SkillsUSA awards architectural drafting students
KANSAS CITY, MO June 25  The winners of the annual SkillsUSA Championships in ARCHITECTURAL DRAFTING were announced Friday evening, June 25, at the Awards Ceremony of SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference. The Conference was held June 21 - June 25, 2010, at the Municipal Auditorium, the Kemper Arena, H. Roe Bartle Hall, the downtown Marriott and the downtown Crown Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri. Over 5,600 outstanding career and technical education students joined in the excitement of hands on competition in ninety-six different trade, technical, and leadership fields.

Working against the clock and each other, the participants proved their expertise in job skills for occupations such as electronics, technical drafting, precision machining, medical assisting and culinary arts. There were also competitions in leadership skills, such as extemporaneous speaking and conducting meetings by parliamentary procedures.

SkillsUSA is the national organization for students in trade, industrial, technical and health occupations education. It sponsors the SkillsUSA Championships annually to recognize the achievements of career and technical education students and to encourage them to strive for excellence and pride in their chosen occupations.

The contests are planned by technical committees made up of representatives of labor and management and are designed to test the skills needed for a successful entry level performance in given occupational fields. Safety practices and procedures - an area of great concern to labor and management alike - are judged and graded and constitute a portion of a contestant’s score.

Architectural Drafting contestants use their drafting skills to solve an architectural problem. The problem includes a written test, a hand sketch, a computer-generated problem and a problem that may be solved using EITHER board drafting or CAD. The contest tests the contestants' problem solving abilities, not simply their CAD skills. Plotting is not a scored event, however the contestants must be able to generate a plot file that will be used to send their data to the plotter.
 
The National Technical Committee for Architectural Drafting includes: Co-Chair Thomas Bendorf, Laughlin Millea Hillman Architecture, LLC (Ky.); Co-Chair Marie Boatright, Wellner Architects Inc. (Mo.); Chad Howerton (Mo.); and, Scott Thomas, Thomas Design Associates, LLC (Ariz.).

A national education team assists the national technical committee. Members include Chair John DeLee, Hillyard Technical Center (Mo.); David Cissell, Paducah Area Technology Center (Ky.); Alex Kyser (Nev.); Justin Robinson, Hamilton Career Center (S.C.); Brian Terry, Limestone Career Technology Center (Al.); Linda Unger, Excelsior Springs Area Career Center (Mo.); and, Don Willits, McPherson High School (Kan.).

Other organizations supporting the contest include Autodesk Inc.; The CAD Store; Chief Architect Inc.; IPC Corp.; ITT Technical Institute; Kubotek USA; Lane Blueprint Co.; Lowe’s Companies, Inc.; Softplans Systems Inc.; and, Technology Education Concepts Inc.

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