be a great opportunity to spend some time with your concrete colleagues and celebrate the holiday season, so keep an eye out for details on this festive event.  Lastly, save the date of January 30, 2025, for our yearly Sam Hobbs Presentation where we will recognize one of ACI SoCal’s great contributors to the concrete industry.  This is also when we will transition to the new Board of Directors.

I wish all of you nothing but the best this holiday season.  I hope spending time with your friends and family will energize you to start 2025 with a bang!  Stay safe, and I look forward to seeing all of you at our ACI functions in the coming months!

Kindest Regards,

Jacob Brennan
Chapter President 2024