Owner/Architect/Contractor Meetings

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The Owner/Architect/Contractor (OAC) meeting is the periodic opportunity for the whole team to come together and review the status of the project.  They typically happen every other week, or weekly for fast paced and/or complex projects. 

 

You and your team will typically start these project meetings well before construction begins.  You may have periodic design meetings, and those eventually morph into construction centric meetings.  During design, I would have the architect run the meetings.  But once you start construction, I'd recommend switching to have the GC run the meetings.  Once you move into construction, the meeting topics are construction centric, so have the party that is responsible for the construction run the meeting.

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The cadence of the OAC meeting should be at a quick pace.  You want to keep the tempo fast not only to get the meeting over quickly so you can move on to other work, but when a meeting drones on, people start dropping off to go to other meetings or simply become fatigued.

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While the GC should primarily manage and run the OAC meetings, below are actions and items you, as the development manager, might suggest your GC cover:

• Meeting Invitation. The GC should send out a calendar invite for the meeting.  Also, the architect and development manager should identify what weeks they will periodically be onsite for the meeting. 

• Construction Status Update.  This is just a quick, verbal, high level current construction status briefing by the superintendent to give the whole team a fast status update. 

• Minor Designers Talk First. This is purely a preference, but I like to allow my civil engineer, structural engineer, low voltage consultant, interior designer, and MEP engineers discuss their issues (if any) at the beginning of the meeting.  Usually they only have quick issues to discuss, so I want to be respectful of their time and not make them sit through an hour long meeting every week just to talk for a few minutes.  Also, some designers, like your civil engineer, may charge you by the hour for their attendance at OAC meetings, so you want to get them off the call quickly. 

• Open Issues Log.  This is a general log of open issues the project team is discussing and trying to solve. This log usually has a lot of the "meat" of the meeting. 

• Open RFI Log.  Track all open Requests for Information (RFIs), including submission dates and status updates.

• Open Submittal Log.  This is a log of all the submittals that have been submitted to the design team, but have not yet been approved.  It should include the original submission date, revision dates, resubmission dates, and status.  If a submittal has been on this log a long time, dig in and find out why.  A precursor to the open submittal log, is a full submittal log the GC should assemble.  The architect will identify in the specs all the submittals the GC should submit for design team review and approval.  It is the GC's job to find out when they will need an item onsite, factor in the lead time for that item, and make sure they submit the submittal on time so that the item can be ordered on time.  The development manager should ask the GC for this full submittal log at the beginning of the project to ensure the GC is thinking though ordering long lead time items to stay on schedule. 

• Full Change Order Log.  This is a log of all the change orders (or potential change orders) for a project.  I like to see the full change order log as opposed to the open change order log as a constant reminder of the total dollar amount of change orders the project has suffered. 

• Overall Project Schedule.  Have the GC to include this in the OAC agenda only if the substantial completion date has moved. 

• Weather Delay Log.  Have the GC to include this log only if a weather day was added to the log. 

• 3-Week Look Ahead Schedule.  This is a schedule of the construction activities that will happen over the next three weeks.  It gives the project team a short-term awareness and detail of what is about to happen onsite.  

• Project Pictures. Include approximately six recent project photos that accurately depict the project's current status.  Nothing conveys a project's status like photos.

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These recommendations aim to streamline OAC meetings, ensuring that they are efficient, productive, and convey some of the more important project issues to the development manager.

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Finally, the development manager should arrive onsite with enough time to thoroughly walk through the project before the OAC meeting begins.  You want to get familiar with the most recent status of the project before the meeting begins, so that you are more informed and can make better decisions during the meeting.  Don't show up onsite right before the meeting and plan to walk the project after the meeting.  That's lazy and leaves you less informed during the meeting when the project team is depending on you to make informed decisions. 

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