So, is this targeted at those destined for CDT, CCS, CCSs seeking “Grand Master” status, or just those that like SF? Whom among the senior folks on this board are planing to go? Details at Home - Construction Specifications Institute
Whatever it is, they’ve scheduled it on Yom Kippur!
I think it would be helpful to those who already have their certification also. Some of it may be “old hat” but you are never too old or learned to learn something new. However it’s too far for me to go this year. Gotta wait 'til it’s on the east coast, too many trips already this year.
According to the ads, “The CSA is a three-day, intensive education program for specifications professionals. Youll learn methods of specifications, contractors and owners perspectives of specifications, converting to MasterFormat 2004, attend a spec writing skills practicum and much more. Come to the academy and polish your specifications skills, have access to expert faculty and network with other professionals.”
In other words, it should be the specification writing class so many people have been looking for. The program looks good, and should be useful for all specifiers, from newbie to old codger.
Hey, it’s ‘SeaFair’ in Seattle this weekend, AND it’s “Atomic Bomb Day”. Can’t this wait until Monday? Oops, Monday is “International Day of the World’s Indigenous People”.
Maybe we can interest SCIP in establishing a National Specifier’s Day and make it available for special events.
Ron
Helaine - the goyum don’t hear..it is Yom Kippur indeed on Oct. 13, count me out, that is the one day I do rest and observe…too bad I went to the one in Tampa, very good, just a bad date selection.
Helaine and Jerome,
I can’t believe that CSI did it again by scheduling a conference on a Jewish holiday. I thought that they learned their lesson with the CSI Show/Passover debacle.
Well it looks like we need to make sure that at least one person on the executive committee is a Jew. At the very least someone (preferably a Jew) needs to send them a link to a website with all the upcoming Jewish holidays.
Tobin,
Thanks! This is the first that I have heard of this educational convention. I wonder why CSI decided to do this separately from the CSI Show?
David
This never happened when Ross was around.
Here is a list of holidays probably observed in the US. It includes religious holidays for Bahai, Islam, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant Christian, Orthodox Christian, Wiccan and NeoPagan faiths, US holidays and a handfull of recent additions like Fathers Day and Mothers Day that are important to many people. Some holidays like Ramadan and Yom Kippur extend over several days, I dont know how they work so some days might be omitted. But many days that have two or more holidays from different faiths. I didnt find a good source for American Indian holidays and I just realized I forgot Amish holidays - we have some of both of these in CSI too. Its impossible to say some dont matter. Everyone has a different religious life. Some Christian and some Jewish people dont observe any holidays but some take them all seriously, though some people complain about one holiday and ignore another, usually Sabbath or Sunday, so its hard to know what to do. CSI could probably do a better job avoiding some of the holidays but if you look at whats available it looks like somebody will complian no matter what.
CSI meetings, conventions and conferences based on 2005 schedules are listed below the holidays. As pointed out in another message, both Saturday and Sunday are considered religious holidays by various faiths and practiced by many, but those two days are not automatically included in the list of holidays. If someone wants to make the scheduling problem even more obvious, add AIA, AGC, World of Concrete, and other conventions.
2006 holidays
January: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 29, 31
February: 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 26, 28
March: 1, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 25, 29, 30, 31
April: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
May: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31
June: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 15, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29
July: 1, 9, 11, 13, 15, 24, 25
August: 1, 3, 4, 6, 15, 16, 21, 22, 27, 29
September: 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
October: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 23, 25, 28, 31
November: 1, 2, 4, 12, 15, 22, 23, 26, 28
December: 3, 8, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31
2006 CSI meetings
Board of Directors: 2/9-13, 6/22-25
CSI Convention: 3/28 to 4/2
Region Conferences
GS: May
SE: mid-July
SC, SW, NC: late July
NW, NE: late August
West: late September
MA, GL: early October
Anonymous - its funny you don’t post your real name on this tread - anyway, Helaine’s point was for those who don’t know, Yom Kippur is not just any holiday it is the Easter of Jewish Holidays, its amazing that schoolchildren get it it off, whether they are jewish or not, at least in my neck of the woods…enuff said…I hope CSI gets a good turn out, I attended the first one in Tampa, it was a worthwhile event and learning experience.
It is sometimes hard to convince people that they should be culturally sensitive.
I would like to offer another perspective. By scheduling the meeting on a given date they have ensured that x% of the potential audience will not attend and that CSI will not receive the corresponding income. A 10 percent reduction in attendance could correspond to a 30% or more reduction in the profit. Thus I suggest that there be no raise for the scheduler this year and the budget for the planners of the symposium should be reduced. Next year they will remember.
The point is that insensitivity is bad business.
Another way to get the message across would be for somebody to pass around a petition at the meeting that requests that CSI be more sensitive in scheduling meetings during religious holidays. This might be forestalled if CSI were to issue a public apology and instruct their staff to not make the same mistake again.
Have some fun with this.
Mark, as a jew…too much time is being spent on this, don’t you think…and we all know time is $$$.
My friend and GLR Institute Director Randy Reifsnider now has a 2004-2009 schedule of Jewish holidays for planning purposes. I will be happy to send a calendar to anyone who asks - my office email address is hrobinson@bhdp.com
Jerome:
Do the schools actually say they are closing for Yom Kippur? Up in this neck of the woods, that doesn’t happen, unless individual school districts do it. Even if they did, they probably wouldn’t give that as the reason, as our schools no longer close for Easter or Christmas - though there are “spring recesses” and “winter holidays” that just happen to be at about the same time. 
Most people do not know that there are also several Christian denominations that observe the seventh-day Sabbath, some of which also observe the annual Holy convocations specified in Leviticus 23, including the most solemn one, the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. Of course, they do not make up a large segment of the population, even compared to Jews. But they tend to take the days they observe more seriously than many Sunday-keepers do, avoiding business-related activity on those days.
I enjoyed SCIP meetings when they were scheduled during the week, just before the CSI Convention. Although I have not attended in several years, primarily due to cost considerations, and am now 3-1/2 years into a 5-year corresponding membership, having gone over to the other side, when SCIP moved its annual meeting to Saturday, I realized that I would not be attending again in the foreseeable future. However, SCIP is a relatively small organization; though its annual meetings tend to coincide with CSI events for convenience, leaving it very few choices, it should be able to determine rather precisely what impact such scheduling conlicts would have–if it would ask its members. Then, the decision could be made on the basis of all kinds of personal schedule conflicts of the members who otherwise plan to attend, not arbitrarily due to religious observances that may or may not have a significant impact. I wouldn’t expect SCIP, CSI or any other organization to tailor its schedule to my personal belief system (not that anyone has suggested it should); for CSI, as has been noted, it may be a sound business decision to be more inclusive.
Jerome, for the record I am not a Jew and it was not my intention to play into any sterotype. It is just that if you want to change somebody you have to use some leverage that they can relate to.
As I said “insensitivity is bad business” and that impacts the rest of us in CSI since we may be asked to pay more dues to compensate for poor management.
I do not believe that too much time is being spent on this, but rather that it is not productive, on several levels, to just complain.
OK, here’s an example: When I was in the Indianapolis Chapter I spoke up after we managed to schedule the annual trade show on either Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur twice in three years. It apparently does not compute with some people that a) Many architects and engineers are Jewish and b) Scheduling an event in the vicinity of the High Holy Days or Passover is like scheduling it Christmas or Easter week which c) makes it difficult for people to participate.
MARK, I am not looking to change any one, but in the future it would be better for you to refer to yourself as ‘not being jewish’ than ‘not being a jew’…the ‘a jew’ part is the stereotype that bothers some of us. It is CSI who may or may not lose out on the revenue from those who do not attend their events due to religious conflicts.
Jerome, Apologies my ignorance.