2009 Eastern Conference

Conference Schedule

The Main Event

The main Conference begins with breakfast on Friday morning, November 6^th and runs until 11:00 AM on Sunday, November 8^th. A schedule can be downloaded here. Here are more details about some of our presentations. Please check back for updates and revisions to the schedule.

Friday Morning, November 6^th

Featured Keynote Speaker
John Abrams: Sharing Ownership of the Future & Building It, Too
South Mountain Company, Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

What is going to happen to the economy? What is going to happen to building? What will be the key elements of our company futures that may need to change, that may, in fact, bring new and different prosperity and excitement? The next generation of business owners — those starting out today — will confront dramatically different circumstances than those of us who began our enterprises 30 or 40 years ago.

The next economy will surely be different, and many of us may find that we shift our focus to Deep Energy Retrofits and Zero Energy Buildings. What will the new opportunities be? What new tools will be needed? What skills? What preparations can we make and what seeds do we need to plant today? And most of all, how do we integrate our love of craft with our need to fix the planet?

John Abrams of South Mountain Company, long-time friend and admirer of the timber framing clan, will share cogitations, questions, inspirations, and itineraries for the journey forward.

John Abrams is co-founder and CEO of South Mountain Company, a 34-year-old employee-owned design/build and renewable energy company in West Tisbury, Massachusetts. John's book Companies We Keep: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place was released by Chelsea Green Publishing in 2008. He serves on the Island Housing Trust and Island Affordable Housing Fund boards, the Green Building Advisor, and the steering committee of Island Plan, which is working on a 50-year plan for the island of Martha's Vineyard. John and his wife, Chris, live in a co-housing neighborhood designed and built by his company.

Saturday Morning, November 7^th

Featured Keynote Speaker
James Howard Kunstler
Saratoga Springs, New York

James Howard Kunstler says he wrote The Geography of Nowhere, “Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work.”

Home From Nowhere was a continuation of that discussion with an emphasis on the remedies. A portion of it appeared as the cover story in the September 1996 Atlantic Monthly.

His next book in the series, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, published by Simon & Schuster / Free Press, is a wide-ranging look at cities here and abroad, an inquiry into what makes them great (or miserable), and in particular what America is going to do with its mutilated cities.

His book, The Long Emergency, published by the Atlantic Monthly Press in 2005, is about the challenges posed by the coming permanent global oil crisis, climate change, and other “converging catastrophes of the 21st Century.”

The Atlantic Monthly Press also published his novel, Maggie Darling, in 2004.

Mr. Kunstler is the author of eight other novels including The Halloween Ball, An Embarrassment of Riches. His latest book, A World Made By Hand, is a novel of the Long Emergency set in upstate New York in the not distant future, with a carpenter as the main character. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times Sunday Magazine and Op-Ed page, where he has written on environmental and economic issues.

Mr. Kunstler was born in New York City in 1948. He moved to the Long Island suburbs in 1954 and returned to the city in 1957 where he spent most of his childhood. He graduated from the State University of New York, Brockport campus, worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers, and finally as a staff writer for Rolling Stone Magazine. In 1975, he dropped out to write books on a full-time basis. He has no formal training in architecture or the related design fields.

He has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT, RPI, the University of Virginia and many other colleges and universities, and he has appeared before many professional organizations such as the AIA, the APA, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Sunday Morning, November 8^th

Featured Keynote Speaker
Rob Hadden: Fearless Timber Framing in Australia (Nobody told me it couldn't be done, so I just did it)
Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia

In the process of briefly telling the story behind the construction of three timber buildings on my current property in rural Australia, I will cover not only the techniques I have used, but also some of the broader issues faced, and my philosophy of building using many of the photos taken during their construction.

I am an Australian self-taught owner/builder who uses traditional English timber framing to construct small domestic scale buildings, affectionately dubbed “domestic sculpture.” They are definitely not your usual mainstream timber frames! As Bill Keir has noted, most of what I build is done with little taught knowledge but with lots of determination. Jumping in where angels fear to tread sometimes keeps the adrenaline pumping, but at the same time it also produces some unexpected and extraordinary results.

I have a habit of always looking outside the square and rejecting the ordinary; that means I'm flying by the seat of my pants most of the time. It also means that I search out carpentry that is more unusual and that work with very strange bent bits of timber. Along the way I have developed a rapport with arborists, tree fellers and friends that look out for suitable timber for me to use. It helps that they know the sort of wood that I am after and don't preempt how I might use it.

There is so much to explore and so little time. Here are some points I will touch on:

• I am an owner/builder and not a commercial one.
• Owner building - the freedoms that entails, very limited funds, looking at the whole project not just the frame and the opportunity to change direction on a whim.
• Self taught - apart from a cursory lesson in scribing by Steve Lawrence (ex-Carpenter Oak employee in England) which was my formal training, I have devised most of my own ways of doing English face side carpentry - for better or for worse!

• Working by myself and the issues that raises such as isolation, lack of information and local camaraderie, logistical problems such as moving heavy timbers around by myself
• Fine art background has given me the excuse to look at timber framing as a kind of "domestic sculpture."
• Size is important. I build to a small domestic scale.
• Wide range of donated timber to use. And some fantastic shapes as well which determine where and how they are used.
• Earth architecture as a base for timber framing, that is, following the tradition of the cob houses of Devon with jointed crucks and the Welsh vernacular tradition as well.
• Milling of my own timber, the collection and carting, the mills used.
• Ability to build ultra-sustainably, way above the norm.
• Use of lime and natural materials.
• Making materials myself because they are not available or too costly.
• Learning a wide range of skills in order to have more input into the building process, for example, milling my own timber, bricklaying, lead lighting, lime and clay plasters.

There will be printed notes, favorite Websites and a short list of open-air museums where one can see good timber work and a book list.

This presentation is aimed at the full range of builders, from first-time owner / builders to seasoned professionals who are looking for new ideas, directions, sources of inspiration and encouragement to get out there and have a go at something different. I anticipate the outcomes will be to demonstrate a wider range of options available outside mainstream U.S. timber framing and to present it in a manner that encourages people to have a go. It is about looking and really seeing something beyond what we are used to doing.

I would also like to acknowledge the encouragement from Bill Keir, Collin Beggs, Will Beemer and other TFG members who gave me input and suggestions and said I could do it!

Other Presentations

Rob Hadden: Creating Unique Materials Needed When Not Available or Too Costly to Acquire

I have discovered over the years that the shell of a building is only the beginning of the story - once the frame is complete and standing on its own feet, the process of joining all the dots that make it special really begins. In my case, that also means the detailing that will make the building appear as if built centuries ago.

So often on my trips to the UK, I have taken many photos of all aspects of their old buildings and of vernacular architecture in general to discover what it is that makes them unique. I look carefully at the minutiae of detail and the unusual, especially in houses that never make the coffee table books but are the real essence of historic domestic scale architecture. When I am particularly taken by something, I then work out the processes needed to replicate it back home, as most of these materials are almost impossible to obtain in Australia.

Putting in modern equivalents is bound to disappoint and to destroy the very effect you may want to achieve. You don't want to end up with a house that fails to grasp the nebulous thing called “atmosphere.”

I have found that the creative juices really flow when I work out how to replicate something and create objects that are beautiful in their own right. Over the years I have found ways to reproduce

• roof tiles
• simulated sandstone for use as flagstones, stairs, fireplaces, benchtops, lintels and door jambs
• wooden window frames and/or metal casement windows and leadlights
• furniture

All of these methods are cheap, look good, and will be unique. I use salvaged materials whenever possible. The intended audience for this talk is owner/builders and commercial builders who are looking for that extra something to make their houses stand out from the crowd. I would like to inspire a return to some of the old Art and Craft traditions of making everything in a building, not just the shell. The creative satisfaction is immense.

Jim DeStefano & Stewart Elliott: Hybrid Timber Frame - SIP - ICF Structures

Timber Frame construction has long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) systems. SIP roof and wall panels have been the cladding material of choice over timber frames for more than three decades. A SIP-clad timber frame structure exhibits energy efficient performance unrivaled by other building systems.

These early days and craftsman also spoke to the sustainability of this building system. Despite this seemingly perfect marriage, SIP systems have often been misunderstood and sometimes even maligned by timber frame companies.

Over the past decade the popularity of Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) systems has increased significantly. ICF systems have become the preferred foundation system for SIP clad Timber Frame structures. The thermal mass of the concrete core coupled with the insulating faces results in impressive energy performance. And again, these timber frame and panel and ICF suppliers address the sustainability of this building system.

But alas, ICF systems are also misunderstood and unappreciated by timber framers. As the political and social climate has changed in recent years, so has the building industry. Consumers now prefer hybrid cars. When it comes to their homes they also demand hybrids. Total timber frame structures are giving way to partial timber frames.

The respective roles of timber frame, SIP and ICF building systems are providing the ability to change and meet the new demands. SIPs are not just a cladding system anymore. They are now used as load bearing and free spanning structural elements often supporting, not just cladding the timber frame.

ICFs have climbed out of the basement. ICF load bearing walls and ICF floor systems are sturdy and robust structural elements that can effortlessly support timber frames. They are not just for foundation walls anymore.

This stimulating, informative and entertaining presentation will give a fuller understanding of Timber, SIP and ICF building systems. It will explain how to merge them with a timber frame to produce an efficient hybrid structure while avoiding some of the common pitfalls. It confirms just how sustainable and practical this hybrid system is.

Jim DeStefano, P.E., AIA is a structural engineer and architect with DeStefano & Chamberlain, Inc. located in Fairfield, Connecticut. Jim is, among other things, the past-chairman of the Timber Frame Engineering Council (TFEC).

Stewart Elliott has been in the timber frame industry since 1970 as a practitioner, author and teacher. Stewart is the eastern regional manager with Riverbend Timber Framing and is regularly presenting seminars about the sustainability of this building system to various conferences and seminars nationwide.

Jeremy Bonin: Designing a Sustainable Home

What is sustainable, green or eco-friendly? There are hundreds of definitions and interpretations, but the paramount issue is for the designer and client to understand one another's perceptions and intentions in order to be clear about the projects vision in regard to being “sustainable.” A synopsis of definition and goals will be reviewed and discussed as well as their implications and impacts to both the design process and the home itself.

With the above vision clearly defined (no small feat), now how do you proceed? What solutions begin to address the vision of the project? Are the solutions based on a construction type, a desire to reduce fossil fuel consumption in the construction of the home, in the life span of the home? Is the intent to leave a smaller footprint, lead a more simple life? Are there technological solutions that address the design requirements as well? Sustainable construction and living may consist of complex systems integrated into our basic need for shelter and security. Examples and discussions about selected typologies and technologies will be examined and discussed.

To conclude the presentation, integrated design will be defined and discussed. Integrated design's importance to the process is paramount. As systems and technologies permeate the design and construction of home, all systems need to be viewed and addressed as singular functioning collective. Examples and discussions about balanced and redundant systems within a home will be reviewed and discussed.

Jeremy Bonin AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is Principal Partner and Architect of Bonin Architects & Associates, an LEED-Accredited Professional, author of TIMBER FRAMES: Designing Your Custom Home, and published in Living Green Magazine, USGBC'S Green Home Guide, Timber Framing, Custom Wood Homes, Timber Home Living and Smart Home Owner. Jeremy's professional experience includes commercial buildings, condominiums, country clubs, over 100 residences and three years as Principal Architect of a nationally recognized timber frame manufacturer. Jeremy and his wife and partner, Kim, formed Bonin Architects to fulfill their desire to deliver client-focused design/management services and inspirational sustainable design solutions.

Molly McDonald: The Historic Carpentry of Archeologically Excavated Wharves

More than a third of Lower Manhattan and one sixth of Boston are estimated to consist of man-made land. Since the 1980s, archaeologists have documented many examples of the buried timber wharves, bulkheads, and other landfill retaining structures that comprised this man-made land. This presentation examines the construction methods used to build early timber structures from the colonial period and the mid-19th century in North America. In particular, it examines the carpentry traditions, joinery details, layout and form of these structures, and discusses their geographical distribution and cultural origins. The presentation identifies the drawbacks of the classifications systems that archaeologist have typically used in the past to describe and analyze these structures. Instead, the presentation emphasizes the importance of understanding wood landfill retaining structures through the lens of vernacular architecture and carpentry history. Examples of archaeologically investigated landfill retaining structures in North America and Europe suggest that while in England timber framed wharves and quays were typical through the late Medieval period, North American examples were almost universally built using log construction methods. The presentation suggests that the construction of most early timber landfill retaining structures in the eastern United States was influenced more strongly by Scandinavian log building traditions than by English or Dutch timber framing traditions.

Molly McDonald, an architectural historian and archaeologist at AKRF Inc., is experienced in the survey and documentation of cultural resources and has produced numerous cultural resource surveys and National Register nominations throughout the northeast. She also has extensive experience in writing archaeological documentary studies, and in conducting archaeological fieldwork and laboratory analysis. Ms. McDonald holds a Master's degree in Buildings Archaeology from York University in England and a Master's degree in Historic Preservation from Cornell University. She is an active member of the New York State Barn Coalition and other organizations devoted to understanding and preserving vernacular architecture.

Rudy Christian: What Does “Green” Really Mean? Thinking & Living Sustainably

We live in a world of communities. Some old, some new, but for the most part hand me downs from those who came before. Some of what has been handed down is the architecture created by the need for shelter as well as the need for expression. Some is what was learned along the way, most of which is useful, some not and some lost. As the recipients of these tangible and intangible artifacts we are faced with decisions. Some of which are clear and straightforward, some difficult to understand and some we do not realize even exist.

As designers and builders we influence the communities in which we work. As conservationists we do as well, but how much difference is there between new build and continued use in how we affect the communities in which we work? How does adaptive reuse fit in the picture? These questions seem complex to us as Americans, but they have been answered for centuries in other parts of the world. But that world is getting smaller every day and the global affects of population growth and industrialization mean the answers are more important today than ever.

During this presentation, we will look at examples of old building technologies that are proving to be very useful to designers and trades people today. We will discuss how modern improvements like SIP enclosure systems make the centuries-old Rumford fireplace a useful part of a home heating system. We will look at a design for a constructed wetlands waste water treatment system, first developed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which can be incorporated as part of a home design and which has a near-zero impact on ground water resources. We will discuss how incorporating old technologies in new designs compares with using new technologies in old buildings and the impact it may have on the communities we work in.

We will also look at the issues of embodied energy and embodied knowledge and how these can influence how we approach new building, conservation and adaptive reuse projects. We will discuss how developing a conservation philosophy has just as much to do with designing a new building as it does conserving an old one. By realizing that as designers and trades people we are an important part of the communities in which we practice our trade, we can understand the responsibility we have to build and conserve in ways that contribute to making the world a place we can not only enjoy being part of, but one we can believe is sustainable.

For the last decade the Green Movement has become a source for branding of everything from the work being undertaken by Brad Pitt in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans to the solid vinyl replacement windows being sold at the big box home improvement stores. But a trip to the Global Green Headquarters in New Orleans quickly reveals that the focus of their program is built around infill and retrofitting modern energy efficient building components into historic homes. Unfortunately this “blinders on” approach means that the concept of preservation itself as a sustainable approach to keeping buildings useful is largely ignored and all too often perfectly restorable historic building components like doors and windows end up in the waste stream where their embodied energy is added to the carbon impact of the landfills.

The reason for this imbalanced approach to sustainability is often lost in the drive to improve and apply today's technologies, but the underlying truth is often muted. The reality that the skills required to approach these buildings from the aspect of restoration and applied traditional trades is overlooked largely because those trades are not being taught in the colleges and universities that are teaching tomorrow's architects and construction managers how to be “green.” During this presentation, we will look at the possibilities of changing those educational programs and curriculum and how that might provide us with a new approach to thinking and living sustainably.

Jack Sobon: Working by Hand: A Course for the Future?

Jack, an architect, builder, and author of Tiber frame Construction, Build a Classic Timber Framed House, and Historic American Timber Joinery, has been constructing timber framed buildings exclusively by hand for nearly thirty years. What began as a lark to see how hard it was to build a traditional timber frame using old hand tools turned into a lifetime pursuit to unlock the mysteries of this ancient craft and promote the use of hand tools. He will share the lessons he has learned as well as the joys and pitfalls of hand crafting buildings for a living.

Ace McArleton and Jacob Deva Racusin: Beyond Green: Straw Bale as Natural SIPs

The time has come for natural building to shed its crunchy garb and step into the spotlight along with other green technologies. Natural building is a movement that has developed side-by-side with timber framing. Especially in the wooded northern climates of North America, where timber is an available local resource and has a strong vernacular tradition, timber framed structures have been paired with straw bale wall systems to great effect. This session seeks to explore straw bale wall systems as more than just a viable alternative to SIPs panels; it seeks to make the case that in some applications they are actually a preferential alternative to SIPs. As many of us TFGers know, one major reason for the resurgence of timber framed structures in the 1970s was the rise of SIPs panels. SIPs (structurally insulated panels), made of board-encased foam, allowed for a wall system to wrap the frame that did not require additional wood framing or interior drywall, and were quickly installed. Today, as all building trades strive to make us energy efficient and green, the SIPs panel is often touted as the ubiquitous answer to a high-performance, efficiently installed wall system for timber frames. This session makes the case for another SIPs panel to be considered by timber framers: the plastered straw bale "panel" (PSBP). We will look at hard building science data, cost comparison, present best practice of SB installation when paired with timber frames, and the social, ecological, and construction benefits of PSBPs, or straw bale wall systems.

Ace McArleton and Jacob Deva Racusin are co-owners of New Frameworks Natural Building, based in Vermont. They offer professional services in contracting, education, and consultation of natural and hybrid structures, and offer courses at Yestermorrow Design/Build School. They are members of professional trade organizations including Natural Builders Northeast, Seven Generations Natural Builders, and the Timber Framers Guild.

Ben Brungraber and John Miller: A Cautionary Tale

This presentation has a dual theme of managing client relationships and doing an engineered remediation of trusses in failure. Trusses were built per detailed engineering specifications. Specs proved to be inadequate. A consulting engineer was called in and the company is finishing up the reinforcement and repair of the trusses in situ at this time. Client still likes us and we hope to complete the project with all relationships intact.

Collin Beggs: Rampant Evangelism: Expediting the Evolution of Timber Framers into Master Builders
Timber Frames by Collin Beggs, Inc., Sandpoint, Idaho

Complete design-build will put you into the driver's seat. It will increase, diversify, and lengthen your revenue stream, expand and challenge your abilities and, most important, enable you to manifest your particular vision of this craft.

In this presentation, I will inspire you to take up complete design-build and tell you how to do so from a practical standpoint, all the while maintaining your sanity, albeit only a small portion. I will demonstrate how my small timber frame company evolved successfully into a full design-build company. With a contraction in the housing market, it is time now more than ever to offer whole-house design and general contracting for your timber frame projects.

We will dig into:

• manifesting and translating your vision
• the process of events
• design (to draw or not to draw)
• contracts
• liabilities and insurance
• recruiting the right players (sub-contractors)
• time management (sleep is overrated)
• benefits to seize and pitfalls to avoid
• why it's so much fun.

Upon completion of this course, you will receive my Client Marriage Therapy Certification, which will enable you to navigate the sub-conscious realm of relationships and house construction. By combining whole house design, timber framing, and general contracting, you will be able to manifest a cohesive vision from conception to completion.

Laurie Smith: Geometry as a Spatial Design Language

This presentation will look at some of the evidence for almost a millennium of geometrical design in English and Welsh historic buildings. The examples, ranging in scale from dwelling house to cathedral, have been chosen to demonstrate the extensive and diverse use of geometry as a spatial design language by a largely pre-literate and pre-numerate society. However, although this society lacked modern academic schooling, it demonstrated high levels of spatial literacy and the practical masonry and carpentry skills necessary to express it in harmonically proportioned architectural form. Geometry was a core subject in the medieval curriculum. Sometimes geometrical symbols are found scribed or carved into the fabric of historic buildings, design icons, or signatures that give clues to the geometrical design methods employed.

For example, the compass scribed geometrical module carved into an aisle post at T. Mawr (Great House), a Welsh timber framed hall-house built at Castle Caereinion in 1460, can be opened like a flower to reveal the building's plan, section, long elevation, spere post cross section, braces, and timber scaling throughout the building. Similarly, the twin daisy wheels of the Monks' Door at Ely Cathedral, where building commenced in 1181 can be used to design the tripartite arch of the door itself and the concentric arcs of the tympanum above it. Beyond the door, in the cathedral's nave, daisy wheel geometry defines the proportional division into nave and aisles, the alignment of the arcades, and the alternation of cylindrical and angular piers within them. In both examples, the geometrical foundation is the driving force behind the building's constructed form and visual aesthetic.

Bill Keir: Veteran Voices: 21 Years of Building Oak Frame Houses

Bill Keir (recently elected as Chairman of the U.K. Carpenters Fellowship) started framing with green oak in 1988 with a company called Carpenter Oak & Woodland. In 1990, Bill discovered the TFG, and having won a Winston Churchill Fellowship, travelled to the U.S. and spent 10 weeks visiting and working with many New England-based framers.

After 15 years and some landmark projects with Carpenter Oak (including the repair of fi re damage at Windsor Castle, and the huge-57 truss, 150-ft. long by 50-ft. span-hammer beam roof at Stirling Castle), Bill moved to the young but up-and-coming Oakwrights company, founded in 1999 by Tim Crump and the late Nick Price.

In 2000 Bill, met Tim and Nick, and they became firm friends. By this stage Oakwrights was putting into pace their bold plan to become the fi rst company to really embrace modern methods of construction, and not being hamstrung by inherent resistance to change, they were doing many of the things that nobody else at that time would even contemplate.

Attracted to the company by the boundless enthusiasm for oak frame building shown by the management team and the insatiable appetite to explore new and better ways of constructing them, Bill joined Oakwrights in early 2000. A key indicator was their willingness to travel to Europe and North America to identify best practice and, once having found it, to bring it back to Hereford. There they adapted it and incorporated it into the Oakwrights business model.

At the same, time a group of staff were developing the Oakwrights patented in-fill panels system, unique in that it genuinely addresses all the requirements of U.K. building regulations. Yet it allows timbers to be exposed both inside and out, thereby combining the traditional look and feel of the classic British traditional half-timbered house with the needs of the 21st century inhabitant. As a company heavily committed to combining the best hand craft skills gleaned from years of traditional oak frame construction with the very best of 21st century technology, Oakwrights embarked on a $2 million program to upgrade all of their technology and machinery. This ensured that they were well-placed to endure the current downturn.

As part of this upgrade program, Oakwrights specified and commissioned the world's most sophisticated Hundegger CNC beam processing machine, which does 80% of the cutting (the "grunt," as the boys call it) leaving the framers in the workshop to concentrate on the skilled part: hand scribing in the curved braces and crafting the embellishments that make a frame unique to each client.

Oakwrights Today
Many of the team in the workshop have been with the company from the first year. One, at 67 years old, still works in a front line role in the framing shop. I believe this is unique in the world of oak framing, where the strain of heaving around heavy oak beams without the plethora of overhead cranes and forklifts that Oakwrights uses means that most framers have back problems by the time they are 40, whereupon many have to seek alternative roles or employment.

Although very focused on the things we like (the "boys' toys"), much of the investment is targeted at the Oakwrights team: the people, now 60 strong. Our team is the core of the company, and by investing in the people as well as the stuff, we have built a company run by enthusiasts who build more oak framed houses than anybody, and who I'm proud to say are recognized worldwide for the quality of their buildings. Having reluctantly come to terms with the reality that veteran must equate in some way to becoming old, I will attempt to follow the challenging brief I've been set (by the even older veterans), which means a brisk trot though the early days of the oak frame revival in the U.K. and a look at how we build our traditional English half-timbered frames in the 21st century. We will glory (well, I will!) in our pride and joy, the Hundegger(s) and how they dovetail into our World Built by Hand. Have a brief look at our WrightWall® totally sustainable, renewable, natural, breathing wall system, embracing those currently in-vogue catch phrases "modern methods of construction" and "offsite construction."

Hired Gun: Managing a Company I Don't Own
Part two of the brief demands a section on business practice, including some of my observations and experiences based on having been one of the comparatively rare types in the world of timber framing (either in the U.S. or in the U.K.): the hired guns, born without the entrepreneur gene, but managing or directing a company that they don't own. How does that work?

What I won't be doing is teaching anybody to suck eggs. I shan't be telling those already running successful operations how they should be doing it better. This section will be aimed squarely at those people aspiring to grow their organizations, or for those people at the head of up-and-coming companies. How could you take steps to make these companies "self-managing" (at least to some degree)? This just might free up some time to do the stuff that made you want to be a timber framer in the first place. I will examine what I like to call the key pieces of paper -- those documents found in all those books by the management guru types, what they mean, where and how you use them; but I'll also look at how you could (and should, much sooner rather than later) adapt this stuff into practice. I'll try to make it interesting, and I'll explain the role of Land Rovers in recruitment and why you have to party hard.

The brief calls for the last third of this affair to be a question and answer session. To avoid the embarrassment of fending off searching questions that might reveal just how little I know about the topics above, I will endeavor to over-run the two previous sections so as to keep my personal discomfort to an absolute minimum. However, if you really have a question, jot it down on the back of some old $5 bill you didn't really need anymore and bring it on down to the bar.

Pete Dunnigan: Bidding and Managing Commercial Projects Effectively

From bidding a job to its completion, commercial projects require special handling. This session will explain the technical aspects of project pricing, management, safety, and completion.

When entering the commercial market from a related field like homebuilding, it's useful to know how tracking commercial leads can be different. Knowing how to solicit bids and get on the list for bid requests are also critical.

Bidding in itself is a very important-perhaps the most important-aspect of commercial projects. In the commercial world, bidding is a complex process. We'll look at a typical bidding timeline, go over construction documents like bonds, insurance, Requests for Information (RFI), bid forms, scope of work, and bid packages. Though many things can change once the idea becomes a reality, mapping out a sequence and timeline for construction is usually part of a bid, as is declaring a wage rate and certifying payrolls. The need for liability insurance on a commercial project is different from that of residential building and more complex. Commercial jobs often roll out from the work of several companies, each having a relationship to the other, so subcontractor agreements and owner-general contractor agreements need to spell out all the right terms. We'll go over those, as well as some supplementary general conditions, exclusions, qualifications, scope of work, addenda, and alternate pricing that might be part of a commercial bid.

Once you are awarded a bid, it's time to start the work. Commercial builders have many things to track. A great way to set the job up is to hold a preconstruction meeting-both internally and onsite. Paperwork might include notice of intent/subcontract award, subcontract agreement and execution, RFIs, transmittals, AIA forms, progress photos, daily jobsite reports, change orders, and so on. What should a final punchlist look like? What needs to be done on completion of the work? How should the project be closed out? And what about that final payment?

Safety is not an issue to take lightly on commercial projects, with lots of autonomous teams working around one another. Having a company safety plan in place before even bidding on the project is the best way to go. The 10-hour OSHA Safety Training course is well worth the investment. Keeping MSDS onsite- and having a complete collection for the job-is important. We'll discuss safety plans specific to a project, as well.

John Abrams, Tedd Benson, Jonathan Orpin: In These Economically Challenged Times - Innovations and Insights

There is no longer a debate about whether or not there is a recession. The discussions now revolve around how deep it will go, how long it will last, and how to get to the other side. Timber framing companies, like every other segment of the building industry, are facing cancelled projects, quieter phones, and difficult layoffs. All of us are sobered by the situation. We are working hard to develop creative strategies and helpful coping mechanisms.

In this panel discussion, John Abrams, Tedd Benson, and Jonathan Orpin will discuss the conceptual and specific steps they have put in place. You will be able to ask questions and offer your own discussion points. It would be difficult to imagine anyone leaving the room without additional strategies and new perspectives for success (and failure!).

This seminar was recently given at the Timber Framers Business Council Education Seminar in South Carolina. Comments ranged from "Not enough time, would like to have this continued," to "I want to work for these guys!" It's not known whether that person was hired.