Leadership

President’s Report to DBIA Upper Midwest Region Members

Tom Hannasch

McGough»

Telephone: (651) 634-4626
e-Mail: thannasch@mcgough.com

Greetings and thanks for checking in here at the home for the Upper Midwest Regional chapter of the Design-Build Institute of America. As 2011 gets underway, I’d like to thank all the members of the steering committee for their dedicated efforts in continuing to champion the organization. In particular, we give our thanks to Bake Baker for his strong leadership this past year. As we look back at the accomplishments of 2010 and prior years, we can see continued progress on a number of fronts.

To begin, with the continued assistance of DBIA national and Richard Thomas as well as able people outside of DBIA who recognize the value that the design-build process can bring, we are closer to expanding the legislation enabling design-build to be a project delivery method of choice for more government entities for more types of projects.

To keep the dialogue going, we have continued to write articles for Finance & Commerce in the Twin Cities and will continue to do so. This past October, we held a well-attended happy hour, a social occasion without a formal program. We plan to do more of these in the years ahead. We displayed at the Life Science Alley Conference in December. We look to make more presentations to potential owner groups in 2011.

In conjunction with DBIA national and with the strength of our steering committee, we have continued to strive to deliver value for our membership as well. Our bi-monthly programs highlight successful projects. In March, our awards program will again recognize those projects that demonstrate the best practices. I ask that members encourage owners to attend and see what design-build can do. This would be a great opportunity for all to consider our April 8th training program, “Supercharged Source Selection”. This day-long event to be held in St. Paul is an excellent primer for owners and owner representatives looking to implement design-build.

DBIA national, in doing its part, has now made the Design-Build Manual of Practice an on-line resource available to its members. In the not-too-distant future, members will be able to take the certification test at local testing centers. Locally, we will hold the certification workshop in October. We encourage our membership to pursue proper training. Successful implementation demands proper training. As responsible practitioners, we need to do our part.

Building on the education aspect, we plan to reach out to the education community in 2011. Mentoring students in the practice of design-build is also vital to the sustainability of successful design-build. We all know that design-build is not easy. But, properly implemented, it is certainly a more challenging and more rewarding method of project delivery for the owner and the design-build team.

Thanks to our members and sponsors for promoting the value of design-build. Thanks to our steering committee for your hard work in making the progress we continue to make.

We welcome comments and suggestions at all times so please feel free to contact me or any of our steering committee members.

Here’s to a successful 2011!

Tom Hannasch
President, DBIA-Upper Midwest Region