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Did you attend NAWIC’s 2013 An-nual Meeting and Educational Conference (AMEC) in Bellevue,

Washington? If so, you experienced an extraordinary event. Hundreds of NA-WIC members from every region came together at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue, Aug. 28-31, for this year’s AMEC. This year’s AMEC featured outstanding semi-nars, high-energy speakers, Association workshops, networking opportunities, NAWIC business, recognition of excep-tional NAWIC members and a lot of chances to have some fun.

As in the past, the 2013 AMEC started off strong with two special pre-con-ference seminars. This year, attendees had the opportunity to sign up for a LEED Green Associate workshop and a Heartsaver CPR and AED course before the conference was officially underway. Those who attended the CPR and AED

class had the chance to become certi-fied by the American Heart Association in CPR and AED. Attendees of the LEED Green Associate workshop were able to fulfill the prep work needed to obtain their LEED credential. The two seminars were followed by the First Timers Orien-tation, which is designed to familiarize first-time AMEC attendees with the ins and outs of the conference.

The 2013 AMEC was officially kicked off by the Wednesday night Welcome Reception. The theme of this year’s re-ception was “Denim and Diamonds.” Attendees wore their favorite denim paired with their best bling. This was an opportunity for attendees to reconnect with old friends and meet some new ones. They also had the chance to cap-

ture some memories in the photo booth set up at the Reception.

After the exuberant fun at the Wednesday night Welcome Reception, NAWIC members got down to business Thursday Morning with the Annual Meeting. Bellevue’s mayor, Conrad Lee, welcomed NAWIC and the Association’s members to the city and keynote speak-er Dawnna St. Louis spoke about the “Au-dacious Acts of Successful Women.”

Immediately following the Annual Meeting, NAWIC held its second annual Industry Luncheon. During the Indus-try Luncheon, AMEC attendees enjoyed hearing from the event’s keynote speak-er, Jim Roberts of Granite Construction, Inc.

58TH ANNUAL MEETING AND EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE

NATIONAL A

SSOC

IATION OF WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION

®

NATIONAL A

SSOC

IATION OF WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION

®

Photos for this article were provided courtesy of Jacqueline

Price. To order photos from the Conference, visit

www.nawicconvention.org.

NaWIC’s 2013 AMEC shows windows to the future

2013 AMEC provided attendees with a path to success

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NAWIC members sport their favorite denim and best bling for the 2013 “Denim and Diamonds” Welcome Reception.

Keynote speaker Dawnna St. Louis encouraged attendees to let nothing stop them from shattering the glass ceiling.

BY AUTUMN DAUGHETEE

Race to Success in Indianapolis!!The NAWIC staff is already hard at work planning NAWIC’s 59th Annual Meeting and Educational Conference, Sept. 3-6, 2014, at the J.W. Marriott Indianapolis Downtown in Indianapolis, Ind. Make sure to save the date and start planning to attend. Visit www.nawicconvention.com and read the Connection newsletter for updates on the next AMEC.

October/November 2013 11

Thursday afternoon and most of Friday and Saturday, attendees were able to at-tend a slate of high-caliber professional seminars and Association workshops. Topics of the professional seminars ranged from cloud computing to the ABCs of DIY to safety to management skills to arbitrating contract claims to negotiat-ing profitable agreements. Association

workshops featured topics such as how to build membership with effective PR, stra-tegic planning, the new Professional De-velopment committee and much more. Handouts from a number of these semi-nars and workshops are available online at www.nawicconvention.org.

In addition to the number of seminars and workshops scheduled for Friday,

NAWIC also held its annual Installation Luncheon. The 2013-2014 National Board was formally installed during this event. Later that evening, AMEC attendees had the chance to celebrate NEF’s 40th anni-versary at the NEF Birthday Bash. During the event, NEF announced the winners of the fabulous items featured in its fund-raising raffle.

NAWIC’s 2012-2013 President Cindy Johnsen, CBT, CDS, CIT takes the podium during the 2013 Annual Meeting.

Pat Stagno, CUSP, CSHS, accepts NAWIC’s 2012-2013 Member of the Year award during the NAWIC Awards Gala.

Joyce Newman, the recipient of NAWIC’s 2013-2014 Lifetime Achievement award, accepts the honor during the NAWIC Awards Gala.

Jim Roberts, president and CEO of Granite Construction, delivered the keynote address at NAWIC’s second annual Industry Luncheon.

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The 58th AMEC drew to a close with

the NAWIC Awards Gala. NAWIC unveiled

three new awards at the event—Rookie of

the Year, Member of the Year and the Life-

time Achievement Award. These three

awards were established to recognize

outstanding efforts of NAWIC members.

Amanda Jenkins was named the 2013

Rookie of the Year. Jenkins is a sales en-

gineer with Johnson Controls, Inc. and a

member of the Richmond, Va. Chapter.

The NAWIC Member of the Year Award

was presented to Patricia Stagno, CUSP,

CSHS. Stagno is the president and owner

of Powerskills for Life, LLC, a safety and

training consulting firm, and a member

of New Hampshire’s Granite State Chap-ter. The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Joyce Newman. Newman is a charter member of NAWIC’s Maine Chapter and the membership coordina-tor for the Maine Better Transportation Association. NEF also presented its Carol A. Kueker Construction Education Vision-ary Award during the Gala. This year NEF honored Jennifer Blanchard Belk, an as-sistant professor of Interior Design at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.

In addition to these special awards, NAWIC also presented members and chapters with awards from the national committees and the NAWIC executive committee. NEF also recognized the win-ners of the Block Kids and CAD/Drafting competitions.

Thank you to all of the AMEC attend-ees who took a moment to visit our spon-sors during the NAWIC Marketplace on Wednesday. The sponsors for NAWIC’s 58th AMEC helped make the event a success. The 2013 AMEC sponsors in-cluded, Granite Construction, The Home Depot, UPS, United Rentals, SimplexGrin-nell, Paxton Patterson, Otis Elevator and Caterpillar. i

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Welcome to the 2013-2014 NAWIC National Board. Front row, left to right: Executive Vice President Dede Hughes; Vice President Riki F. Lovejoy, CBT, CIT; Treasurer Connie M. Leipard, CIT; President Yasmine A. Branden, CCA; President-Elect Sandy K. Field, CBT, CIT; Secretary Amy Berg, CBT, CIT; and Region 1 Director Sharon B. Adkins. Second row, left to right: Region 14 Director Carol O’Donnell, CIT; Region 5 Director Miki Haas, CIT; Region 2 Director Stephanie K. Crane, CIT; Region 9 Director Sarah Webb, CDS, CIT; Region 10 Director Donnalyn Revis, CIT; Region 12 Director Keri S. Hawkins, CBT; Region 4 Director Mardi K. Gauer, CIT; Region 13 Director Diane Mike, CBT; Region 6 Director Beverly J. Sauerwein, CIT; Region 7 Director Jennifer Swinney, CBT, CDS, CIT; Region 8 Director Karen Edmonston; Region 11 Director Samantha Hedgepath; Region 3 Director Jill Hanson, CIT; and Immediate Past President Cindy Johnsen, CBT, CDS, CIT.

2013-2014 NAWIC Board of Directors

NAWIC’s 2013-2014 president, Yasmine A. Branden, CCA, says hello to Blip who was on hand to help teach the seminar “Disabilities and the Benefits of Using Service Dogs in the Workplace.”