July 12, 2010

Exit interview

Communication was key, says outgoing Construction Specifications Canada president

Improved communication was a major accomplishment for Construction Specifications Canada in the past year, says the association’s outgoing president Brian Colgan.

“One of the main priorities I had coming into this was increased communication between the association and the entire membership,” Colgan told Reed Construction Data during the CSC’s 2010 conference in Saskatoon last month.

Colgan noted his introduction of a monthly President’s Message, which was designed to keep members abreast of what’s happening at CSC head office.

“It included all the information (about what) the association office was doing,” he said.

Construction Specifications Canada is a national multi-disciplinary, non-profit association that focuses on the development and delivery of education programs, publications and services for the construction community.

Colgan talked about CSC’s handling of “controversy” surrounding a new designation to replace the Certified Specifications Writer.

“We listened to the membership and brought the name to the (Education Certification Committee) who looked at it again and came back with a name that actually identifies what the specifications writer does at the mid-level, which is a Certified Specifications Practitioner,” he said.

The outgoing CSC president also discussed his association’s strengthening of ties with Construction Specifications Institute, the CSC’s U.S. counterpart.

“We are co-partnering on so many issues,” he said, “and we had so many face-to-face meetings which (resulted) in a better resolution and better communication between the two organizations.”

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