Message for CSI Fellows.
You are reminded to vote in the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) CSI College of Fellows Executive Committee Election.
The voting deadline is August 14, 2026 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada).
I am not voting for any candidate that has not taken a public position, pro or con, on #DynamicStandards.
Members looks to the College for leadership.
This is the biggest issue in the Institute today and Fellows seeking leadership in the College need to explain their positions.
Step up and give us your thoughts.
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John’s post above is a paraphrase of his original on the CSI Fellows Forum. Here’s a copy of my response to him:
I was looking at the ballot today, but did not cast a vote. There is only one candidate on the ballot for each of the two positions, and each of them has prepared an informational statement. Neither of them addressed the issue with the creation of Dynamic Standards. I would also like to hear what candidates think about the effectiveness of the current board and the CEO. Do you think they are on the right path to lead CSI through these difficult times and toward a better future?
I agree with John. If you seek to be elected to any position at any level in CSI, the time has come (or regrettably may be long past) to step up and speak out.
On a related note, I am still getting the distinct impression that certain members of the board continue to believe membership dissatisfaction is limited to a few of us loudmouths, although that belief seems to be quickly changing. There is no question that the board, despite their recent statements, are slow-walking their responses to us.
If you have an opinion on the controversies at hand, it is important that you too speak up to the board. Don’t let them hide behind the weak excuse that ours is a limited and isolated response.
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Thanks George. Happy to be stuck in with the loudmouths.
One of many great loudmouths through history…
Judging from the responses to this post on the CSI College of Fellows Forum, the College isn’t interested in contrary opinions, and you have to be a candidate for office there in order to express yourself at all.
They complain when no one engages, and then complain when we do.
Sad state of affairs for the COF.
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After John’s original post, four other Fellows posted supporting comments. The chair of the COF nominating committee replied to the five of us by name, starting out with “I am not sure how this happened! Somehow we did not receive your self-nominations. Are you sure you hit the ‘Submit’ button? The deadline was June 30th. Maybe it was a late submission. You can still submit your name …”
It’s another prime example of someone at CSI mis-hearing what is being said. Our comments weren’t about single candidate ballots, they were about accountability and transparency from the candidates.
The broader picture is that the CSI board and CEO are being circumspect in their communications with membership. They are improperly concealing important information that members have right to see. They’ve put together a sketchy for profit corporation and concealed what exactly the financial arrangements are.
It is sad to think that COF might be adopting similar tactics to our board and CEO. I hope this is just a case of one man having a bad day and making an intemperate response to reasonable comments. We’ll see.
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You know, I can think of at least six people over the last six months who told me they are not interested in becoming Fellows of the Construction Specifications Institute. Each is qualified, perhaps even hyper-qualified, to receive the Institute’s signature honorific. But none of them see benefits from Fellowship in a tarnished and deteriorating CSI.
I get that there is a secret clubhouse aura to the COF. (Okay, we do have a password, a secret handshake, and silly hats to wear at meetings) Some of us make a bigger deal of it than it deserves - we may be big fish to some but the CSI pond is small indeed. And the accomplishments that got us there, while perhaps significant to our peers and important to our careers, pale in comparison to curing disease and fostering world peace.
But even through that tempering lens of reality, fellowship is and should be a big deal if CSI wants to remain a successful member driven professional society. It saddens me to hear six colleagues and friends so disturbed about the current image of CSI that they are turning their backs on Fellowship. Those six people and their stories provide more evidence of our current CEO’s egregious management failures over his decade-long tenure.
I am not being hyperbolic: the board’s policy governance manual specifically prohibits the CEO from endangering CSI’s public image or credibility. He has a history of disdain for the members of the organization he manages. He has chosen a course of personal profit for his cronies and possibly for himself. Now he has turned a sizable chunk of the industry - his potential customers and sponsors - against CSI because of an ill-considered and poorly conceived scheme to sell an unneeded product to a non-existent market.
No wonder people are uninterested in becoming Fellows. There is no question that CSI’s public image is severely endangered and therefore that Fellowship is tarnished. By definition, it is the CEO who bears the primary responsibility. The board needs to hold him accountable. He needs to go.
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Sadly, I believe members, myself included, now are disinterested in CSI and as a result, the College of Fellows. I turned down an appointment this year and will not volunteer for any future activity at an Institute level before the current mess created by our CEO and Board of Directors is corrected.
I will continue working with the Philadelphia Chapter as long as I am able for as long as the Chapter continues to exist. Even that is disheartening, considering the Chapter was once vibrant with nearly 400 members and today is fewer than 60 and struggling to host regular board and member meetings. I applaud Rick Baus, our current president, for all the effort he is putting in to keep the chapter viable. It is hard to maintain local enthusiasm considering the “help” Institute is providing.
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I posted my question to the Fellows Forum and tagged the candidates by name. No response.
I didn’t bother to vote.
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