Grinding It Out

I was trying to think of something exciting to report. Nothing came to mind. I reviewed the list of things we worked on during the past week. Nothing jumped out and said “write about me.” Then I realized that a lot of the big exciting things are done, and we are now in the phase of taking care of lots of little details. 

Let me use our construction meeting agenda from last week as an example. The construction meeting is our weekly meeting that includes us (the “users”) from the Huntsman School, university facilities representatives, architects, various people from the general contractor, and the state DFCM representative.

We covered 23 items on the agenda. This is actually fewer than what we’ve had on the agenda in recent weeks. The previous two weeks had 35 and 37 items respectively.


Here are some of the items:

· Holes for return air in metal panels

· Switch to LED lighting in corridors and public areas

· Confirm placement of fire extinguisher cabinets

· Resolve conflict between duct and light fixture placement in large tiered classrooms

· Change doors in stairwells to meet fire code

· Approve final Dean’s Suite design

· Handrail on bridges between buildings on Level 3

· Ensure power and data to the Huntsman Library

· And so on…

Maybe you can see why nothing jumped out at me and said “write about me.”

I am happy to report that of the 23 items on the agenda, eight items were completely closed. six other items were decided and acted upon and just needed the paperwork to catch up to the work in order to be closed. All of the other items were designated as action items and assigned to the appropriate people for action.

I suspect every weekly meeting will be a lot like this from now on until the building is finished. Grinding through lots of little details…

Ken Snyder