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Please take a minute to read
this in its entirety. We are
all busy people. We have
deadlines to meet – both from
our supervisors and from our
clients. Saving a few minutes
here and there sometimes
seem critically important.
However, there are some small
processes that can add a lot to
our quality assurance without
adding a lot of time.
Most of our current title blocks
have four places to initial –
designed, drawn, checked,
and approved by. These initials
are for internal reference and
are used frequently - often a
few years after a set of plans
has been issued. Who worked
on this project? Who reviewed
it? It’s important to fill these
lines in – but it needs to be with
the right people (the person
actually doing the QC review)
and done at the right time.
The QA/QC Committee will be
making two changes to this set
of check-offs:
1) We will be combining the
“checked” and “approved”
lines into one which will say
“reviewed.” When a licensed
individual signs and seals
plans, he or she is indicating
approval of the plans.
Therefore, the “approved” line
is redundant.
2) We will be asking that the
last line – the “reviewed”
line – be filled in only after
the project team member
actually reviews the drawings
and the redline corrections
have been made. We will
discontinue the practice of
electronically filling in this
line at the start of the project/
drafting process. This will
be the extra “sign-off,” if
you will, that the plans have
been reviewed by someone
other than the designer or
drafter. Additionally, the
drafter must be sure to render
the “reviewed” field blank
upon starting a new drawing
or using a previous base
plan/template. This adds
another process step to the
methodology of preparing
plans worthy of submittal to
an agency, a client or for
building and construction.
Your QA/QC Committee lead
will oversee these changes.
If you have forgotten, our
Committee members are:
Al Busher, Josh Egnatz, Chris
Fagan, Nick Giardina, Andy
Graves, John Jenney, Brendan
Maurer, Julia O’Brien, Jim
Schrager, Aaron Silva, Ana
Suprenant, John Thatcher, Dan
Turner.
We will next be issuing
guidelines on best practices for
digital seals.
Stay tuned.