ASHRAE CVC President’s Report – August 2019
On Thursday August 15th, Charlie Carpenter and I made the journey to Buffalo, NY to represent our Chapter as Alternate and Delegate respectively at the annual Region I Chapter’s Regional Conference (“CRC”). Chapter Member Tom Zoller also attended who is in the final year of his three-year term as Regional Chair of Research Promotion. The event was based at Hotel Henry which opened in the spring of 2017 after a major renovation to one of Buffalo’s iconic historic buildings. The Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, which later became the Buffalo Psychiatric Center was operated for nearly a century at a campus of 10 buildings, the first of which was constructed in 1872. It was unique place to stay and conduct our business.
The business part of the conference began with Director-At-Large Sarah Maston giving an overview of ASHRAE 2019-2024 Strategic Plan. The plan contains four Initiatives and three Goals:
Initiatives:
- Resilient Buildings & Communities
- Indoor Environmental Quality
- Organizational Streamlining
- Chapter Engagement, Capacity, & Support
Goals
- Position ASHRAE as an Essential Knowledge Resource for a Sustainable High-Performance Built Environment
- Maximize Member Value & Engagement
- Optimize ASHRAE’s Organizational Structure to Maximize Performance
More information can be found on ASHRAE’s website: https://www.ashrae.org/about/strategic-plan
The evening concluded with dinner and drinks at the Hyatt Place Rooftop Lounge in Niagara Falls and a walk to and moonlit (and LED-lit) viewing of the Falls.
Business continued on Friday with each and every one of the 15 Chapters from Region 1 giving a brief summary of their activities during the previous year and lessons from it. During this time, numerous Chapters noted the increased amount of scamming through email and was a good reminder to constantly be careful and diligent in our ASHRAE, professional, and personal work. Our Region has 11 Chairs, each who serve three year terms. Another task was to review credentials for and vote for nominees for two of these Chairs to begin serving in 2020 – Research Promotion and Government Advocacy. Additionally, we reviewed the finances of the Chapter and voted on a budget for the upcoming year, which will marginally increase member dues.
On Friday evening, we boarded the USS Little Rock, a light cruiser museum ship which was launched in 1944 and enjoyed drinks and dinner aboard. ASHRAE Society President Elect Chuck Gulledge gave an overview of 2019-2020 Society President Darryl Boyce and his theme “Building for People and Performance. Achieving Operational Excellence.” This is focused on bridging the gap between building design and operation. More information can be found on ASHRAE’s website: https://www.ashrae.org/about/leadership/ashrae-president
Workshops were held on Saturday morning on different Chapter positions (ex. Research Promotion) and Charlie and I each attended different ones to learn about them and get advice for how to succeed. Lastly, an awards luncheon was held. Our Chapter received three awards, one for PAOE points achieved, another for reaching our Research Promotion goal, and a final one for having the highest number of online membership transactions within the Region, in the pursuit of sustainability.
The 2020 Region 1 CRC will be held in Portland, ME; our President Charlie Carpenter, and President-Elect Greg Deutcher are scheduled to attend.