Who is the current Executive Director?

Construction Specification Institute Institute Discussions
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CSI
By Annette Wren, FCSI, CDT

Who is the current Executive Director of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI)? My guess is that most CSI members do not know who it is. Why not?

The answer is complex. Point One: When I joined CSI in the 1980s, the Executive Director was Joe Gascoigne. CSI members frequently mentioned Joe in their CSI conversations. Joe was actively involved with CSI issues and CSI Chapters. Joe made it his business to frequently communicate with individual chapters and members. CSI members knew who Joe Gascoigne was as well as his equally powerful trade show manager, Jack Atherton. Jack knew the CEOs of major construction product manufacturing firms. He made it his business to visit them, play golf with them, encourage their participation in CSI trade shows and solicit their monetary support. If you were an active member of a CSI chapter, you knew members of the CSI staff in Alexandria, Virginia. Remember all of this was before todays instant messaging and communication age. Joe and his staff kept in touch and were appreciated. The point is that we had a wonderful leader and Executive Director until his death.

Point Two: The Executive Directors that followed Joe Gascoigne were of varied talents. The first one wanted CSI to change to be like the engineers group he had left. He did not understand the culture of almost 30,000 members that loved their chapters, traveled to national CSI shows and region events, made lasting friendships all over the country, participated in their chapters and enjoyed attending CSI meetings. His clueless pursuits started our downward plunge of membership. The very last Executive Director was interesting. That person did not participate at a true executive level with CSI members. Currently, I hope we have 9,000 members. By the way, the answer to my first question is that we do not have an Executive Director. The last guy resigned and left near the end of 2014. The point is that CSI has not had an effective leader as Executive Director since Joe.

Point Three: After Joe Gascoignes powerful leadership, my opinion is that some of our CSI Board leadership compromised the position of Executive Director. They were not happy with the all-powerful Joe and his ways. There was an underlying, unspoken, unpublished resentment. Maybe some leaders were jealous because they wanted all the power or attention. What they forgot was that it was Joes job. These leaders were on the CSI Board for a short time and had other careers to handle as well. The result is that CSI top leadership shot themselves in their feet. The point is that CSI did not seek out powerful Executive Directors.

Point Four: CSI has had an identity crisis going on for years! Who are we? Who do we want to be? Who do we want to be like? What should we rename ourselves to be? Should we be the Construction Sciences Institute? Why should we be aligned with specifiers? Why not become totally technical geeks? Why should we drive to meetings? Why should we have CSI Chapters? Why not just sit home and have meetings on line? Why not all become labeled as Professional Members? Why do architects, specifiers and other design professionals join? Why do industry members join? Industry Members - who are they? The point is that we are lost, we have tarnished our value, and we have forgotten our very valuable culture.

Point Five: Our CSI staff has no idea who the chapters are. Many of us have no idea who the staff is. Our CSI membership campaigns are full of stuff. We have moved so far from our roots in many ways that our drop in membership is understandable. Technology has driven people to an insular state in their cubicles propelling them to seek other avenues of interaction. For those who like the these are different times excuse take a look at successful associations. People WANT to belong to groups with value. The these are different times folks need to look at the alumni associations and fans of colleges and universities. People want to belong to something they believe in. Take a look at successful CSI chapters. They have not forgotten their culture. They have valid meetings and events filled with information and interaction. They pretty much conduct business on their own successfully. The point is that we need to remember that the people want to belong to groups with value and CSI chapters have the most value to members.

Last Point: Since CSI chapters are united by an association, they need strong leadership. If we are to be united together, then we need an Executive Director with intelligence, wisdom, high functioning leadership skills and an understanding of CSI culture. My belief is that it is sink or swim time for CSI.

2015 Annette Wren, FCSI, CDT

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While Annette’s points are well taken, and I would urge wide dissemination of this column, it is my recollection that the number of CSI members never broke through 20,000. For a long time, we hovered between 17,000 and 19,000 and then began a downward series of dips and plateaus which seem to largely mirror the economic cycles.

We do need dynamic and charismatic leadership from the top, leadership which is responsive to member concerns and needs. We also need an organization, not just top-level leadership, that understands that the “association model” that Annette writes about is, at best. Our organizations will have to meet “millennial” expectations which are not necessarily shared by those of us who have been around for a long time.

Oh, and if the first 4 digits of your CSI membership number reflect the date and year that you joined CSI, you officially qualify as someone who has been around for a long time.

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Why did the previous Executive Director resign? Was there any sort of publicized announcment? I don’t recall one.

Is Greg Ceton the current “iterium” Executive Director? Says so on the CSI website: http://csinet.org/Functional-Menu-Category/CSI-Leaders/CSI-Board.html

and he lists that as his occupation on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gceton

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Walt resigned because he got another offer to further his career. He was not looking.
An announcement was sent to leaders with the directive to share with chapter members.
Yes, Greg is the interim.
Yes, we are searching for a new Executive Director.

Thanks, Annette, for your comments. They will be helpful.

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As a late side note regarding the drop in membership. Most architectural firms will pay for membership in one organization (if that). Earlier in my career, I had an exemption and belonged to both CSI and AIA, but that isn’t the case anymore. And in some cases, the firm won’t pay for a membership to anything unless you have a particular staff level.

I’ve started doing something now that we used to do in the Northwest: I give preference in both lunch presentations and meetings with me to CSI members. If a rep calling me isn’t a CSI member, then I let them know that they will be called back further down the list. I’ve had very defensive responses from many reps – all along the lines of “CSI never did our company any good in terms of getting jobs”. And, they figure they get more jobs from contractors than specifiers.

its like pushing a string up hill. CSI works when its a viable contributing community, but if its not, potential members aren’t sure there is any benefit to joining. And if they come in skeptical, we have to be really ready to engage those people.

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Anne, I’m glad to hear that other people provide preference to CSI members. I tend to have a hierarchy of CCPR, CDT, CSI member, other. Amazing how people react to that. My attitude is if you’re not supporting the industry, I’m not supporting you.