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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