A very productive meeting of the Northeast Region Board was held October 23 in Albany New York. This meeting was the first hybrid meeting NER has held and it was very well attended with 16 Board members present in-person and some of those missing participating virtually though a professional A/V set-up which Region leadership had contracted for.
Liz Icenogle, Director of Component Relations for the Institute participated remotely, to bring the Region up to speed on the big changes National revealed at the Conference in Nashville, and to field any questions we had. One of the big changes is in regard to membership; the Institute will no longer allow members to belong to multiple chapters or to be “unaffiliated” and will be assigning them to a chapter based on their zip code and a sub-division of the State for states with multiple chapters. The Worcester Chapter has proposed the border with the Boston Chapter to be roughly Rt 128/95. What this means for Worcester’s membership can be determined yet. We are investigating what effects the reassignments might have and whether we stand to pick up any new “unaffiliated” members who might get assigned to Worcester.
Our new Region President, Joe Lobdell of New Jersy CSI, reported out on the Region Conference to be held in Plymouth, MA April 28-30. You can read all the details on the Region website at https://nercsi.com/about-region-conference/ but a couple of highlights were the programs being offered by Joe Lstiburek, one of the foremost authorities on building science today, and Whit Perry who was responsible for the restoration of the Mayflower. There are plenty of educational seminars being finalized for folks who need continuing education and plenty of tabletops left for reps who really want to get in front of the 400+ attendees the conference planners are expecting.
The Outreach Committe should be in a position to start offering CDT training classes to members in February, for the Spring CDT class. This will be a collaborative effort offered by the Region, wherein different sessions are taught by different members from around the Northeast. Details of the program are still being worked out and will be forthcoming. Additionally, the Board is considering the consolidation of chapter websites under a common umbrella, to bolster social media outreach by pooling content from all 15 chapters, and to facilitate a
regional search engine for educational programs. One of the objects of the Institute eliminating multiple memberships and levelling dues is to allow a member of one chapter to attend programs offered by any chapter, and the consolidated website will help members know what’s going on around the region.
Finally, the Nomination Committee is looking for nominations for the next region Vice President and Treasurer. If you’re interested, or know someone who’d be a good fit, please reach out to Steve VanDyke, chair of Worcester CSI’s nominating committee at admin@naultarchitects.com