President’s Meeting in Pittsburgh…

I would like to thank Pittsburgh Chapter President, Don Ditter, his Chapter, Committee, Sponsors and their spouses for hosting this great event. They obviously put a lot of effort into planning this event and I believe everyone appreciated their work and had an enjoyable time in their great city. I think I can say that nobody went home hungry Friday night after dinner. It seemed like the restaurant staff just kept bringing out the food with no end in sight.

All ten Chapters of the Region were represented at the meeting and I would also like to thank Diane Wingard, Vice President of Education for traveling to Pittsburgh to attend the meeting. Everyone was brought up to date on the latest Society news and as expected, one of the topics (dues rebates) sparked a spirited discussion. I can assure the Chapters that your concerns regarding this subject will be brought to the attention of the Board of Directors.

Julius Ballanco, President of the Research Foundation wrote a letter to the Chapter President’s which was shared at the meeting. In brief, the Research Foundation is starting two new programs which should be completed by October and the results submitted to the Delegates at the Convention. The first project involves the study of the flow rates in roof drains and the second project is on the quality of water and the contribution of lead in drinking water in residential sprinkler systems that are not separated by a backflow preventer.

The Membership Committee also wrote a letter to the Chapter President’s which was discussed at the meeting. In general, membership has been steadily dropping and we need to do something about it. The Membership Committee stressed the importance of the role of the Chapter VP Membership. In addition to the Society VP Membership, the Chapter VP Membership is responsible for member retention as well as maintaining accurate rosters for their Chapters. They should also be paying close attention to the monthly reports. In addition, the Chapter Presidents should be making sure these things are being done in an effort to retain and gain new members.

The highlights of the proposed Bylaw Amendment changes were reviewed and discussed with a straw vote taken after each of the discussions. In all, seventeen proposed Bylaws were discussed and a majority of the Chapters were in favor of approving the proposed changes. There was however some proposed Bylaws that the Chapters were completely against. The Chapters were against adopting proposed Bylaw Amendment #1 and #2 which suggested dropping the word “American” from our name. They were also against Bylaw #9 which suggested deleting the titles for the officers of the Society and Bylaw #14 which proposed an Executive Committee.

Diane Wingard then gave the Region an update on the educational opportunities the Society has to offer. The Education Committee is working very hard putting together the final touches on the educational tracks for the Convention as well as developing other ideas for future webinars. If the Chapters have any suggestions for future webinars and other educational programs, please pass along your suggestions to Diane.

This year I had the opportunity to present the Region Director’s Award to two Chapters. One award was presented to John Nussbaum and the Eastern Michigan Chapter in recognition for their extraordinary efforts to continually educate their members and their engineering community through the ASPE Handbook and Vendor Classes which are held every month and are in addition to the regularly scheduled monthly Design Class.

The second award was presented to Jim Rodgers and the Central Indiana Chapter in recognition of their efforts to video record their monthly technical sessions and for making those recordings available on their website to help educate those members who were unable to attend the technical session in person.

The Society has developed another award which is now known as the Director’s Award of Merit. This award goes to those members who have made an effort to better their Chapter and the Society. I had the pleasure of recognizing Bill Deardurff of the Central Ohio Chapter (Mark Simpson accepted on his behalf) and Ronald Bartley of the Southwestern Ohio Chapter (Al Fike accepted on his behalf) for their outstanding work. The award was in recognition of their efforts to bring the most current code issues being discussed and adopted to the attention of their members through extensive articles that were written on a monthly basis and published in their Chapter newsletters.

I would like to take this time to thank the Central Ohio, Johnstown, Southwestern Ohio and Western Michigan Chapters for their various donations to the ASPE Research Foundation and the ASPE Education Funds. I would also like to thank Paul Bladdick of the Eastern Michigan Chapter and Chris Graham of the Pittsburgh Chapter for accepting nominations to the position of Region 2 Director. If anyone is interested in running for this position or any other position on the Board of Director’s, please check out the ASPE website for the application package.

Please mark your calendars because the 2011 Region 2 President’s Meeting is scheduled for June 3rd and 4^th and will be hosted by the Southwestern Ohio Chapter.

Full Day Workshops…

The next full day workshops are scheduled for June 28th and 29th in Washington, DC. Member price for (1) workshop is $595 and the non-member price is $775. Attendees will get a 10% discount by signing up for both workshops.

As a reminder, the first workshop is titled “The Uniform and International Plumbing Codes” and will be presented by our President, Julius Ballanco and will earn attendees 0.6 CEU’s or 6.0 PDH’s. This plumbing code seminar will provide an understanding of the International and Uniform Plumbing Codes.

The second workshop is on Building Information Modeling (“BIM”) and will be presented by Marvin Titlow and will also earn attendees 0.6 CEU’s or 6.0 PDH’s. This workshop will discuss how to create and use custom riser assemblies, how to modify out-of-the-box Plumbing Fixtures and how to create custom families to help with plumbing calculations. Please see the ASPE website for more information on both of these workshops.

Webinars…

The next webinar titled inside the Green Codes is scheduled for June 30^th and will start at 2 PM EST. ASPE President, Julius Ballanco will be presenting this topic and will review the latest code requirements from the 2009 Plumbing Codes for alternative water sources such as gray water, reclaimed water, harvested rainwater, and on-site treated water. There will also be a sneak preview of the changes that will be coming in the 2012 editions of the codes. The cost for members is $69.95 and non-members are $129.95.

Annual Treasurer’s Reports…

Each Chapter is required to submit an electronic copy and a hard copy of the Treasurer’s Report to me no later than July 15^th. The hard copy must be signed by both the incoming and outgoing Chapter Presidents and Treasurers. Charter renewal is required for a Chapter to qualify for and receive dues rebates and to have Delegate representation at the Convention so please make sure all reports are completed and submitted on time. I am asking that you please send your hard copies of the report directly to me so that I can submit the entire Region’s report as a package this year.

Region 2 Highlights…

As we wind down the 2009-2010 ASPE year, there are still a few things going on around the Region including a few golf outings. Here is a brief review of what is happening:

· The annual golf outing for the Buffalo-Niagara Chapter is scheduled for June 21^st this year at Bridgewater Country Club.

· The Central Indiana Chapter recently held their annual golf outing and they will be hosting a “Fire Stopping and Code Requirements” seminar next week.

· A “Medical Gas Verification and NFPA 99” seminar was recently held by the Central Ohio Chapter and their annual golf outing will be in a few weeks.

· The Cleveland Chapter recently just presented a seminar on “Tankless Water Heaters” and will be attending a Lake County Captains baseball game next week.

· The Eastern Michigan Chapter recently presented three seminars titled, “Plumbing and Mechanical Estimating”, “Chemical Waste DWV Applications Review” and “Chemical Waste Systems”.

· The Johnstown Chapter recently presented a topic on “How to Identify the Differences between Oil and Air Filled Motors”.

· A seminar on “Emergency Eyewash & Shower Technology” was recently presented by the Pittsburgh Chapter and their golf outing is scheduled for next week.

· The “History & Development of CSST and Bonding CSST in NY” was discussed at the last Rochester Chapter meeting.

· The Southwestern Ohio Chapter recently held a seminar on “Hazards Control” this past month and attended a Dayton Dragons baseball game at the beginning of this month.

· The Western Michigan Chapter recently held their annual golf outing last month.

Just a few reminders…

Nominations for the ASPE Honor Roll of Employers are still being accepted and the nomination forms can be found in the P&O Manual.
The list of Chapter Delegates and Alternates for the Convention are due no later than July 15^th.
One last reminder, please make sure your Chapter Program Evaluation Forms are completed after each monthly seminar and forwarded to both Diane Wingard and Bill Hughes.

Have a great day!

Mitch Clemente, CPD

Region 2 Director

ASPE Region 2 Director's blog
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