Preparations are moving along well for the 2012 Annual General Meeting.
Preparations are moving along well for the 2012 Annual General Meeting. The event is scheduled for June 6 to 9 at the Fairmont Chateau Montebello. In this most spectacular Quebec setting, we plan to have some great networking opportunities and social events, along with a significant business program featuring topical speakers on timely subjects.
The Fenestration Canada committees continue to work hard in support of the association’s agenda.
They focus on such key issues as the Win-door show, membership and marketing, education, technical issues and government relations. Sometimes the committees work independently within their mandated areas and sometimes they work collectively to address critical issues. Most recently, experts in technical issues, government relations and the education group worked together to create a training presentation designed to provide unbiased information to educate building code officials and related groups on specification issues related to fenestration products. This presentation has three sections, the first of which covers the National Building Code 2010. Included in this component is an overview of the code sections concerning windows, doors and skylights with reference to the North American Fenestration Standard and what is covered under the NBC. Section two discusses what NAFS is, how it is different from the Canadian Standards Association standard, the new performance ratings, the Canadian supplement to NAFS and what the new labelling requirements are. A third section discusses how the performance requirements for fenestration products are determined, including design pressure and Canadian water-resistance requirements.
This presentation will be made available to FC members and will be modified for various target audiences. The plan is to review it at the Montebello meeting, with the objective of creating a webinar series designed to help demystify the standard and to educate specification writers, builders/contractors and building code officials, guiding them toward a performance-based approach versus a material-specific, prescriptive approach to specification. The areas that will be covered include window installations (with subsections on meeting current codes and meeting new code amendments), energy codes and performance-based approaches to specifications. The idea is to offer a series of webinars to interested groups in the fall of 2012.
After delivering a well-received program at last year’s Banff meeting and a well-attended series of webinars in fall 2011, the Education Committee worked with the Win-door Committee to present a topical series of standing-room-only presentations at the Education Pavilion during the November show.
The Education Committee has already identified a number of interesting topics as potential program subjects for Montebello. These include health and safety regulations, FITT training and green products, including an overview of green labelling and green certification product requirements. An economic presentation by CMHC or the Conference Board of Canada is being considered, as are talks about doing business on the Internet and via social networking. It has also been suggested that an overview of the work that was done in the province of Quebec on behalf of Hydro Quebec to inform distributors of upcoming changes to energy/building codes should be considered.
Along with content for meetings, the Education Committee is considering a number of other projects to provide value to our members. Among the subjects being considered are developing Building Code officials training on the CNBC 2010 and NAFS-08 with the objective of standardizing the interpretation of fenestration product requirements in their inspections. This information could be provided through the Internet and/or the production of an official reference document in booklet or brochure format.
One final note, the 2013 Annual General Meeting will be held in St. John’s, N.L., at the Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland, tentatively set for May 29 to June 2, 2013.
Yvan Houle is president of Fenestration Canada. Fenestration Canada’s
mission is to represent and support all aspects of the window and door
manufacturing industry.
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