President's Blog - January 2010

Happy New Year; the long awaited 2010 is here with hopeful economic recovery to our construction industry to begin sometime this year.

2009 presented a wide variety of unforeseen challenges for the Chapter. The Board of Governors with a lot of hard work was able to rebuild and in most cases create processes and systems to allow the future success of the Chapter. All of this was done behind the scene while maintaining valuable programming and educational opportunities to the membership.

One of the benefits is that we are able to change the environment in which we operate. This could be as basic as re-creating the Chapter’s website to make it even more functional to serve the industry and our membership. Over the next several months we will continue to rebuild the site and as always your input is welcome.

For the second half of our ASHRAE year, the meeting time will shift into the evening format. There will be a variety of topics (that can be referenced on the calendar tab on this website). At February’s meeting we will host the International President of ASHRAE coupled with Student Night. The technical session will be presented by a group of students of students from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale.

On an International stage, the National Organization will be just as eventful in 2010. The High Performance Building Standard 189.1 will be released early this year, and ASHRAE needs your help to spread the word to your colleagues. ASHRAE’s goal is to have ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High –Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, utilized as widely as possible to have a positive impact on the environment. More information on the standard can be found at this link: www.ashrae.org/greenstandard

There will also be a webcast on April 21, 2010 that is entitled – “Right from the Start – Commissioning for High Performing Buildings”. Visit this website for details: www.ashrae.org/CxWebcast.

Look forward to seeing you at our next Chapter Function!

Sincerely,
David Zimmerman
President, St. Louis ASHRAE Chapter