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After the 2020 recruiting season just about came to a stop in March, I saw a ray of hope early in November. While I hoped to see the usual limited activity before the holidays, I wasn’t holding my breath. Instead, it came in the form of a tsunami. The first week of November was refreshing,...

COVID’s 2021 Reverse Impact Let’s see if we can get this one right. A member recently requested that I forecast when the misses were going to happen. Sounds difficult, but not impossible. COVID 2020 was a once in a lifetime paradigm shift in our learning curve. To date, I have...

The construction industry in the US is facing a shortage of skilled trade laborers but many off-site housing factories are overlooking the opportunity women can bring to the table. The current skilled labor shortage is due to several factors, including the emphasis on getting a four-year...

We are all familiar with the wheel, right? We all understand that a wheel rotates on an axis using ball bearings. When a wheel is properly lubricated, it keeps the heat away and the parts from rubbing together. Without that lubrication, the force and resistance would cause the parts to weld...

With the growing danger of natural disasters, the race is on to expand access to programs that safeguard lives from the human-made danger of poorly built housing. With the common mission of building safer, stronger structures, Build Change and Simpson Strong-Tie have partnered for the Simpson...

My advice: talk to a helpful human before you transition to a new PC or cell phone. And make sure they’ll be there when you begin changing. This will spare you the anguish I went through as I was moving from MiTek devices to my own. I had presumed that I could do this on my own as I had in...

So many people are so anxious to say goodbye to 2020, it seems only fitting to stop a minute to say: “But, remember to remember the good things that happened this year.” Like so many (too many) things in life, the good only comes alongside an ample serving of bad. We learn lessons...

Ten years after the Sanford Gantry stormed onto the scene, the DePauw Saw arrived without much fanfare. Their introductions said a lot about their inventors. Carroll Sanford was an ebullient architect, Art DePauw an unassuming machinist. If both men were alive today, they would relish seeing...

Determining whether to purchase a new Roof Truss Table Press with Spida Jig-It Rails or retrofit an existing system is not a simple decision. We are often asked to quote one system or the other, but rarely both. Even so, it is important to spend time researching both avenues to a more productive...

Goodbye 2020 and Welcome to 2021!!! Our business world has been changing fast, especially this past year, and we continue to move forward through complex issues and how best to provide our goods and services to our customers within the building industry and beyond. But what...