Keith Robinson, CSI, FCSC, RSW—former CSC president and a member of Construction Canada’s editorial advisory board—will be elevated to CSI Fellow later this fall. He will be just the third person to hold Fellowship in both associations.
A specifier at DIALOG and a decorated member of CSC (his most recent accolade was Life Membership at the 2016 national conference), Robinson has been a CSI member since 2005. He has been active on several task teams for the U.S. group, including the MasterFormat Maintenance Task Team (MFMTT), where he contributed to the numbering and naming conventions for construction-related Work Results. He also proctored the recent revisions to Division 28, co-ordinating a consensus-based update to electronic safety and security components. Robinson is currently a member of CSI’s Preliminary Project Description Format Task Team (PPDFTT) and served as CSC’s liaison on the CSI Technical Committee. He also acted as the working group lead of OmniClass Table 33 and 34 (Disciplines and Organizational Roles) from 2010 until 2012, and has contributed to the development of CSI/CSC SectionFormat/PageFormat and CSI/CSC Multiphase Project Delivery documents as a reviewer and commentator.
Robinson joins eight other new Fellows who were nominated by their colleagues and selected by CSI’s Jury of Fellows in recognition of accomplishments in advancing construction technology, improving construction specifications, educating people in the construction industry, or advancing the goals of the Institute. He will be honoured at the Honors & Awards Ceremony at CONSTRUCT 2016 & the CSI Annual Convention in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, September 8.
Construction Canada briefly chatted with Robinson about his new Fellowship.
Construction Canada: Congratulations! How did you find out?
Keith Robinson: I was travelling on CSC business to Ottawa for discussions concerning Canadian Construction Documents Committee (CCDC). [CSC executive director] Nick Franjic and I had just finished off our meeting with the constituent partners, and we were sitting at the airport discussing next steps for CCDC meeting assignments. I received a text from Gary Beimers, CSI Secretary indicating that they had been trying to contact me at my work numbers and other contact numbers. The content of the message made it seem really urgent, so between Nick and myself we got a series of messages back to Gary—and within minutes, Gary called me and gave me the news I was accepted as a member of the 2016 Class of Fellows.
CC: What was your reaction?
KR: I was thunderstruck! Emotionally, I was feeling a little overwhelmed as I turned to Nick and informed him of the content of the call. He gave me a big smile, a slap on the back and a warm handshake—it meant a lot to me to get that response from a person who understands the magnitude of this award.
CC: You’re the third ‘dual Fellow’ of CSI and CSC after Wayne Watson and John Lape (who received CSC Fellowship last year).
KR: I know them both—being held to the same esteem is truly humbling, and the fact this is such a rare occurrence places a very real sense of pride in being given this honour.
CC: What can you tell me about the relationship between CSC and CSI?
KR: My sense is that over the last 15 years or so, the sharing agreements and efforts at providing joint documentation between our two associations has provided many opportunities for a more global approach to specifying practice and document development. There are many people on both sides of the border that have dual ‘citizenship’—each organization provides unique approaches to membership support and a broader perspective on our chosen vocation.
CC: Why did you become involved with CSI?
KR: As with my involvement with CSC, my personal choice was to become fully engaged with CSI with the intent of being a part of a larger team of people that have influence over the decisions that affect our daily working lives. I see this same drive in CSI members that choose to participate at that higher level as I see with CSC members. We succeed when we work together, and my opinion is our usage documents have improved considerably with the acceptance of international cooperation between our organizations.
CC: You’ll be at CONSTRUCT to receive your Fellowship, right?
KR: I registered for the event well in advance of receiving news of becoming a member of the 2016 Class of Fellows. Attending the conference provides a forum for sharing ideas, identifying differences between our approaches to construction documentation, and generally mixing with some really amazing construction professionals. It is about making new contacts and creating opportunities to share with my peers that I look forward to the most—the diversity of experience in the larger CSI membership opens up new thoughts and approaches to technical documentation and interpretation different than what we experience at the annual CSC Conferences. I bring that knowledge home, and share openly with our CSC membership. It provides a different sort of participation since there is a real sense of family and bonding with familiar friends within CSC that has its own sense of belonging.
CC: So, CSC Life Membership and CSI Fellowship in the same year. What’s next?
KR: It is strange to receive awards for doing stuff I just plain enjoy doing. I get easily bored and working with construction specifications seems to satisfy whatever mechanisms exist in my brain to alleviate that feeling. I really do not think I am going to do anything different going forward. I guess my goal would be to inspire others to participate at a similar level of activity. The specification writing community can only get stronger when more people participate. We need specifications to be recognized for their contributions to communicating design intent and constructability—to making a difference—and that only happens with fresh eyes and new ideas, and a global approach to our day-to-day activities.
