Daytona Beach, FL (January 14, 2022): A common practice of the modern workplace is participation in virtual or hybrid (part live, part virtual) meetings. This dynamic exists at the Pile Driving Contractors Association in both Board of Directors meetings and educational presentations. Concerning the former, the Board of Directors engages each year in a January Strategic Planning Meeting where members review Association activity of the past year and consider priorities for the new year. The January 2022 meeting had several Board members attend in person while others joined the two-day event through the Zoom webinar platform.
A component of the Strategic Planning Meeting is the ceremonial passing of the gavel, a tradition signifying a leadership change at PDCA. In 2022, outgoing PDCA president Kevin Gourgues attended the meeting in person, but incoming president Brian Heck appeared virtually. So, meeting participants witnessed a first-ever, hybrid gavel exchange for PDCA leadership. And to further distinguish the 2022 meeting, Gourgues explained how he "carefully packed the gavel in bubble wrap in a box, added extra packing peanuts for protection and sent it from Baton Rouge" to Heck in Cincinnati. However, the delivery tracking mechanism (at the time of the meeting), showed the gavel was delayed in Indianapolis. Fortunately, President Heck had a meat tenderizer available to him and dutifully tapped it to begin the strategic planning proceedings.
From there, the Board considered a full agenda of business items over the next day-and-a-half. Participants engaged in detailed discussions about a variety of issues and initiatives of the Association. Among the actions of Board members during the 2022 PDCA Strategic Planning Meeting were:
- Passage of a 2022 PDCA budget
- Acceptance of new PDCA of Texas Chapter affiliation request
- Discussion on standing committee optimization
- Review of bylaws
- Establishment of 2022 goals
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