Participants in 2022 CFI engage in hands-on learning during rigorous field training

Planning is underway for the 2025 PDCA Contractors Foundation Institute: Driven Pile Academy (CFI) training event scheduled for November 10-14 at Port Bienville, MS. This one-of-its-kind event is fast-approaching its second run as an opportunity for pile drivers to get an individualized learning experience and enhance their working knowledge of equipment, safety, best practices, and piling materials. Contractors and other pile driving industry stakeholders from locations throughout North America crowded the piling yard near Duson, LA in 2022 for the inaugural CFI event. Overwhelming demand since then has prompted PDCA to establish the program as an industry resource that repeats every third year.

Manufacturers and suppliers of piling equipment and materials, be advised: YOU PROVIDE THE COMPONENTS FOR THE FIELD TRAINING. The PDCA Associate Member Council (AMC), which conceived the novel event four years ago, is again coordinating all aspects of the forthcoming 2025 CFI. You must engage with this committee if you wish for your product(s) to be considered for exhibition in Port Bienville. Engagement with the AMC is as simple as regularly attending the virtual meetings that the group holds each month.

For a schedule of upcoming AMC meetings, please visit the PDCA Events Calendar and click the entry entitled PDCA Associate Member Council to affix the meeting and Zoom access link to your e-calendar. The next three meetings are on Dec. 12, 2024, Jan. 16, 2025, and Feb. 13, 2025.

Your attendance at the virtual meetings will provide you the opportunity to propose how you can contribute to the exhibition, whether it involves sending materials or equipment, presenting during classroom activities, or enhancing the unique program through your professional expertise. We cannot stress enough, the importance of your commitment to attend and engage during monthly, Associate Member Council virtual meetings. 

If you are interested in attending or sending employees to the 2025 CFI to enhance your competencies in driven pile construction, but you are not seeking an exhibition role, please visit the CFI webpage on piledrivers.org to notify us of your intent. While registration will not open until early 2025, you are encouraged to complete a short form to document your intentions. This is helpful to the AMC and staff planners as they prepare for the second run of this widely recognized, popular, and impactful program.