Thanks to everyone who attended the Winter Board Meeting January 19, 2019 at Champion Equipment in Paramount, CA.
Our thanks to Vincent Jue and Champion Equipment for hosting the 2019 West Coast Chapter Winter Board Meeting. Champion is always a great host, Vincent goes to great lengths to make sure his guests are comfortable and well fed!
We welcomed several first-time attendees as well as many of our long-time attendees. WCC Past Presidents Ray Fassett, Condon-Johnson, and Mike Kennedy, Hayward Baker, were there to lend their guidance. The chapter remains strong with the continued participation of our dedicated membership.
Mike Walton, Employers Advocate, is working to maintain the training programs we’ve established with the various Unions in our region while working to establish new programs. We are hoping to schedule another Drill Rig Operator school with Local 3 this spring.
Our committees continue to meet and work closely with the DOT’s throughout the chapter region. Mike Kimball, Inland Foundation Specialties, gave what may have been our first ever report from discussions with the Idaho Transportation Department. Mike also gave a quick Contractor presentation about IFS and one of their projects.
Ray Fassett, Condon-Johnson, provided a detailed update to the Cal Trans Post Grouting research project. This project is being funded in part by ADSC-IAF, the WCC, and WCC-IAF with in-kind contributions from many ADSC members. Ray hopes to provide initial test results during a presentation on this project during the WCC Annual Meeting Education Session
Anna Perkins, Case Pacific, will be the new chairperson for the safety committee. Anna will be continuing the effort to create a silica testing standard and working on all the other safety issues.
Speaking of safety, the WCC won the 2019 Oregon Governor’s Occupational Safety & Health Conference Association Award! Chapter Vice President, John Bickford, Hayward Baker, submitted the nomination outlining the numerous WCC training programs, our Oregon OSHA alliance and the many ways the ADSC and WCC are constantly working to improve safety in our industry. The chapter will be exhibiting at the conference, and Rick Marshall, ADSC Director of Safety, will be speaking. The conference is at the Oregon Convention Center March 4-7, 2019. You can find more details about GOSH 2019 on our website or at this link: http://oregongosh.com/schedule/
Michael Rourke, Watson Inc., gave the Associate member presentation covering Watson’s line of drilling solutions. Jeff Veilluex, PJ’s Rebar, announced that Bay Shore Drilling and Foundation Equipment Supplies/Ougan Group will be presenting at the Annual Meeting this May.
We have three candidates for two open board of director positions to be voted upon at the Annual Meeting. A big thank you to George Burroughs, Condon-Johnson; Tait McCutchan, Malcolm Drilling; and Michael Rourke, Watson Inc. for volunteering to serve the chapter.