Members of the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association love Nashville, Tennessee, and Music City, USA, certainly loves STAFDA! Nearly 2,800 distributors, manufacturers and rep-agent members joined the party for the association’s 48th Annual Convention & Trade Show on Nov. 10-12.

Gary Prinz, Ph.D., P.E., professor and director of the Grady E. Harvell Civil Engineering Research and Education Center at the University of Arkansas, was recently selected as the recipient of the 2024 Robert J. Dexter Memorial Award Lecture by the Steel Bridge Task Force of the American Iron and Steel Institute and presented his research — which is focused on fracture, fatigue and the service life of steel bridge structures — at a task force meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Members of the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association elected leadership for 2025 during the association’s 48th Annual Convention & Trade Show on Nov. 10-12 in Nashville, Tennessee.

The EIFS Industry Members Association announced that its 2025 Annual Meeting will be held on March 18-20, 2025, at the Reunion Resort and Golf Club, which is located near Orlando, Florida.

As an accredited ANSI Standards Development Organization, the Steel Framing Industry Association invites individuals to participate in the development of standards for cold-formed steel framing. Interested individuals are required to complete a survey, which is due no later than Nov. 29.

The Architecture Billings Index from the American Institute of Architects rose above 50 in October for the first time in 20 months, indicating an increase in billings. “Billings finally stabilized this month, and firms are feeling more optimistic about revenue projections for 2025,” said Kermit Baker, chief economist at the AIA.

The book Cold-Formed Steel Connections to Other Materials: A Design Guide is a comprehensive guide from ASCE, offering engineers practical examples that address the challenges of connecting cold-formed steel to other materials.

According to the American Immigration Council, the construction industry has the highest percentage of undocumented workers at 13.7 percent, surpassing agriculture (12.7 percent), hospitality (7.1 percent), general services (6.5 percent), and transportation and warehousing (5.5 percent).

The National Association of Women in Construction Philadelphia Foundation has released In the Construction Zone: An Activity Book, a construction-themed coloring and activity book designed to inspire creativity, problem-solving and interest in the building trades among children.

Cold-formed steel framing manufacturing rose 3.8 percent in Q3, building on previous quarterly gains. The SFIA’s latest data reflects a larger share of the CFS product market, with more manufacturers reporting, but it also shows the industry’s strength at this time.