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SPECSINTACT
Interagency Configuration,
Control and
Coordinating Board Meeting
July 18-19, 2000
Washington, D.C.
Attendees:
Mohsen Athari, NAVFAC
Rick Dahnke, USACE
Steven P. Freitas, USACE
Sherry Gebhardt, NASA
Jim Harris, NAVFAC
Thomas Hinshaw, NASA
Carl Kersten, NAVFAC
Miguel A. Morales, NASA
Jim Quinn, USACE
Pat Robinson, SGS
Jim Whitehead, SGS
Introduction –
Miguel Morales, NASA
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Welcomed attendees. |
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Discussed reorganization and restructuring changes at Kennedy
Space Center (KSC), which led to new positions for approximately
ninety-five percent of all upper-level civil service employees at
KSC. |
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Described upcoming work at KSC to upgrade all buildings to enable
them to withstand a strong category 3 hurricane. |
USACE Reorganization Rick Dahnke, USACE
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Described recent major USACE reorganization that combined civil
works and military operations into a single division, and reduced
head count from 270 to 70. |
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Instead of just one criteria program, Mr. Dahnke will now be
overseeing five, including SPECSINTACT, and he will be working with
a budget that has doubled in size. |
NAVFAC Reorganization Carl Kersten, NAVFAC
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Discussed the recent significant restructuring of NAVFAC,
including the relocation of his office from Port Hueneme, California
to Norfolk, Virginia. His group will now be responsible for both the
construction specifications and the accompanying criteria. |
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Discussed ongoing efforts to unify construction manuals and
specifications for the Tri-Service agencies. |
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Attendees were reminded that the bulk NIBS subscription will
expire in eighteen months. |
Status of USACE Unified Submittal Format Efforts Jim Quinn,
USACE
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Discussed ongoing specification efforts, and recommended changes
to the submittal descriptions previously agreed upon, in order to
adhere more closely to CSI format and reduce required USACE
specification changes. |
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Rick Dahnke stated that the USACE conversion process would be
completed by the end of the current fiscal year, regardless of the
board's decision on the changes recommended by USACE. |
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Jim Whitehead described specification processing problems that
have been caused by the release of USACE specs that have been only
partially converted to the unified submittal format, and recommended
that all remaining changes be released at one time once the USACE
spec conversion effort is finished. |
Action: Jim Quinn will distribute copies of his presentation to
all meeting attendees.
Action: Tom Hinshaw, NASA, and Carl Kersten, NAVFAC, will discuss
the proposed submittal description changes with their respective
agencies, and then the board will vote on the proposed changes at a
later date. NOTE: the board subsequently voted against making any
further changes to the SPECSINTACT submittal format.
Action: Jim Quinn will ensure that all remaining changes to USACE
specifications for the unified submittal format will be released at
one time.
Action: To accommodate specifications recently released by USACE
containing reviewer codes of 'G', the SPECSINTACT development team
will modify the SPECSINTACT software to accommodate reviewer codes of
both 'GA' and 'G' for the old Army submittal format. This change will
not affect the Army specifications that contain the unified submittal
format once these are released with the October, 2000 CCB.
Action: Rick Dahnke will ask someone in the Corps to contact the
SPECSINTACT team to coordinate e-mail routing for USACE specification
Sections.
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Enumerated web and CCB releases of the SPECSINTACT software since the last
board meeting. |
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Described new SPECSINTACT web site and its features, such as a site map,
search capabilities, and technical notes. This site has received over 10,000
hits since January. |
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Described SPECSINTACT participation in the USACE Specifications Workshop
in February. |
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Reviewed benefits obtained from the SPECSINTACT 3.0 alpha testing that was
conducted in January at Kennedy Space Center. |
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Described key new features of SPECSINTACT 3.0 software that was released
in June to beta testers, including a new explorer-style interface, support
for multiple working directories, better PDF and WordSpec integration, and
improved reference editing capabilities. |
Demonstration of MASTERSPEC Specifications and Software - Edward Smith and
Michael King, ARCOM
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Demonstrated MASTERSPEC specifications and software. |
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Described possible options for using MASTERSPEC specifications and/or
software for agency projects. |
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Pointed out limitations of design build construction process, particularly
pertaining to building life cycle and maintenance. |
Demonstration of SPECSINTACT Version 3 Jim Whitehead, SGS
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Demonstrated SPECSINTACT version 3, and described ongoing beta testing
program. |
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Stated that most users would be more productive with the current beta
version of SPECSINTACT 3.0 than with SPECSINTACT 2.9.7, the latest public
release. |
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Targeted later this year for the official release of SPECSINTACT version
3. |
Action: Jim Whitehead will e-mail instructions and the URL for downloading
the new software to meeting attendees.
Review Linking Specifications to AutoCAD Jim Harris, LANTDIV
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Stated that LANTDIV, with the assistance of the SPECSINTACT team, has been
able to use Tailoring Options to mark up SPECSINTACT Sections in a manner
that would allow an automated link between the Sections and AutoCAD
drawings. |
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Pointed out that the use of Tailoring Options for this link would
facilitate the ability to pre-edit specifications based on the AutoCAD
drawings for a project. |
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Recommended several modifications to the SPECSINTACT software to
facilitate the use of Tailoring Options for the link between specifications
and AutoCAD drawings. |
Demonstration of e-SPECS Gilles Letourneau, InterSpec
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Demonstrated e-SPECS software, and described InterSpec's specifications
processing services, including web-based access to specifications for
clients. |
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Demonstrated and described InterSpec's process and automated software for
pulling specifications for a job based on a set of drawings. |
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Described MASTERSPEC limitations, including substantial discrepancies
between the specification criteria and the products described, as well as
increased costs for MASTERSPEC projects due to the large numbers of product
samples required. |
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Presented for the Boards consideration thirteen new Change Requests |
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The board accepted all or part of seven of the proposed Change requests,
deferred four for later consideration, and rejected two because the changes
requested have already been incorporated into the new version of the
SPECSINTACT software. |
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Change Request Evaluations (PDF) |
Action: The SPECSINTACT Development Team will analyze the issues raised by
providing alternative paragraph numbering formats in SPECSINTACT.
Action: The SPECSINTACT Development Team will study the request from USACE
to optionally append a submittal list to the Submittal Procedures Section
during SPECSINTACT processing, and make recommendations at the next board
meeting.
Wrap-Up Miguel Morales, NASA, and Pat Robinson, SPECSINTACT
Development Team
It was tentatively agreed to hold the next SI-CCCB in about six months.
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