Apprenticeship Today

News From The Apprentice Office

Message from Troy Garland

This year certainly flew by. I would like to thank our Instructors Jose Herrera, Justin Garland, Bill O’Connell and Vince Schneider for taking the time this year and to all our apprentices who take time out of their lives as well. Our program can still use donated materials and tools of the trade along with guest speakers on specific subjects. Please contact Michael Height if you can help out. Congratulations and good luck to the Local 3 apprentices who have graduated this year in all of our crafts.

Recently Certified Journeypersons

PCC
Juan Alcala
Pablo Gutierrez
Hector Pinedo
Juan Castro
Ramon Mejia

Marble Finisher
Elder Martinez

Congratulations to each of you for choosing a respected and rewarding craft.

From the President’s Desk

On March 29, BAC Local 3 held their brick apprenticeship contest at the Pleasanton Training Facility. The weather came through for us with blue skies and plenty of sunshine. The Fresno contestants showed up quite early considering they had a 3hr drive. But next year it will be our turn to travel south.

Michael had everything laid out on paper when we arrived. Brent Kirkes and I were then able to give the apprentices who were not competing their duties for the day. The contest went off just like clockwork with the judges on the slab after receiving their instructions and the contestants laying out the first course of the project.

Michael has mentioned most of this so I will keep it short. When it was all over, somewhere around 7:30pm, the judges had tallied up the score cards. 11 apprentices will go on to Las Vegas to represent the local at the Western States Brick and Tile Contest on May 10th 2003. I congratulate all of the contestants. You are all winners.

Another contest that took place was the Tile Setters Apprentice Contest at the Hayward facility on April 12, 2003. I worked a half-day at the brick school and got there just in time to enjoy the second half of the contest. There was a great turn out with 16 local contestants from the Hayward school, 4 from the Sacramento school and 1 from our Fresno school. Good thing it was held inside because it rained like cats and dogs all day.

When I arrived the contestants were just having the fabulous lunch that was put together by Tom and Cheryl Spear. They had a little help from Earl & Carol Hamlow of Tile West, Mark McNeil from Superior Tile and Mark & Jerry Wuelfing, retired Sec/Treas . It should be noted they are all JATC Trustees. I’m sure everyone who helped themselves to lunch enjoyed it. In the end it was all gone except for drinks and water.

After lunch the contestants continued their projects with the time clock ticking. The judges, Jim Bare, Jeff Widdowson and Dave Reilly kept an eye on the progress of the contestants as they neared the end. When the end came coordinator and instructor, Mark Sylvester, asked them to put down their tools so the finishers could clean up the area and the judges could finish their scoring of each project.

In the end all the contestants were winners. Three of them were in what I call the money/prizes. 1st place winner Don Silva from the Sacramento school, 2nd Israel Ortiz, 3rd Thomas Leith, both from the Hayward school. I want to congratulate all the instructors for another great year of putting in the time it takes to make these apprentices into journyperson’s.

There will be a general meeting May 31,2003 in Manteca. A post card will be sent out to members giving the time and place for this meeting. We have had a couple of previous general meetings at this spot with fairly good attendance. One of the main topics will be negotiations for Brick and PCC. There is no telling how many times we will have sat down at the table with the contractors by then, but please come to hear what has been talked about mid-way through negotiations.

On the work front, things seem to be picking up. We had some pretty wet weather for the month of April, with more than showers to bring those May flowers. With 4 feet of snow in the Sierra’s, and more coming our way, this may help with much needed water for our reservoirs to keep the dreaded “drought” away. There are only a couple days of school left for most apprentices, so have a great summer vacation. We’ll see you in September and please remember to work safe.

Apprentices Complete Barbeque Project

At our local contest this year we cooked on our newly completed barbeque pit thanks to many of our bricklayer apprentices and several PCC, and marble mason and finisher apprentices. They all did a fine job. Jason Mower and James Losey conceived the original design. James submitted the original drawings. The project has quite a diversity of materials and applications, which made it an excellent training project for those involved.

We began digging for the foundation on December 21st and had several apprentices working on the project at every class until March 29th. A brick footing supports the barbeque pit. There are two separate cooking pits lined with firebricks. Each has two grates, the lower one for coals and the upper one for whatever meat we decide to cook. The pits also have vents and scuppers to provide airflow and drainage. They are separated by a granite countertop work area that was fabricated and installed by our Marble apprentices. PCC apprentices fabricated a raised sandstone serving shelf which runs the length, just over twelve feet. The entire project is faced with brick with the exception of the center panel on the face side of the project, which is faced with stone. On the cook’s side we created a storage space beneath the granite countertop, which is supported by a poured in place reinforced concrete slab. The concrete is secluded by an arched soldier course crossing the opening. The floor of the work area is paved with bricks set on a sand base at a slope to promote drainage.

The entire project was relatively inexpensive from a financial standpoint, considering most of the materials were donated. Our apprentices were able to gain insight into the importance of foresight, proper sequence and accuracy in maintaining elevation and dimensions.

Local Contests

We held our local contest for apprentice bricklayers on Saturday, March 29th in Pleasanton. The contestants received their project drawings two weeks prior to the contest, allowing them ample time to study the drawings and apply the four steps that insure a quality project. They were required to take a written test, with those points being a part of their final score. Each contestant was allowed four hours for the hands on portion. The project was a straight brick panel four feet long with a one-foot return on each end. A soldier course was incorporated into the eighth, ninth and tenth courses. The back of the project was faced with four courses of split-face blocks and the project was capped with a basket weave paving pattern that made up the thirteenth course. In addition to the drawings the apprentices also received written instructions stating a specific sequence to follow in building their project.

Our three judges this year were Gary Peifer, Randy Smith, and Leon Hannum. Gary and Randy are both BAC Local 3 field representatives and Leon is a journeyman bricklayer who works for John Jackson Masonry. Leon won our local contest in 1998. We thank each of them for offering their experience and expertise in judging this year’s contest.

Our first place winner was Jose Cabrera who works for Cornerstone Masonry. Jeff Tarpley of John Jackson Masonry and Miguel Cabrera, of Cornerstone Masonry finished in second and third place respectively. Of the 28 apprentices who competed, eleven were selected to represent Local 3 in Las Vegas at the Western States Bricklaying Contest on May 10th. They are, Jeff Tarpley, Miguel Cabrera, James Brumley, Sergio Murrillo, Calvin Chess, Daniel Ensslin, Scott McArthur, K. C. Buongiorno, Doug Thompson, Pete Perez, and Conan Moe. Our winner Jose Cabrera also won the Western States Contest last year and is therefore ineligible to compete this year. We wish them all the best of luck in Vegas.

The project will be a Brick Barbeque. The top two apprentices at Western States will move on to represent regions 8 and 9 at the National Contest semi-finals at Fort Ritchie, Maryland in mid September.

It was the second year PCC has been included in our local contest. Eight contestants were chosen by the highest number of school hours. The PCC contestants were: Michael Sichelmeier, Victor M. Cerda, Chris Schnell, Jorge Escobedo, Raymond Perez, Ismael Soto, Armando Avila, and Erasmo Perez. The PCC contest consisted of tuckpointing and caulking. The caulking test is performed with silicone on a marble panelled mockup. The tuckpointing is performed on common brick in two lifts with type N mortar. Instructor Vince Schneider judged the caulking portion and Justin Garland judged the tuckpointing. The contestants were judged on speed, handling of their tools, quality and final appearance. When the dust settled we had a tie for first place. It took two tiebreakers to eventually get our winner. Our first place winner was Chris Schnell. Second place went to Armando Avila and Erasmo Perez placed third. All eight of our contestants did a great job and the scoring proved it. Brian Johnson and Arron Howard were a great help in keeping the contest going. Thanks to the JATEC who provided prizes to all our contestants. The International is currently working at putting together a PCC contest on Regional and International levels. Hopefully, it will come sooner than later. I am certain that when it does we`ll have some great apprentices ready to compete.

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Control your Thoughts

Visualize a brick wall with each brick selected and laid with precision and care, level, plumb, in line, and to the proper height with full uniform joints that have been tooled, brushed and retooled. This wall would be functional, pleasing to look at and a credit to our craft.

Now think of each of these precisely laid bricks as a positive or pleasant thought. Any angry or negative thoughts would be represented by a brick laid in a haphazard manner hacked or lipped with unfinished joints. It is easy to see how the wall, while remaining functional, would be degraded by angry or negative thoughts.

With effort and practice we can learn to control our thoughts regardless of our surroundings. Just as the bricklayer learns to properly position bricks in a wall, we can learn to control our thoughts. The more you work at something the easier it will get. Commit to make a conscious effort to maintain positive and pleasant thoughts. What you think, will determine who you will become. Control your thoughts and take control of your destiny.

The following is credited to Frank Outlaw:

Watch your thoughts, they become your words.

Watch your words, they become your actions.

Watch your actions, they become your habits.

Watch your habits, they become your character.

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

Zack Lambert