Getting in your face - Editorial

Concrete Producer, The, Jan, 2004 by Rick Yelton

My 15-year-old daughter just started taking driving lessons. She's our third child to go through our state's mandatory driver's education program. So I thought I had become an expert in my role as driver-trainer.

I've taken this role very seriously. It's probably the only time I can reinforce my dominance regarding radio station selection. I use my time in the passenger seat to alert my daughter of potential dangers on the road. And I've been known to place wagers on my student driver's awareness of the surroundings. I really believe that these courses should include some sort of map-reading class.

One evening on the way to class, I became the student. We were running late, so I agreed to pop for fast-food. After ordering a rather complex meal involving a special order or two, my daughter confidently pulled up tit the drive-thru window.

But my student driver didn't pull away after paying for our bag of bounty. Instead, she began sorting through the bag's wrappers. It was obvious she wasn't going to grab and lament. She looked and asked where the missing sandwich was. Flustered, the person working the drive-thru window asked her to move forward. But my daughter knew better. She wasn't going to move until the botched order was straightened out and we were in fast-food heaven.

I was watching and taking notes. "Dad, I know these people, and if we move to that waiting spot, they'll forget about us," she explained. Our order was quickly fixed and she drove to class.

Trade magazines like ours face that same problem each month. We strive hard to get in your face right away, not be placed on that stack of items to do when you find time. So I'm excited about some of the new ways we hope to catch your attention this year.

First, I have to thank producer Paul Ramsburg for his help. Last year, Paul, quality control manager with Oldcastle Precast Inc. in Fredericksburg, Va., shared two great mix design articles with our readers. Inspired by Paul's success, we have been receiving a number of submissions from you, our readers, about what's happening in the real world. This month, we have an article from Dean Plank on his company's Efforts to promote flowable fill. And as we look down the editorial calendar we use to plan the year's issues, we seem to have articles written by our readers most months.

Along with these from-the-field stories, I hope you'll enjoy In the Mix, our new department near the back of the magazine. This is another way for us to keep you in our face. I've always struggled with the news section, thinking it was perhaps too formal. So I opted for this light-hearted approach so you can keep up with your friends, associates, and even competitors in the producer world. I encourage you to contact me or managing editor Tom Bagsarian to share your thoughts and successes. We want this page to be about you, our readers/producers. So we want you to play a big role in what appears there.

To help you get in our face, we've prepared some guidelines on submissions and suggestions. Tom's placed these guidelines on page 18, just below the photos of this month's contributors. That's another change you'll find starting this monde. We're very fortunate to have so many experts like you writing for THE CONCRETE PRODUCER. We want to give you the credit you deserve and share your backgrounds and experiences as producers in our exciting industry.

As we begin what could be one of the busiest years in concrete production history, I hope you'll keep us in your face. And one day, I hope I can help put you in the face of our industry. It's time for us to make the world of concrete ours.