PGC International Spring Meeting A
Success
The 2009 PGC International Spring Meeting was held for
the first time as a webinar to allow greater member participation by
reducing related expenses and offering more flexible meeting times. Each
of the organization's Committees worked full agendas to discuss the
various projects in process and to also identify new resources that will
be helpful to the members and to the industry.
The event began on Wednesday, May 6th with a meeting of
the Board of Directors, followed by a membership meeting, which was
highlighted by a presentation given by Bill Koffel of Koffel Associates
and consultant to the Glazing Industry Code Committee. The presentation
included an overview of the purpose of the International Building Code,
noted some of the most significant differences between the 2006 IBC and
2009 IBC, and identified the applicability of design, plan review and
inspection requirements. “All segments of the glass industry should be
familiar with how the building codes apply to its business and Bill
presented this highly technical information in a clear, concise and easy
to understand format,” said Sara Neiswanger, Account Executive for PGC
International.
The first day concluded with a meeting of the
Protective Glazing Manual Task Group. The Task Group consists of 18
members representing both PGC International and the Glass Association of
North America (GANA). Many members participated to review various
sections and progress continues towards the projected March 2010
publication date.
The Liaison Committee met first on Thursday, May 7th, led
by Scott Haddock of GlassLock, Inc.. The Committee has been responsible
for the creation of a PowerPoint presentation which has been given at
meetings of the Sealant, Waterproofing and Restoration (SWR) Institute
and GANA. The presentation currently includes information on hurricane
and blast mitigation, but the Committee plans to continue building the
content to eventually contain information from all six areas of
protective glazing observed by PGC International: ballistics, blast,
fire, forced entry, hurricane and seismic.
The Marketing Committee met next and was led by chair Jon
Johnson of Arch Aluminum & Glass Co. The Committee reviewed the results
of the Member Survey recently completed. Please refer to the letter from
the Marketing Committee in this E-News for a more detailed account of the
results. The Committee also discussed a potential schedule for the PGC
International Fall Meeting in Kansas City and brainstormed ideas for the
2010 Spring Symposium.
The Resources Committee, chaired by Ryan Russell of
Hope’s Windows, kicked off the afternoon session. The Committee plans to
establish a Frequently Asked Questions page on the website. The
Committee is currently developing a list of pre-written FAQs to
supplement the resources currently on the website and could use your
assistance in compiling questions and answers to consider. If you
could take a few moments to share a couple of basic questions that you
receive related to your segment of protective glazing [ballistics,
blast, fire, forced entry, hurricane, seismic], as well as your
corresponding answer, it would be of great help in getting this project
started. Please send your Q & A’s to
sara@protectiveglazing.org.
The Technical Committee meeting, led by Bhaskar
Adusumalli of TRACO, concluded the PGC International Spring Meeting
webinar. The primary discussion of the meeting focused on the new
product selection guidelines that will be produced for each of the six
areas of protective glazing. The documents will be a quick reference for
architects to determine the proper product to be specified given certain
threat and performance levels. Once complete, these guides will be
available as a free download on PGC International's website.
In addition to the important tasks being worked within each
committee, the structure of the committees themselves was modified. A
consolidation resulted in pairing committees with similar missions. The
Liaison Committee became part of the Marketing Committee, and the
Resources Committee rolled into the Technical Committee. This joining
will promote more focus and participation in the Committees’ activities
and will also reduce the amount of time members spend on association
conference calls each month.
Overall, the Spring Meeting webinar was a productive
meeting for all involved. “The lack of networking was noted as a slight
drawback naturally,” said Brian Pitman, Director of Marketing and
Communications. “However, many members were open to trying something new
and were appreciative that this format kept the impact on their
company’s bottom lines to a minimum.”
Dates for upcoming conference calls are listed on the
members’ only page of the website, as well as in the Calendar section of
this E-News. Be sure to visit the Events page of the website also as
news regarding the Fall Meeting will be posted soon.
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