By Mary Duke Happy New Year to all of IFMA-Austin Members! We hope that all of you had a great holiday and are ready to hit the ground running in 2005. The Board and Committees have been busy planning an exciting new year. Golf Tournament With just a few months to go, we still need to get more sponsors signed up. There are still plenty of slots left for your company to participate.
Our annual charity event is Monday, March 28th
at the Hills of Lakeway. Here is an update of our sponsor list . . .
February 10 Meeting Preview Preventing Water Leakage at Exterior Building Walls A Brief Overview of Design
and Construction Techniques The Bower Downing Partnership, Inc. Terese Ferguson, AIA, is a registered architect and an Associate with the Bower Downing Partnership, Inc. in Austin. She has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from UT. She has 24 years of experience. She has been with BDPI since 1983, providing architectural design and project management services. Her expertise includes extensive knowledge and experience with codes and licensing standards, construction administration, project management, and analysis of building envelope failures for medical, educational, commercial, and residential buildings. Jack Downing, AIA, is a registered architect and a Principal with the Bower Downing Partnership, Inc. in Austin. He has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from TAMU, and attended graduate school at George Washington University in Washington D.C. He has 34 years of experience. He provides architectural design, planning, project management, and construction administration services. His experience includes work for over 200 projects with a total construction value of over $670 m. His additional expertise and experience in the investigation and analysis of building envelope failures and the resolution of construction disputes is why he is speaking here today. (He has been a building envelope consultant on 36 projects and counting). January Meeting Highlights
· Multiple decision-makers · Competing needs and agendas · Slow approval process 3-C's Ways of
Thinking
$50 Prize Drawing Capital Area Food Bank Update Sharpen Your Pencil: CFM Exam Review and Paper Exam Pre-Summit CFM Exam Review and Paper CFM Exam Gaylord Palms(tm) Resort & Convention Center Register for the CFM Exam Review AND the CFM Exam and save $50 off the cost of your exam! CFM Exam Review March 8-9, 2005 IFMA Members $495 (U.S.); Nonmembers $695 (U.S.) CFM Exam March 10, 2005 If you would like to take the paper version of CFM Exam at this event, you must be pre-qualified. Applications and payment must be received by Friday, Feb. 18, 2004, in order to sit for this exam. For more information, visit www.ifma.org or call the IFMA's professional development department at 1-713-623-4362. In case you missed it, the IFMA Insider recently reported: Tsunami leaves
computer viruses, ghosts in its wake while India plants trees Soldiers tell tales of seeing ghosts of foreign tourists playing on the beaches and swimming in the ocean. A monk says he saw hundreds of spirits standing by the highway along the west coast. One Phuket hotel worker recalls frantically seeking assistance to revive an unconscious child just after the Tsunami struck. Rescue efforts failed. The next week, the worker watched as the dead boy return to the damaged lobby. Wearing the same dark-blue shorts he had on when he died, the ghost of the black-haired 10-year-old "was running around, playing." Then he disappeared. Now, Thailand is embarking on the next phase of its post-tsunami cleanup: sending off the spirits of those who died, so they will stop haunting the beaches, villages and hotels along the Andaman Sea coast. On Saturday, the people of Phuket threw a supper for the ghosts, designed to fete them and send them on their way so they will no longer disturb the peace. In India, environmental scientists are turning to another age-old remedy for tsunami disaster: mangrove trees. As nations around the Indian Ocean discuss plans for a tsunami early-warning system, Indian scientists say mangrove forests saved the lives of hundreds of people last month and could save thousands more in the future if further cultivated. They cite experience in Tamil Nadu villages where damage was minimized and lives were saved by the aquatic trees. However, mangroves must be grown very thickly together if they are to have any use as barriers. London boasts world's most costly office space The world's second most-expensive office space resides in Paris, where a workstation costs $15,520 a year. London's city business district is a third runner-up at $15,280 followed by Washington where, despite a weakening dollar, costs rose 25 percent in just one year to reach $14,250. These figures take into account costs like rent and maintenance as well as how efficiently rented space is utilized. The differential between major centers like London and growth areas like Asia and Eastern Europe is unlikely to erode much over the next 12 months. Other expensive office sites, in order, are Frankfurt, Tokyo, Dublin, New York's Midtown, Munich and Stockholm. The Asia Pacific region is still considered one of the cheapest places to work, with average costs of $4,370 per workstation. A proliferation of real estate investment funds, both foreign and homegrown, is fueling intensive bidding for choice properties in Tokyo and beyond, setting off a small revival in the top end of Japan's real estate market. The rebound, which follows the epic 1990s slide in land prices that helped trigger Japan's long economic slump, is considered a classic case of too much money chasing too few properties. Wanted: White-collar workers and a
more-skilled workforce Shirt-sleeve hiring means the economy has shifted toward higher-paying jobs and a more skilled workforce. It also indicates that some companies that squeezed their middle managements four years ago are starting to rebuild them. Last week, the Labor Department reported that 157,000 new jobs were created in December, up from 137,000 in November. Almost 40 percent of the growth came in healthcare and business and professional services while manufacturing employment was flat and retailers actually cut staff. Here Fido. Fido come! To the office! February Tour of Austin City Hall Address: 301 West Second Street Some facts: All interior doors are made of pecan, as is the dais, which also includes a band of wood salvaged from the Treaty Oak. There are 369 pecan doors in the building The building uses solar power through the photovoltaic cells on the awning covering the stairs on the south-side plaza. The cells will produce 9 kilowatts of energy daily, which is about the amount needed to power two Austin homes on hot summer days. RSVP to Robin Connolly
HOW OLD IS GRANDMA? One evening, a grandson was talking to his grandmother about current events. The grandson asked his grandmother what she thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general. The Grandma replied, "Well, let me think a minute, I was born before television, penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees and the pill. There were no credit cards, laser beams or ball-point pens. Man had not invented pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers, and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and man had yet to walk on the moon. Your Grandfather and I got married first and then lived together. Every family had a father and a mother. Until I was 25, I called every man older than I, "Sir"- - and after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man with a title, "Sir". We were before gay-rights, computer-dating, dual careers, day-care centers, and group therapy. Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense. We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions. Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege. We thought fast food was what people ate during Lent. Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins. Draft dodgers were people who closed their front doors when the evening breeze started. Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends - not purchasing condominiums. We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings. We listened to the Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the President's speeches on our radios. And I don't ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Tommy Dorsey. If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan' on it, it was junk. The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam. Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of. We had 5&10-cent stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents. Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and a Pepsi were all a nickel. And if you didn't want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on Enough stamps to mail one letter and two postcards. You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600, but who could afford one? Too bad, because gas was 11 cents a gallon. In my day, "grass" was mowed, "coke" was a cold drink, "pot" was something your mother cooked in, and "rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby. "Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office, "chip" meant a piece of wood, "hardware" was found in a hardware store and software" wasn't even a word. And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby. No wonder people call us "old and confused" and say there is a generation gap. And how old do you think grandma is? Read on to see -- pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad at the same time. This is something to think about. How time has changed . . .Grandma is 58 (born 1946) How could so much go
wrong in such a short time?
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