Hello ACI Members,
I sincerely hope that everyone’s 2025 has started off on a positive note. We certainly had a busy end to 2024, with the Presidential election, the holiday season, and then the horrific wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles area to begin the year. The ACI wishes to send our deepest condolences to all those affected by the fires and our heartfelt thanks to the fire, police, and first responders who worked tirelessly during this crisis. We are confident that Southern California will come back stronger and rebuild those affected areas.
It has been my honor to serve as your Chapter President in 2024. It feels like just yesterday I was taking the iron gavel from Nathan Forrest at last year’s Sam Hobbs Awards. This Thursday, it will be my turn to pass the gavel as I welcome our Chapter’s second female President, Sydney Zaragoza from CalPortland. We will also honor Don Kahn from Largo Concrete as the deserving recipient of the 2025 Sam Hobbs Award. I hope to see you all there as we celebrate Mr. Kahn, and the new Board of Directors begins their term. We will also be recognizing our ACI Scholarship winners and presenting their checks.
I am proud to share that our Chapter welcomed two new student chapters over the past year. The students at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will lead the charge as the next generation of concrete professionals. Speaking of students, our Chapter sponsored a group from CPP at the ACI National Convention, where they competed in the Pervious Concrete Competition. Out of 30+ universities, the students from CPP finished 1st in the "Best of Show" category and 3rd in "Performance." Combining those scores, they ended up finishing 1st Overall. What a remarkable accomplishment!
Our Chapter held a couple of well-attended events in the last quarter of 2024. In November, we hosted our 2nd Annual TopGolf event, which brought together many in the concrete industry to network and enjoy some swings. Our holiday mixer, held at Brewheim in Anaheim, was a laid-back event at a great venue where people had the chance to celebrate the holiday season.
Many of you may have seen the email blast with the "Save the Date" for events we already have scheduled for this year. Please make sure to add these to your calendar so you won’t miss out on the education and fun!
Once again, it has been my pleasure to serve as Chapter President over the past 12 months. I look forward to assisting the Board for another year as Past President and continuing the legacy of one of the most recognized and respected ACI Chapters in the country.
Warm Regards, Jacob Brennan Chapter President 2024
Greetings ACI Members,
I hope all of you are enjoying the summer and have had the chance to spend time away from work with family and friends. It was a busy second quarter for the chapter, and we have many more exciting events lined up.
I would like to start my message by acknowledging a couple of local chapter members who were recognized by ACI National. Heather Todak, who just finished her term as director, received the ACI Young Member Award for Professional Development for her achievement and contributions to the concrete industry. Heather continues to stay active with the local chapter on the Pankow Awards committee. Charles Kerzic, who served as chapter president in 2012 and was the Sam Hobbs Awards recipient in 2016, received the ACI Fellows Award for his many years of service on ACI committees and contributions to the local chapter and concrete industry. We congratulate Heather and Charles on these two magnificent achievements!
In April, Largo Concrete hosted a tour of the new Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, the future home of the LA Clippers. It was a fascinating inside look at the new structure set to open in August. A special thanks to Bob Stephens of Largo for arranging the site visit. This past May, our annual Scholarship Golf Tournament was held at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino. We had a full line of players and perfect weather. The event concluded with our dinner and lavish door prizes. I’d like to thank Landon Groves from Associated Ready Mix for taking over my position as Golf Committee Chair. He had a great rookie debut and is already getting the ball rolling for our 2025 event.
We were dark for events in June, but we have a few more planned in the coming months. First, our 2nd annual Pickleball Social is coming up on July 24th in La Habra. This social was a blast last year, and we look forward to a bigger and better event next week. We pushed back our Young Professionals Trivia night to August 22nd. Trivia night will be held at Brewheim in Anaheim and will be an advantageous opportunity to network with the next generation of concrete professionals. In September, we are confirmed for a technical presentation with Brightline West to discuss the High-Speed Rail project connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas. This event will take place on the campus of one of our new student chapters, Cal Poly Pomona.
I wish everyone luck as we battle the “Dog Days of Summer.” Take extra caution and stay hydrated when the temperatures hit triple digits! I look forward to seeing you all at our exciting events and other concrete related gatherings!
Kindest Regards,
Jacob Brennan
Chapter President 2024
I hope this message finds all of you in good health. It is my sincere pleasure to serve as the ACI Southern California President for 2024. I am honored to take the iron gavel from Nathan Forrest and follow the many accomplished industry leaders that have come before me. I would like to start by announcing that our chapter received the Excellent ACI Chapter Award for 2023. This is the highest honor a chapter can receive and was only given to 24 chapters in the country. This award is a testament to the hard work of our Board of Directors and members who came out in force to support the chapter last year. To continue that momentum, we have many interesting educational and social events lined up for this year.
We kicked off the year with our annual Sam Hobbs Awards dinner in January, where the new Board of Directors began their term. We had a sold-out event as we honored the many accomplishments and contributions of Melanie O’Regan from CalPortland. We also hosted and presented our ACI Student Scholarships to three very deserving individuals. Speaking of students, I would like to acknowledge the tireless efforts of Don Kahn and Josh Willis who established our first ACI Student Chapter at Cal Poly Pomona last year! We have already identified a second university and hope to add another student chapter by the end of this year.
Next up on our events calendar is an informative program on March 21st titled “2024 Outlook for Southern California Concrete Industry”, presented by Crystal Howard of Crystal Waters Consulting, LLC. Registration is now open, and space is limited, so act quickly. Our annual Scholarship Golf Tournament is taking place again on May 2nd at Los Serranos Country Club. Registration for this popular event is also open with many sponsorship opportunities available. Later in the year, the chapter is looking up an exciting tour of a highly visible project, as well as a dinner presentation on the long anticipated High-Speed Rail. We sprinkled in a couple of social events in 2023; Top Golf in Ontario and our first Pickleball Tournament in Irvine. These were very well attended so we have decided to continue hosting these events in 2024. We will also bring back one of our Young Professionals nights where we will gather and network with some of the “Young Guns” of the concrete industry. We will finish up the year with our traditional Concrete Awards at another exciting venue to be named in the coming months. So, keep an eye out for some outstanding projects that are worthy of submission for the various concrete categories.
As you can see, our Chapter has quite a bit to be proud of and has a full calendar of events planned for this year. I look forward to seeing all of you at our programs, concrete plants, and jobsites. All the best for a successful 2024!
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