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WABO 2016 Annual Business MeetingJuly 24-15, 2016
Jay Elbettar, ICC Board of Directors, conducts the swearing-in ceremony of the new WABO Board of Directors President's Report - Thomas Phillips I want to thank the membership once again for electing me as your president, I am very humbled and honored. I am committed to serving you and doing everything I can to make WABO a better organization. I feel confident this can be done because of our outstanding membership and the great Officers and Board members that work hard to achieve WABO’s goals. I would like to express my gratitude to Jon Siu for his last two years of service as our president and helping me prepare for my tenure as president. Jon did this while putting in many hours on the Technical Code Development (TCD) committee, the government relations committee and helping to create WAsafe through the emergency management committee. I’m sure his participation will not slow down in his role as immediate past president. There were many highlights at our recent annual business meeting at Semiahoo, including award presentations to Doug Powell from Spokane Valley for Code Official of the Year, MyBuildingPermit.com for the Educational Achievement award, and Simpson Strong Tie for the Associate member of the year. I was especially pleased to present Maureen Traxler with an Honorary Membership award for her many years of outstanding service for WABO, mostly related to code development. She kept the TCD organized by tracking all of the code changes that were important to WABO and also providing insightful discussion and recommendations on the specific code changes. Maureen will be greatly missed as she embarks on the new journey of retirement! Having served on the WABO Board of Directors for the last four years, I can proudly say that all of the Board members are committed to serving the entire membership very professionally. There is a lot of work and correspondence that goes on behind the scenes, and the Board members do this work in addition to their other normal ‘jurisdiction’ duties. Please feel free to reach out to any Board member if you have any questions or concerns about the operations of WABO. For clarification, the Board consists of each committee Chair, WABO’s representative to the State Building Code Council, past presidents, and the four officers (second vice president, first vice president, president and the immediate past president). Thanks again and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our next business meeting in Spokane this October. Congratulations to the 2016 WABO Award Winners
Committee ReportsTechnical Code Development, Chair Lee Kranz Group B Public Comments submitted Technical Code Development just submitted several Group B public comments which will be discussed in Kansas City this fall for the 2018 I-Codes. Public comments will be published by ICC on September 9th. After that TCD members will be vetting the comments to see which ones we want to support, oppose or monitor. ICC Public Comment Hearing in Kansas City Several TCD members will be attending the ICC Public Comment Hearings in Kansas City this fall. The hearing agenda has not been set yet but will be held on or around October 19th through the 25th. Scholarship funds are available for WABO member building officials registered with ICC to vote. Contact Lee Kranz or Julie Rogers for additional information. State Building Code Council Comments on procedures for submittal of local amendments are due July 31st. TCD will discuss possible comments at a future meeting. Jim Tinner will draft a comment in favor of eliminating the requirement that amendments be approved by local legislative body before being submitted to SBCC. 2017 TCD Work plan Since ICC no longer does Group C code development the main work item for TCD in 2017 will be to draft code change proposals for the 2021 Group A codes. Scholarship Policy Lee will draft a revised policy that will address issues related to TCD scholarships for code hearing attendance. It will include the schedule for applications, criteria for the amount awarded, and dollar limits. Angela, Todd, Dave Spencer and Trace volunteered to help. Maureen Traxler Retires TCD Vice Chair, Maureen Traxler, has retired. Maureen did exceptional work and made many contributions to help create the success story that WABO TCD is today. Over the years her professionalism, persistence and willingness to help out wherever there was a need played a major role in our success and her excellent reputation in the code development world is unsurpassed. The Committee thanks Maureen for keeping us on track by scheduling the meetings, creating the code change spreadsheets, running the laptop during the meetings, sending out TCD and ICC updates, developing cdpACCESS training materials, advising us on code change drafts, etc., etc. (the list is long and so are her accomplishments). Through her efforts to improve the codes our buildings are safer, more accessible, more energy efficient and longer lasting. Her thoughtful approach to writing code changes also resulted in more reasonable and enforceable codes. She has been a mentor to many of us and hopefully the tradition of comprehensive and well thought-out code development will carry on. It has been an honor to work with you Maureen and we hope she will stay in touch with her friends on the Technical Code Development Committee. _____________________________________________
The Legislative Committee met to go over the legislative positions for the upcoming 2016-2017 legislative session. A list of items was approved by the membership. The current items are:
Further explanation and guidance of the positions will be provided to the membership in the Legislative positions paper. Amy Brackenbury, our lobbyist, spoke regarding the SBCC’s update rules on policies and procedures for Statewide and local amendments and bylaws which govern procedures such as meeting and voting protocols as well as the composition of standing committees and procedures for technical advisory groups. WABO’s TCD Committee (Technical Code Development) submitted comments on the possibility for the State code review process timeline to be lengthened. Other WABO members will be providing comments on how to change the process for how local amendments are reviewed and approved or denied by the SBCC under RCW 19.27.060. For more information you can visit the SBCC webpage. Washington House of Representatives Vincent Buys from the 42nd District was invited to speak to the membership during the luncheon. Since 2010 Rep. Buys is the Washington State House Representatives House Republican appointee to the State Building Code Council. He spoke to the importance of the SBCC, the legislative process and current challenges, and the willingness of Building departments to be approachable and perceptive to other various ideas, thoughts, and philosophies when I comes to construction techniques. The Legislative Committee is looking for members to step up and to get involved. The only way to effect change and make a difference is to have a voice and get involved. If you have an interest in getting involved and want to have a voice in how legislation is shaped and influenced please feel free to contact me.
A fun time was had by all at the WABO Annual Awards Banquet. _____________________________________________
We had a great turnout for the joint Education and Outreach committee meeting. There was a great deal of discussion about a new WABO educational opportunity provided by retiring member Dave Cantrell. The plan is to build a traveling display of proper plumbing techniques to provide a visual learning experience for jurisdictions across the state. WABO will put money into the budget to build the unit and volunteers will be needed to build it. This will provide a good resource to promote public health and safety. _____________________________________________ Finance Committee - Chair Kurt Aldworth The first part of the meeting was an overview of the WABO Investment Policy. The committee decided to keep the same strategy towards investments. Tim Rogers presented a PowerPoint on the finances of the WABO Bookstore. Profits for the Bookstore vary depending on the code cycle. It makes money during year one of the new code books and profits fall during year two and three. There was also a discussion on pursuing a partnership with ICC to provide electronic versions with Washington Amendments included. There was a motion to continue the WABO Bookstore and work with ICC on the electronic versions. C & R Committee - Chair Pete Rambow There were three topics of discussion at this meeting: Fire-Resistant Penetrations and Joints (1705.16): The committee was updated on the development of the Fire-Resistant Penetrations and Joints SIRP category. The Firestop subcommittee met several times to develop around 200 written and oral exam questions for the program. The committee will start working on the standard and hope to present it to the C & R Committee by the end of the year, and then present to the membership as a whole. A special thanks to Mary Kate McGee for all the work documenting the questions. Steven Hart & Ray Cockerham expressed interest in joining the Firestop subcommittee. IAS/WABO Partnership on Steel Fabrication Program: Gary Schenk led the discussion on the possibility of IAS/WABO partnering up for the Steel Fabrication Program. The WABO office had received a proposal from IAS on May 13, 2016 detailing the differences between the two programs. A teleconference was held on June 15, 2016 with IAS and WABO to discuss the partnership and several questions arose from the teleconference. The WABO office is waiting for a response from IAS and Gary Schenk will follow-up with a letter to Chuck Ramani at IAS. OBOA SIP Program: OBOA suspended their special inspection registration program. The WABO office is working to register OBOA Inspectors that were not approved through the WABO program. Another special thanks to the WABO office staff for all their hard work and for Tara for keeping me in the loop.
ICC Director Jay Elbettar presents service pin to WABO Immediate Past President, Jon Siu. |
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