The President's Message

By Chris Ahne                      

Like the Oaklawn Racing season, the ASHRAE chapter year is quickly coming to an end. The most interesting news to tell you about is the much talked about Region VIII CRC in Monterrey Mexico was cancelled due to the violence in the area of Northern Mexico. Monterrey is about two and a half hours south of the US border and although it has not seen much of the drug related violence the US State Department has a travel warning posted on their website that includes Monterrey. ASHRAE Society leadership sent the cancellation notice to Monterrey chapter two weeks ago. Last week, in a conference call with Region VIII leadership, the Houston chapter stepped up and agreed to host a CRC with all typical activities and will make it happen May 6th-8th. Many Arkansas chapter members have been involved in planning the Chapters Regional Conference and understand the commitment that the Houston chapter has made. For those interested in going to Houston, the CRC host hotel information is due out any day. As soon as we have the details, we will post it on the chapter website and email it out to the membership.

Even though our calendar year is almost over, we still have a lot of good events happening for our members. The April meeting is a joint meeting with the USGBC chapter and BOMA chapter. With industry wide emphasis on the sustained performance of building systems, ASHRAE, BOMA, and USGBC are sponsoring meals for any building engineers and maintenance personnel that attend the meeting. If you are aware of building operators that would benefit from this meeting, please invite them to attend this event and let them know that their presence is desired and that the three organizations are even going to pay for their meal. On April 21st, there is an ASHRAE sponsored WebCast on the topic of commissioning for high performance buildings. Anyone with internet access can view the WebCast. If your company IT staff have policies about streaming video on your network, the chapter is hosting a site where the WebCast can be viewed. The seminar will begin at noon and lunch will be available. Please make sure to RSVP when the formal announcement is made.

There is a Central Arkansas golf outing in early May and the NWA golf outing is the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. While these golf tournaments are fun for the folks who play golf, they are intended to be fundraising events for ASHRAE Research. The chapter relies on these events to be able to contribute $10,000 annually from the chapter and approximately $4000 annually from the NW Section. We certainly appreciate all of the companies who give door prizes, enter teams, sponsor holes, and allow employee participation to make this event a success for our ASHRAE Research Campaign.

Speaking of ASHRAE research, if you haven't already received a call from our Research Promotion chair, Kim Koch, or one of her committee members about a personal or corporate donation, please know that we will be contacting you soon. We want to make a big push before CRC to get a significant amount of our goal either donated or pledged. Finally, if you are a past-President of Arkansas ASHRAE, we are planning a night of recognition for you in early May. Steve Keen is working with folks at the Arkansas Queen to schedule a dinner for past-Presidents and their spouses. All chapter members will be welcome to attend. If you're like me and have never been on the Arkansas Queen, please consider attending this event and help us honor the chapter members who have previously sacrificed their time to lead our chapter. This will be the last chapter event until the September meeting.