The President's Message

By Chris Ahne                      

Greetings and Happy New Year to my ASHRAE friends. I hope you had a blessed holiday season and are ready to start the New Year with a bang!

If you are making New Year’s resolutions, I have a good one to consider. How about making a commitment to attend the monthly chapter meetings? There are many benefits to attending, such as - learning about new and relevant topics in our technical community, interacting with your peers, enjoying Whole Hog Cafe barbecue, and receiving continuing education hours. If you found yourself short of PDHs for 2009, how many chapter meetings and ASHRAE sponsored continuing education seminars did you go to? If the meeting dates and times are difficult for you to plan around, then have you considered going to a Society annual or winter meeting and attend the 4 days of technical sessions that are provided twice a year?

The New Year is a typical time when people make career changes. If you are one of those people who have changed jobs, please make sure to update your contact information with ASHRAE so that Society and the local chapter can continue to stay in touch with you.

With 2010, we are beginning a new decade that promises a lot of change. In the last decade we’ve seen significant changes to ASHRAE Standard 90.1 and ASHRAE 62.1. Sustainability has greatly impacted our technical community in the last decade. ASHRAE responded with many technical publications to promote sustainable design. Included in those, we’ve seen Advanced Energy Design Guides to achieve 30% more energy efficient buildings than 90.1-2004 and the future will bring us AEDGs to achieve 50% more efficient buildings and also NET ZERO energy buildings. Our industry is going to change because newer technologies, new government regulations, and energy conscious owners will require us to change. ASHRAE is committed to being on the forefront of that change. I encourage you to stay connected and to participate in ASHRAE so that you are always well informed.