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Commercial Dry wall, Inc. Volume I, No. 11

Commercial Craftsman September 1980

Budget heater revisions

More jobs getting stoft aft sftsalk5 BBQ In a continuing effort to improve the Budget Beater Program, CDI is announcing three major revisions to the contests which will become ef fective October 1. Under this new format: 1) a point system based on ranking will be used to determine steak dinner winners, 2) all jobs which beat their budgets will be eligible for the bi-weekly lunches, 3) quality, for the first time, will be measured on all jobs competing in the contest. The emphasis of the new Budget Beater Contests will be for the dif ferent jobs to accumulate enough points to earn a steak dinner for their members, spouses and/or dates. Points will be awarded to those jobs which beat their budgets

during the two-week period on the following basis: 1st place................ 2nd place.............. 3rd place................ 4th place and below

. 25 points . 15 points . 10 points . 5 points

When any job accumulates 100 points, it will receive a steak dinner. But, in order to qualify for any points, the job must beat its budget during the two-week period. In conjunction with the steak din ners, the small jobs which make up Group I of our Budget Beaters will be further grouped according to their superintendent. This grouping will allow those on jobs which are too short in duration a means to ac quire the necessary 100 points to be eligible for the steak dinners. In this case, a superintendent’s group will receive points based on all of his jobs rankings up to a maximum of 25 points per two-week period. When the superintendent’s group amasses 100 points, every worker on every job in that group will win the steak dinner. Group II jobs, which usually last longer periods of time, will compete against each other for the ranking and the points. After a job earns 100 points and receives the dinner, it then begins its point accumulation again. All jobs earn their points in relation to their ranking and keep their points regardless if any other job wins a steak dinner.

Budget beater lunches will undergo changes beginning October 1 as part of Operation 3P and its attempt to reward productivity.

Budget Beater Lunches. The se cond major revision of the Budget Beaters Program is that the lunches which alternate from week to week

between Group I and II can be won by any job that beats its budget. The winner will be determined through a Tuesday morning drawing involving all the jobs that did beat their budgets. In this way, just beating the budget gains a job the chance to win a lunch, regardless of its ranking. For the lunches, the Group I jobs will continue to compete against one another as in the past, and will not be grouped by superintendent. Grouping will apply only to the amassing of points for the steak dinner. Quality. The third portion of the new budget beaters is the addition of quality to the contests. Starting October 1 all jobs will be inspected weekly by the time keepers or the superintendent to insure proper quality standards are being met. The standards for this quality will be presented in writing to all job supervisors and superintendents so that they may know exactly what they are being judged on. A total of up to 10 points per two-week period may be deducted from the budget beater scores for poor quality. Since it is expected, points will not be awarded for good quality work. The new budget beaters format is yet another result of Operation 3P and its survey which showed the need to more evenly distribute the chances for a lunch and/or dinner, and the need to instill quality as a factor in the contests.

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Relationships ©r tow t© succeed By Dick Phillips

Briefly, I want to share with you my thoughts on an aspect of our business that has been a big factor in our successful growth in the drywall business. This aspect is the building of successsful relationships. Relationships never just happen, they are worked at. No business can really succeed and grow without spending time to develop its relationships. In the case of our great customers, we have over a period years worked on our relationships. If you notice the customer list for CDI in the last five years you will see the same names on the list year after year, with only a few variances. This is because we have paid attention to this powerful aspect of business called "relation ships”. The easiest sale that exists is the second, third, fourth, or fifth times we do business with a contractor or an owner. Each time they learn more about how we best perform. And we learn more about their needs and their style of building a project. Therefore, we become bet ter at satisfying their needs. They like that, and we like that.

This has been a very strong part of our rapid growth. Equally impor tant, however, are the relationships with our suppliers. We pride ourselves on being fair, responsible,and appreciative of our suppliers. We work hard at being the kind of company that they want to do business with. We are blessed with a high volume of business, and we pay our bills promptly. But more than that we treat them like they are part of our team, and we couldn't be who we are without them. Relationships among ourselves are also extremely important and it takes each and everyone of us to get the job done. I have sometimes spent considerable time trying to think through what it takes to build good relationships, to make a friend, or be a good husband or wife. I’ve concluded that nothing good hap pens until a good relationship is established. I think in our company we have worked hard at developing good relationships and it has paid off. Building good relationships re quires taking a longer view of the situation, and realizing you need not

win every battle to win the war. wgk have learned corporately to give and take with our customers, suppliers and employees. And it seems to be working. I wish that everyone of us would take a little time each day to think on how we are doing with our rela tionships — with our partners at work, our fellow employees and our supervisors. And, while we are reflecting we should take a hard look at our families, and other non-business friends. Are we giving them the time and effort necessary to build a good relationship? It takes time and effort necessary to build a good relation ship. It doesn’t come easy nor is it free. But it is worth every ounce of energy and every moment of time that we spend on it.

Olympics 1884? Michelle Barnard, 13, daughter of CDI controller Barry Barnard, pla<A 4th in the 400 meter freestyle and* 5th in the 1500 meter freestyle events at the recent Texas AAU Age Group Long Course Swim Championships held at The Woodlands. Michelle, swimming for the eventual team champions, Dads Club YMCA of Houston, swam her lifetime best times of 4:39 in the 400 and 18:21 in the 1500. Swimming in the 13-14 year old age group, she finished two seconds behind another 13-year-old Dads Clubber.

Commercial Craftsman Editor: Larry Williams

First in DbISbS — The Lincoln Centre Bank is CDI's first project for the Dallas office. The 15-story office building is currently being stocked for tenant work which will be getting underway in the near future.

The Commercial Craftsman is published monthly by Commercial Drywall, Inc. for its employees and their families. Employees should send their news contributions to Larry Williams, Commercial Drywall, Inc., P.O. Box 10686, Houston, 0 Texas 77018.

In San Antonio

SASA major CD1 project underway The San Antonio Savings Association building currently reigns as CDI-San Antonio’s major project. The nine-story structure, a project for the Henry C. Beck Construction Co., has been underway since late spring with core work now approximately 50 percent complete. Heading up the project for CDI is Delton Sturgis with help from David Garcia, Jr. Together they handle the approximately two dozen CDI employees on the job. The work there includes the framing and hanging, acoustical lay-in ceilings, plus under grid walls using CDI aluminum excrusions. Some of those involved in the various operations include Edward Brieno, Donald Buck, Fred Enderle, Tommy Guetterez, Gary Schultze, and Jimmy Vaughanall of whom have been involved with the ceiling work on the project. On the hanging end, such j^heetrockers as Israel Ochoa, ^^incente Ochoa, Fidel Pelayo, Alvaro Martinez, Jose Arrendondo, and Jim Pesina have done an excellent job with the core work. The building’s major tenant, San Antonio Savings, will occupy floors 1 through 4 and the ninth floor. The remaining area will serve as lease

It’s been said that our most important sense is our gift of sight, and that approximately 80 percent of the things we know come to us through our eyes. Yet, 2000 eyes are lost in the United States every year through needless accidental injuries which cost industry about $37 million in medical expense and compensation. Here at Commercial, we had an unbelievable 11 eye injuries reported last month alone, but luckily no one ^kost the use of an eye. Be wary I though, because some figures indicate that 1 in 25 eye injuries result in at least partial loss of vision.

Ed Brieno (front) and Santos Trevino make way for the acoustical lay-in ceilings for the SASA project in San Antonio.

Jimmy Vaughan sets CDI door trames on the nine-story SASA protect which is now approximately 50 percent complete.

space and is already 100 percent leased. SASA expects to be completely moved in by the first of the year. According to CDI-San Antonio’s field superintendent, Grady Atnip, Beck’s project superintendent Arvin Watts and project manager Harvey Hempstead have worked real well with CDI in staying on schedule and coordinating subcontractor activities.

Elsewhere in San Antonio, Paul Buck is wrapping up the remaining work on the Holiday Inn. Paul and co-foreman Wayne Schultze deserve a great deal of the credit for making the job one of San Antonio's most successful jobs thus far. In fact, in recognition of the crew’s success on the project a budget beaters barbeque lunch was held recently. The entire crew was treated with the lunch held in the CDI warehouse. Wayne Schultz has begun lease work in the McCreless Mall while activity on the new Foley’s store at North Star Mall is getting underway. New Manager CDI-San Antonio has named a new general manager of that office. Roy Van Cleeve began duties August 15th. Prior to joining CDI Roy held a similar position with C.S.C. Construction Services, a commercial interior construction firm in San Antonio. Roy, who has been in the construction industry for the past nine years, has been in San Antonio for 27 years and has attended San Antonio College and Trinity University. He is married and has two children.

Before one of us suffers this terrible tragedy let’s pull together and stop these injuries completely by remembering to wear our safety glasses whenever there’s the slightest danger of eye hazards, especially when operating powder actuated tools and using screwguns overhead. Bear in mind that a high percent of injuries occur on jobs not considered eye hazardous. So be selfish with your eye protection and wear your safety glasses not only because you’re supposed to, but because your smart and want to be able to tell your friends “see you later,’’ and really mean it. 3

employee NEWS

Dallas team in full stride Good news continues to come from the Dallas area as the CDI Systems Inc. team begins to enter the job market in full stride. According to vice president and general manager Mike Grogan, head of our Dallas office, CDI has received commitment for the core and tenant work on the 14-story Park Central building. The project is the first of four office buildings plus a hotel which will be built on the north side of Dallas at Loop 635 and Preston Road. CDI has also submitted bids for the hotel, which is still in the plan ning stages, and is expected to start construction around the first of the year. Other bids have gone out on ma jor projects such as the 40 story high-rise Continental Plaza in Fort Worth, the rebid of the Radison Hotel, and a 14-story Sheraton Inn near DFW airport which should be ready for construction in the first quarter of next year. The 15-story Lincoln Centre office building, CDI’s first job in Dallas is currently being stocked, with work slated to begin in the next few weeks.

Bo eoodoBeoce Recently, CDI suffered the loss of Curtis “Eddie” Slayton in an automobile/pedestrian accident. Curtis had been with Commercial since February of 1977 having most recently worked in the Greenway cabinet shop. His untimely death leaves a widow, Loretta. The Craftsman on behalf of all CDI employees, especially his co workers, sends its sincere condolences to Loretta and all of the Slayton family.

CDI supervisor of the month Tommy Williamson directs nephew Eddie in work in the lease areas of the Greenspoint Office Park, a /ob he has engineered for the last few months.

Tommy Williamson

T@p supervisors enthusiasm pa^s ®ff CDI’s award for supervisor of the month this time around goes to Tommy Williamson for his accomplishments on the Greenspoint Office Park project. With his leadership and dedication to quality, Tommy, and what he says was an exceptional crew, made the job one of Commercial’s smoother running operations. According to superintendent Jim LaCaze, Tommy not only has the ability to get maximum performance out of his men but from the other superintendents and subcontractors as well. For example, informed of the numerous and very difficult deadline to be met, Tommy immediately asked for, and was granted, a weekly foremen’s meeting, directed by the general contractor, Harvey Construction. Tommy credits Harvey superintendent James Mills as one of the reasons the job went well, stating that, “He’s a heck of a guy, and always helped when he could.” Starting out as a journeyman for Commercial some eight years ago on _ a small Vanco vinyl job, Tommy first made foreman on the Houston Center with Fred Lay whom he credits with teaching him quite a bit about the business. When asked what he felt was a key to helping a job run smoothly and productively, 4

Tommy said, “Everybody has to get along. All the crafts have to make money just like us. You have to take^ time to listen to everyone's gripes Q and problems and just try and get along!” Although a native of Houston, Tommy and his family are currently building a home in New Caney, Texas where they have lived for the past 13 years. There he coaches the New Caney Steelers, a little league football team, where nine year old Tommy Jr. plays tackle and his twelve year old daughter, Angela, is a cheerleader. Wife, Patsy's involved too, as last year she and Tommy were chosen team parents of the year. Besides obviously enjoying his coaching responsibilities, Tommy feels that the team is important for the kids and community as well. That same sense of responsibility, enthusiasm and support that is evident in everything Tommy does in his social life, carries over to whatever job Tommy performs for Commercial as well. With his current job nearing completion, Tommy will be taking on a new project in the future. m Regardless of what he’s asked to do^ though, you can bet that Tommy Williamson will be behind it all the way.

Nancy and Sandy

‘Key people’ busy ion GDI branch @fffe©s

This month’s key person award is r:/actually a “key people’’ honor W recognizing two very important

individuals in our branch operations in Austin and San Antonio. Both serve as administrative secretaries for their respective offices, a title which is a little misleading judging by the responsibilities they actually handle. Nancy Craig and Sandy Krzywosinski each perform a variety of functions which more than adequately fill their time. Some of these duties include the handling of accounts payable and receivable, collections, taking and recording time from the field, as well as normal receptionist and secretarial duties. Nancy, who holds down many of these responsibilities for the Austin office, has been with the company since it began operating there four years ago. Nancy says that she enjoys her job tremendously, and lists variety as one of its most appealing features. Besides the jobs already Amentioned, she is involved on the "work in progress and closed job ledgers, monthly overhead reports, and works with the computer budgets for both Houston and Austins' computer setup. According to Larry Hanvey, Austin’s vice president and general manager, Nancy is an integral part of the office, and its smooth operation is largely due to her knowledge and

CD! administrative secretaries Sandy Krzywosinski (left) and Nancy Craig each perform vital roles in their respective offices in San Antonio and Austin.

abilities in the many ares which she covers. When away from her job, Nancy spends time with her husband, Curtis, and their five children. While keeping up with five children keeps them plenty busy, they find time to participate in a bowling league. In fact, says Nancy, she and Curtis met at a bowling alley. About 70 miies south of Austin is the CDI-San Antonio office where Sandy, like Nancy, performs a variety of vital functions. Sandy is well suited to handle her many jobs and she

July Attendance Ranking

Project Mame

98% 98% 97% 96% 96% 96% 96% 95% 94% 93% 93% 93% 90% 90% 89%

I & II Allen Center Ted’s Group 1st Int’l Plaza Houston Center III Allen Center Yard Laborers Jim's Group Jesse's Group Greenway Transco 1st City Towers Condo I & II Oxford Condo Texas Commerce Plaza Shell Woodcreek

2 3

4 5 6

7 8

Supervisor or Foreman Buddy Mayo Ted Hajdik Fred Lay Cliff Welsh Daryl Hammons Dennis Yanowski Jim LaCaze Jesse Hajdik Luis Soliz Richard Perales Dudley Chisholm Glen Brabham Nick Nunez Jay Richards Roger Warman

came to CDI approximately six months ago from an international electronics firm where she served as j its administrative and sales secretary. Sandy says that she too enjoys the many varied aspects of the business and is learning a great deal. Mark Lehman, CDI-Austin’s administrative manager helps Sandy on portions of the billing and collections, but she hopes to be able to do it all before too long. But, doing it all will require some extraordinary effort because already she takes time from foremen for approximately 40 employees in the field each day. In addition, handling the correspondence for the five-man office is no easy task. It’s easy to understand why Sandy believes her job to be a learning experience! Sandy enjoys her family life which includes husband Michael, daughter Emilie who is 1, and son Tommy, 8. Currently the Krzywosinskis are keeping busy with a recently purchased home which they are in the process of remodeling. The Craftsman is pleased to honor Nancy and Sandy as Commercial “key people". Their contributions to their respective offices certainly isn’t going unnoticed. Keep up the good work Nancy and Sandy!

COMPANY NEWS

CDS begins !81 United Way drive Commercial Drywall has kicked off its United Way Campaign for 1981. The fund raising drive which benefits some 78 community service agencies in the Houston area was put into motion at the supervisors’ breakfast held September 9. This year’s goal has been ambitiously set at $100,000, a $30,000 increase over last year’s accomplished goal of $70,000. This higher goal reflects both a greater need to meet the increasing costs of serving the United Way agencies, as well as a substantially greater number of CDI employees this year over last year. Beginning in late September,CDI management representatives will take the campaign to the field with visits to the various job sites. Along with the fund raising thrust, audio visual and printed literature will serve as public education aids to inform employees on the nature and workings of the United Way, and the member agencies it serves in our area. In addition, CDI employees should find information in their paychecks as well as a variety of informative posters distributed to the jobs.

Rent discount for CDS ©mptojfsss High cost of living getting you down? Commercial Drywall has worked out an agreement with Blue Bell Place Builders that gives all CDI employees a $25 discount on their monthly rent. Blue Bell Place is a community of duplexes and townhomes in Northwest Houston just off SteubnerAirline near I-45 North and West Road. Rent ranges from $410 to $470 on the new two and three bedroom homes. For further information, call Blue Bell at 447-3461, or visit the community at 1300 Blue Bell Road.

Finishers Billy Wright (top) and Alfredo Garcia work on high walls and planter boxes at the Eastman Whipstock project. Eastman Whipstock, though not one of our larger jobs, contained a great many complexities including high walls, radius and curved walls, plus numerous skylights.

Eastman WSnipstock Once again, CDI’s project of the month was a highly complex job which required a great deal of determination, skill, and hard work to make it a success. Eastman Whipstock, a two-building, two-story complex was a challenge from the start, and one which demanded CDI’s unique capabilities and skilled workforce. The Eastman Whipstock project is the worldwide headquarters of the company which manufacturers oil drilling tools. Within the complex was a training facility, while the nearby second structure housed an office and manufacturing facility. The building, incorporated an unusual interior design, and was full of challenges— like 16 skylights, convave walls, high radius walls, unusual modular ceilings, and curved-wall stairwells. An average of eight carpenters led by Gary Hall and 10 finishers headed up by Charlie Duncan handled the job for CDI. With all the unusual conditions besides the normal drywall partitions all facets of the job were critical from layout, framing and hanging to finishing’. While noting the complexities of the job, Gary felt extremely good 6

about CDI’s work and the other crafts' work which CDI followed. “Vic Styres, project superintendent for general contractor Baxter Construction, was a help to us all. He demanded quality all along the way, making our job a little easier because the concrete, steel, and brick work was real good,” said Gary. Some of the carpenters involved on the job included Dale Houchin, George Kraber, James Natal. This crew, like the finishers who followed, faced high radius walls that extended the entire height of the two-story structure. In addition, stairwells were built with concave walls as were other areas off the main corridors. On the finishing end, Charlie’s group included, among others, Humberto Vargas, Sylvester Laguna, Alfredo Garcia, Billy Wright and Tom Dwyer. The finishing effort like the framing and hanging was a constant struggle against the unusual design of the building’s interior. Skylights and high walls required working from scaffoldings. And, as always, the 0 radius walls required a special attention to detail in the finishing process.

CD I-Austin activity gearing up CD I-Austin work activity is on the ^^swing with several major projects •row underway. The work includes two buildings at the IBM complex, Brackenridge Hospital, Texas State Bank leasework, and a new Tracor facility. At IBM, Building 045, the huge office facility which has been in progress for over a year is rapidly nearing its completion date of

Office space in the IBM Building 045 is shown as the project nears completion.

September 20. Currently the job, which is under the supervision of Johnny Kovar, is approximately 96 percent complete. The two-story structure is being done for general contractor, J.A. Jones Construction Company. According to Johnny, building superintendent Don Jeffers and general superintendent Murry Snider, both with J.A. Jones, have been extremely helpful in coordinating the work and keeping the project on schedule. Building 060, under CDI foreman, Bob Fritz, is now 25 percent completed. The project, a job for Kraus-Anderson Construction, is just recently started and includes a number of high walls and acoustical ceilings. David Kovar is heading up the work on the Brackenridge Hospital job which includes two unfinished floors of the building. The job, presently about one-fourth into the work, is running 8-10 men and should be completed sometime in early 1981. The Brackenridge job is a project for J.C. Evans Construction Company with John Wright and Gary Callaway serving as project manager and project superintendent, respectively,

for the general contractor. Two previous Austin projects, Qata General and IBM 008, were jobs done for Evans Construction. According to CDI vice president and general manager, Larry Hanvey, CDI is fortunate to have a good rapport with such an outstanding contracting company as J.C. Evans. Meanwhile, Jerry Brooks is heading up lease work for the First Texas State Bank which will occupy space in a one-story shopping center being converted to offices. The project includes exterior soffit and siding plus interior vinyl partitions. Just recently started is an acoustical ceiling vinyl partition, and painting job at Tracor for Monarch Construction Company. Terry Laroche is heading up the work there, his first time to run work for CDI. Besides those in the field doing a great job, the office staff is doing their part as well. These include Bily Gilliland who handles the bulk of the large project estimating, and Nick Sukup who assists Billy and Larry Hanvey on the estimating. And, as usual Danny Kaiser continues his excellent job as field superintendent over all of the Austin projects.

Austin craftsman rs<g<aiw@s bstt buckle CDI-Austin craftsman Keith Leshe recently received a belt buckle for his excellent effort on the IBM Building 045 where he was responsible for the welding on the exterior soffit metal which surrounded the building. Keith has been with CDI just over a year and has been a steady asset since joining the company. His work, though, on the exterior of the IBM building was especially difficult requiring many hours of hard work. CDI commends Keith on his award and wishes him continued success with Commercial. His award is the 'first belt buckle given out by any of the CDI branch operations, making it ^en more prestigious. * Congratulations Keith!

Keith Leshe displays the

CDI belt buckle he received from Austin vice was responsible for the

Condo II wins steak dinner

Budget beater winners vary The budget beaters contests dur ing the past five weeks have gone to a variety of jobs in both groups I and II. However, the Greenway Con dominium II did pick up its fourth contest win which earned them a steak dinner at the Texas Tumbleweed. Other jobs which finished first in the bi-weekly competition included Terminal C at Intercontinental Air port, Texas Commerce Tower, Alex ander & Alexander leases in the

Tanglewood Commerce Bank and Shell Woodcreek. Condo II, under the supervision of Glen Brabham, took the contest for the fourth time and with it a steak dinner for the crew, their wives and dates. Approximately 80 people were fed and entertained at The Tumbleweed. Meanwhile, Brad Frierson and his crew took a Group I contest for their efforts on Terminal C of Inter continental Airport. The project is

Members of the budget beating Greenway Condominium II crew are shown enjoying the evening dinner banquet recently held in their honor at the Texas Tumbleweed.

Commercial Craftsman Commercial Drywall, Inc. 3705 Piney Woods P.O. Box 10686 Houston, Texas 77018

being undertaken for general con tractor Linbeck Construction Com pany. The Texas Commerce Tower crew under Jay Richards and Paul Her ring won again giving them five con tests overall, and its first following their recent steak dinner. The other Group I contest during this period went to the crew on the Alexander & Alexander leases at the Tanglewood Commerce Bank at San Felipe and Augusta. There, Ray and Wesley Shelton led carpenter and finishing crews to the best budget and a barbeque catered lunch. The leases included floors 3 through 6 and involved some ex tremely difficult radius walls in a variety of sizes. A third Group II contest slipped under the Craftsman deadline. Shell Woodcreek, the sprawling seven building complex in West Houston, under the CDI supervision of Roger^^ Warman picked up its initial conte^^ win since the job began approx imately three months ago. Roger and his crew have done an outstanding job under difficult condi tions, chiefly due to the work being diffused over several areas within the complex.

BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE

PAID HOUSTON, TEXAS PERMIT NO. 2840