Features Community Event reports
Top Glass 2019 seminar: The Gold Standard: Contractor and glazier certification to enhance the bid process

Building designers and glazing contractors are holding opposite ends of the same problem. Designers need a reliable method to evaluate contractors to ensure their technical expertise and good business practices.

Reputable contractors need a trusted way to prove their bona fides to designers, separating themselves from those who cut corners and cut and run on contracts. This presentation takes a look at one existing solution to this problem: third-party certification of contractors and glaziers through the Architectural Glass and Metal Certification Council, a not-for-profit industry organization operating throughout North America. Through voluntary compliance with its best practices, monitored by rigorous testing and reporting, the AGMCC seeks to create a standard that will lift the fog on bid processes and raise the bar of professionalism across the industry.

About the speakers
Jeff Dalaba is program manager for the North American Contractor Certification Program (NACC) and program developer for the Architectural Glass and Metal Technician Certification Program (AGMT) with Administrative Management Systems (AMS, Inc.) in Sackets Harbor, N.Y.

Ben Beeler is co-developer of the Architectural Glass and Metal Technician (AGMT) Certification program and the director of development for the physical based portion of the program’s exam. For over 35 years he has worked in the glass industry in estimating, project management, sales, and manufacturing, and as executive vice-president of a regional U.S. glass fabrication company. Ben is now an architectural glass and metal industry consultant who has been working with Administrative Management Systems Inc., for the past two years on the development of the industry’s first personnel certification program. •