Article by The Board
By Corey Price, SEAU Secretary
The definition of value, per the Merriam-Webster dictionary includes the following:
- To consider or rate highly.
- Something that can be bought at a low or fair price.
When I think about SEAU, I think about value. I think about the conferences that SEAU has done over the years and I’ve attended every one of them. They have been of great value to me, and they are also a great value.
There have been several conference sessions that were influential in work I was doing at the time or on work I planned to do. I remember attending a session about special concrete moment frames, a foreign system to me at the time. I didn’t know it but only a few weeks later I was tasked with designing special concrete moment frames in a building, and the session was key to understanding important design aspects. I referred to the slides on many occasions while designing the frames.
There have been building code update sessions that have helped us understand the reasons behind building code changes. The sessions on building code updates continue and are well worth attending as they help us not only with the changes but see the bigger picture. It’s important to me to stay on top of recent changes and how these might affect the work I’m doing. Of course, there are controversial code changes that came with long conference sessions such as Appendix D of ACI 318 (now implemented as a full chapter), but even these help.
The conference has been two full days and you will be hard-pressed to find a conference that can offer so many development hours for such a good price. It’s not always conveniently local to everyone, but it offers a great majority along the Wasatch Front a convenient event. I know of people who come from out-of-state to attend due to the value it is. I will be attending next year and I encourage you to as well. We can all benefit from learning more, connecting with people, and enjoying a short break.
