2006 Eastern Conference

Conference Schedule Day By Day

The Main Event

The main Conference begins on Friday morning, November 10th and runs until noon on Sunday, November 12th, with the following featured presentations:

Friday, November 10

OPENING FEATURED SPEAKER

Jim Destafano: Wood Behavior: The Good, Bad and Ugly
This talk will cover the structural and mechanical properties of wood. Topics include strength, stiffness, creep, shrinkage and decay resistance of various wood species. Jim DeStefano, P.E. is a structural engineer and woodworker located in Connecticut. Jim is a founding member of the TFEC.

Dave Fischetti: Special Issues Unique to Engineering Timber Structures
Dave extends the idea of engineering timber frames and challenges the participants to pull together and help solve some of the unique problems in designing and building with wood. Certainly wood is a misunderstood and undervalued material in the general construction industry. As a naturally produced anisotropic material, wood must be given special consideration. We have needs from software development, design methodologies, the engagement of craftsmen and engineers, building code development, to the true and honest valuation of timber structures in the LEED system, to name but a few.

Maureen Blackwell: What Kind of Leader Are You?
Key Concepts: We are all leaders and demonstrate leadership, whether we manage a large organization, run our own business, or are part of a work team. Enhancing your leadership skills - especially your coaching skills - can improve your performance as a leader and help you support your team more effectively. Working effectively as a team is critical to your business success. Through a combination of lecture (PowerPoint presentation) and interactive exercises, you will learn how to improve your coaching leadership skills to enhance team performance.

Participants will learn about different leadership skills, when each style is most appropriately used, what makes an "ideal" leader, and how to enhance your coaching leadership skills to improve team performance.

Maureen Blackwell brings twenty-five years of corporate leadership and training experience to her work as a personal and business coach. She is a graduate of the Coaches Training Institute, certified to teach the Enneagram in Business, and is a member of the International Coaches Federation and the International Enneagram Association. During her 25+ year tenure at IBM, she held management positions in product planning, manufacturing and development, finance, marketing, human resources and training. In her most recent leadership position with IBM, Maureen led an organization of more than 100 employees, who were responsible for the delivery of training services on IBM hardware and software to customers in the United States.

Jonathan Orpin: Veteran Voices, The Making of an Industry.

Jonathan Orpin will reprise his talk at the Spring Western Conference with a new regular feature at our Conferences. From garages, droplights and resurrected antique chisels to computers, health insurance and asset-liability ratios, the timber frame industry has grown and matured. It had to. Where once we were given extraordinary slack because of the new and groundbreaking work of the early timber framers, we're now faced with requirements for fully engineered frames and professionally executed contracts. We've learned that turnover has a cost to quality and bottom line, and indeed we've even learned what a bottom line actually is.

Veteran Voices is a series of seminars given by timber frame company owners or managers with over 15 and even 20+ years on the job, as a mechanism to share their experiences, tricks, heartbreaks and victories. In recent talks by Tedd Benson and John Abrams, it was clear that many in the audience enjoyed the discussion of their history and their roots. Whether to benchmark our own progress, re-invigorate our efforts or simply re-focus on our successes, it's natural to do so in discussions with our peers and our predecessors.

The seminar will be roughly presented in three parts: a narrative of the speaker's company, a specific management system or skill to share, and a final time of open discussion as a group. Whether your own company is small or larger, growth-oriented or comfortable, this is an opportunity to share a laugh, learn a trick, and ask a question.

Veteran Voices Part 1 will be with Jonathan Orpin, owner and founder of New Energy Works Timberframers and Pioneer Millworks. He has served on the board of the Guild (Treasurer, 1992), the Business Council (President 2000 and 2001) and currently serves on various community boards. New Energy Works was started in the early 1980s, and Pioneer Millworks in the late 1980s, and together employ 85 people. He has chosen to share techniques on building systems integration as a method to control finish job quality and fully mine the marketing dollar.

Tim Callahan: Beyond the Beam
Timber framing can play an important role in addressing the demands of the rapidly expanding "Natural Building" market. This presentation will provide individuals with design tools, techniques, and detailing suggestions to integrate timber frames with traditional and contemporary natural and non-toxic materials.

Tim Callahan is a timber framer, boat builder, and Green Design Consultant living in Asheville, NC. His work with timber frames began with "the boys in the beamery" in Alstead, New Hampshire, in 1979. He is the co-author, with Clarke Snell, of the recently released book Building Green.

Clarke Snell: Filling the Void: Insulation Alternatives for Timber Frames
Straw bale, cob, clay-slip straw, and cordwood are just a few of the many "natural" wall infill systems that work very well in combination with timber frames. In this talk, Clarke will compare and contrast a variety of these methods to help you decide which approach, if any, is right for your next project.

According to his publisher, Clarke Snell is "an expert in the field of green building and self-sufficiency." He is the author of two books on alternatives to conventional construction methods: The Good House Book: A Common-Sense Guide to Alternative Homebuilding and, with Tim Callahan, Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods.

Ed Shure: Aging Is a Myth
Ed will discuss the myth that as we age, we necessarily become stiff. It is almost universal to have chronically sore, painful muscles from our late twenties onward. Our systems respond to daily stress with specific muscular reflexes, which when habituated become impossible to voluntarily relax. This creates a state of stiffness known as sensory motor amnesia, and is what we mistakenly think of as growing older.

Ed will introduce you to the basics of training your core muscles, and the use of good body mechanics on the job site. This workshop will be a dynamic experience: we will use floor exercises and tools of the trade in real life situations to learn how we can prevent injuries and preserve our bodies.

Grigg Mullen: Rigging Basics
Grigg will use the latest documentation from the Guild curriculum to demonstrate the fundamentals of rigging, including hardware and equipment types (straps, shackles, rope) and how to determine pick points and the center of gravity (COG) of loads.

Dance to the Big Dog and Fat Cat’s 10-piece Swing Band! 8:30 - midnight, Friday evening. Sponsored by XTABI Engineering, Timber Works of Interest, Holder Brothers Timberframes, New Leaf Timber Frames, with additional support from Duluth Timbers, Springpoint, Inc., Blue Ridge Yurts and Maury River Mallets.

Children's Discovery Workshop will commence.

Slide Show where you can show your finest work.

CNC Users Group Meeting

Trade Fair Mixer/Reception

Following the mixer, there will be a Pub Crawl of downtown Roanoke.

Saturday, November 11

Bob Pasquill and Chris Koehn: The CCC's Heavy Timber Work – 1930s and Today
Bob Pasquill, U.S. Forest Service archeologist and CCC authority, and Chris Koehn, itinerant timber framer, discuss the history of the CCCs, including their body of work and methods from the time of the Great Depression; a recap of a recent shelter reconstruction project; and a look forward toward the potential for more conservator work.

Members of the Timber Framers Guild may be among the last remaining group of artisans who are keeping these older building techniques alive, and we Guild members will be interested in learning about these beautiful, durable structures built by previously unskilled, unemployed men during the depths of the depression.

Many of the public treasures from the CCC era are in need of repair and restoration. The knowledge and skills of timber framers are in short supply in federal agencies. There is a great potential for partnerships between the managers of these historic large timber structures and the timber framers who have the ability to save these structures. We will outline our experience at the Horn Mountain shelter restoration, and suggest a course for members interested in pursuing similar work.

Paul Malko: Designing for Insulated Panels
Paul Malko is a project engineer at Foard Panel. Paul has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University; he has worked as an engineer and project manager at Foard Panel for 3 years specializing in structural issues and thermal performance. In this presentation he'll discuss:
• How a panel works: determining panel strength, panel types and materials, unique panel features
• Designing for enclosure systems: structural requirements, interior finishes, thermal performance, mechanical systems.
• Typical details: deck, sills, corner, butt joint, rake overhang, ridge, electrical.
• Installation techniques: on-site cutting and routing, pre-assembly of panel section, proper foaming, proper use of splines, set SIP fasteners, craning.


Bryan Walsh: Photovoltaic Systems
Interested in a sustainable energy system that will last decades, have minimal maintenance, be quiet and be exceptionally reliable? Find out more with this informal Q&A session that begins with an introduction to converting sunlight into electricity. Brian Walsh of Solar Connexion lets you ask direct questions about this exciting technology. A qualified, NABCEP certified, experienced solar professional, you can benefit from his practical, hands-on experience covering PV panels, controllers, inverters, batteries, costs and more. He will also address the cost effectiveness and current state of other solar technologies, wind energy, hydropower, and solar hot water.

Barbara Carper: Break-Even Analysis: Your Power Tool for Building Profitability
Suppose someone could take a financially simple document like a profit and loss income statement and turn it into a powerful, strategic, decision-making tool that would increase the effectiveness of business owners and managers alike? That's exactly the focus of this unique session on break-even analysis. The goal is to help you understand and manage the interrelationship of cost, volume, and profit.

Come find answers to questions such as:
• If I expand, how much will I need in sales to cover the costs?
• If I hire a new employee, what increase in sales must occur to cover the costs?
• What do my sales have to be if I want to earn a specific profit?
• If I buy a new piece of equipment, what will I need in sales to cover the costs?


Barbara Carper: The Financial Benchmarks Dashboard: Your GPS to More Profit and Cash
The Timber Frame Business Council has recently kicked off an important project to develop reliable benchmarks for the timber frame industry. Using a specially developed timber frame case study, we will demonstrate effective benchmarking, including the use of the iLumen Dashboard and Benchmarking systems. This session is appropriate for participants in the benchmarking project and for any other company owners or managers who would like some tips for setting and achieving realistic, measurable financial goals.

Bruce Lindsay: Complaints, Gripes & Claims
If you're going to buy lumber, sooner or later, you're going to have problems. How to avoid them, how to minimize them, and what to do when you have them. Proven strategies for purchasing, documentation, and receiving of shipments. Learn a simple 10-step program for dealing with the 6 most common claims fairly and quickly over the phone. How to resolve claims professionally, and not burn bridges in the process.

Bruce Lindsay is a seasoned lumber professional with more than 30 years' experience. During his first 10 years, Bruce worked at Tahsis Sawmill as yard worker, machine operator, and lumber grading supervisor; he then moved into Wholesale & Retail lumber distribution as shipper /receiver, and truck driver. Along the way Bruce went degrees in Geography and Teaching at the University of British Columbia. For the last 15 years, as the owner of Evergreen Specialties, Bruce has been involved in selling timbers to quality-seeking architects, contractors, and timber framers.

Christopher Fox: Straw Bale Enclosure Systems for Timber Frame Construction
Chris will focus on details that allow the use of natural materials (such as straw bales, clay, sand, bamboo and other natural components) to provide a high performance, durable and beautiful enclosure system for a timber frame structure. Main points of focus will include foundation details, integration of doors, windows, wiring, plumbing, roof systems, etc.

Having given up an engineering career seven years ago to pursue a passion for building, Chris Fox currently runs a small construction company in Ohio, which focuses on alternative building systems. They provide services such as timber frame construction, custom sawing, straw bale and alternative enclosure systems, earthen plasters, as well as general carpentry.

Mary Golden: Interior Environments: Designing with Natural and Sustainable Materials
A one-hour presentation, followed by Q&A, exploring sustainable interior design finishes for traditional, hybrid and naturally enclosed timber frame structures. Topics include an introduction to eco-design principles, designing for optimum day lighting and indoor air quality with a special emphasis on natural and industrial "green" building finishes.

Mary Golden, M.Arch. an Eco-Designer, integrates years of natural building field experience into her architectural and interior design projects. Facilitating local and national sustainable design practicum and educational venues is an integral aspect of her company's work. Mary is an Adjunct Professor at Monroe Community College's Interior Design Program.

Natural Building Forum, Moderated by Chris Dancey, coordinator of the Natural Building Track.
The experts will answer your questions related to the use of natural materials and techniques.

Will Beemer: Safe Work Practices Training Curriculum
He will give a synopsis and update on the Safe Work Practices training curriculum the Guild has developed.

Dan Boyle: Preservation and Repair Techniques of Historic Timber Frames
Many older buildings have damage that can be repaired. Damage can result from poor initial design, exposure to the elements such as rotten timbers, foundation settling and poor maintenance. Repair of these structures in their current location is not impossible. Examples of documentation, rigging plans and repair techniques and dismantling for houses and barns will be given and discussed.

For the past ten years, Dan has been working for a company that has focused on the structural repairs of early timber frames in the seacoast area of New Hampshire and Maine. In the course of working on these buildings, he has been able to design and execute repairs that are historically correct and structurally sufficient. More importantly, he has seen examples of timber frame repairs that have failed.

Laura and Rick Brown: 14th Century Medieval Human Powered Crane, Prague Castle and the 18th Century Gwozdzeic Synagogue Bimah
The Human Powered crane project was organized by Engineer Vit Mavlosky and Historic Carpenter Peter Rudizka, both former presenters at the 2006 Western Conference. Viewers will be guided through images of the medieval tools and techniques used during construction. Examples of joinery, tools, materials and techniques will be presented, followed by a basic discussion of the structural principles of the crane. The method of raising the crane and how it functions will be discussed. Little is known about how these cranes were actually used for building constructions. Some speculative examples will be presented and open for discussion with the audience.

In the second part of our talk, we will begin with a basic introduction of the Lost Wooden Synagogue of Poland Project, which is an attempt to create a worldwide support for the replication of a full-scale 17th century synagogue on Polish soil. Bimahs found in Eastern Europe, especially in synagogues in the outlying villages and towns, were made of wood. They were a raised platform placed in the center of the prayer Hall and the place where the sacred Torah would be read during religious services. These elaborately decorated and painted objects are examples of extraordinary skill and craft in wood. This presentation will include methods used to study the limited materials that remain to determine materials, joinery types, tools and techniques utilized. This presentation will show examples of spring pole lathe turning, panel carving techniques, timber frame joinery, low relief panel construction, steam bending, blacksmithing and more. The Gwozdzeic Bimah is a feast for the eyes of any architect, design professional, carpenter, furniture maker, and basic lover of tools and techniques.

Patti Southard and Kinley Deller: Design for Disassembly
This enlightening presentation explores the darker, rarely discussed sides of a building's life cycle: death and rebirth, thereby opening the discussion on what can be done to extend a building's useable life and facilitate the use of components after its demise. Through design guidance for assembly and disassembly, we'll identify the adaptability of building types, basic construction types, systems, materials, and connections. We'll explore dismantling techniques, modularity, and design, thinking through examples of natural building such as Japanese temple architecture. We'll consider a range of case studies, from the Bensonwood Open-BuiltŪ Systems to a King County deconstruction initiative.

Timber Frame Engineering Council Research Committee Meeting
"Year in Review" where we recap the highlights and lessons learned from the Guild projects and rendezvous in 2006

Benefit Auction

The Children's Discovery Workshop will conclude late in the day.

Sunday, November 12

Janell Kapoor: Kleiworks International and Awesome Earthen Buildings From Around the World
Showing beautiful images from Thailand, Argentina, Africa and the United States, she will highlight a spectrum of earthen dwellings and grassroots community movements that are making a lot of sense in a world where not much does. These hybrid natural buildings use indigenous materials including earth, straw, bamboo and wood.

Jim DeStefano: Building Green With Timber Frames
This talk will cover how to integrate green/sustainable aspects of timber framing and related building systems, such as geothermal heating/cooling, insulated concrete forms, structural insulated panels, etc.

Maureen Blackwell: Planning for Strategic Change
Change is a constant in our business environment. Keeping pace with change or even ahead of the curve is a challenge. In this session, we will discuss a strategic change model that participants can use to understand the current state of their business, imagine the future, and build a bridge between the two. Participants will learn how to complete a SWOT (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats) analysis for their business and learn a process to develop a strategic plan for their organization.

Ed Shure: Aging Is a Myth
A repeat of his hands-on bodywork training given on Friday. These sessions are limited to 20 participants.



CLOSING SPEAKER

Rudy Christian: A Place for Trades; Cultural Change in the 21st Century

Few, if any, among us are unaware of the cultural divisions that exist in our own society when looking back at the lives of our parents and grandparents. The story of the bricklayer or the taxi driver who worked six days a week and took on part time work so that his son or daughter could go to college and "do better" than he did is a part of our past that is indelibly etched on our group memory, but have you ever taken the time to really think about what it means? Everyone of us has heard, or more than likely at one time joked, about the “butt crack” drywaller or carpenter on some “union job” or other but how many of us have ever really considered where the carpenter or plasterer might belong in the rich historic pallet of the built environment that we have inherited from our forefathers? During this presentation we will look not only at how the "hand of the master" can be found when we unlock the time capsule of historic architecture, but also how it influenced the forms buildings and even cities took on when the skills of the builder were what powered the wheels of progress.

Today the demand for skilled trades people to work in the fields of conservation is rapidly outpacing the supply at which they are being brought into the workplace. A recent study in England produced a lengthy report entitled Traditional Building Craft Skills, and subtitled Assessing the Need, Meeting the Challenge, which clearly points out and quantifies this shortfall of qualified trades people in Great Britain. In 2005 the World Monuments Fund created a task force to document and tabulate the same information for the United States with the goal of publishing a similar report, and in Sweden a group of concerned individuals in the province of Dalarna, including representatives from the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Commerce, are planning a conference in 2007 which will network traditional trades people from Northern Europe and the United States in an effort to shine a light on the current state of the trades. We will look into the origins and infrastructure of these initiatives as well as their relationships to one another and the influence they are having on the training and educational opportunities available to students of the trades today and tomorrow.

As developing countries in the world today become part of our global economy changes in their culture become unavoidable, but when we look back at the birth and growth of our own culture and economy we have an opportunity to realize the effect of that change in both our personal and professional lives. Much of it is for the good and has resulted in significant gains in personal wealth and leisure time, but how much has that change resulted in the loss of skills that have for generations been handed down from master to apprentice, father to son and mother to daughter and how often do we even consider the consequences? During this session we will take some time to investigate just how this process has affected our society and built environment and look at the indicators of the same process occurring throughout the world. In the last two decades the awareness of the importance of conserving the knowledge and practice of the traditional trades has produced communities like the Timber Framers Guild and the Preservation Trades Network and the example set by these organizations has not gone unnoticed. We will take a minute to look at the international outreach of these organizations and investigate the importance of the potential influence this outreach has. Whether or not the existence of these entities represents the beginning of a period of change in the fabric of our culture is a matter of opinion, but it is an idea which might open doors to an exiting and wonderful new world in which there is once again an elevated place for trades.

Rudy has been timber framing for over 25 years. His company, Christian & Son, Inc. in Burbank, Ohio, includes his wife, Laura, and their son, Carson. They currently specialize in historic timber conservation and adaptive re-use of timber buildings.

OTHER EVENTS

Trade Fair
Sponsored by Mafell North America and featuring suppliers for the timber frame industry who will display their products and services and explain in detail how they are used. Meet those who support our craft in the field, including panel suppliers, tool vendors and wood brokers. Don't miss the Mixer Friday at 5:30 PM in the Trade Fair area. The Timber Frame Business Council (TFBC) organizes the Trade Fair. If you wish to exhibit, contact TFBC Executive Director Chad Delong at 888-560-9251, or chad@timberframe.org.

Bookstore
Charlotte Cooper will once again bring her Summer Beam Books for one-stop shopping and browsing for all those hard-to-find titles on woodworking and timber framing. Open all weekend, and sponsored by Duluth Timber.

SPECIAL EVENT: Discovery: Shelter & Timber Framing
An Exploratory Hands-on Workshop for Youth

SPONSORS
OF SARAH SUSANKA KEYNOTE

Additional support from
Lost Bent Woodworking & Design
Trillium Dell Timberworks