NFRC's Opening Sessions Asks "What Can You Do?"

NFRC’s Chairman of the board, Joe Hayden officially opened the NFRC’s Spring Membership Meeting with a warm greeting and laughter but quickly turned his presentation to the business at hand. After an introduction of the board’s executive committee (feel free to contact with questions or issues) he went over the ambitious goals & objectives facing the organization in 2009 – which include the following:

• Complete CPD 2.0
• Implement CMA
• IG Certification
• AEP Continued Development
• WINDOW 6 / THERM 6
• International Partnerships
• RFID / BIM opportunities
• Simplification
• Validation Testing
• ANSI Accreditation

He ended the presentation giving the NFRC attendees a home work assignment: Stating that the organization relies on the hard working volunteers to move all goals forward. All attendees and members, both onsite and following along here at the Live Meeting Update, are invited and encouraged to finish this statement: “I Can Best Help NFRC be Successful By…..” There are easels to collect attendees input or feel free to drop the board or staff a note or email.

NFRC Signs Up First Meeting Sponsor

NFRC is pleased to announce that it has signed up its first official meeting sponsor as part of the new Sponsorship Program.

The Professional Awning Manufacturers Association (PAMA) is the organization’s initial Silver Sponsor, and will participate in the meetings in Baltimore in July and San Antonio in November.

Cheryl Gendron, NFRC’s Senior Manager of Membership, conceived the program to help defray the costs of organizing and facilitating NFRC meetings and to offer a creative marketing tool to NFRC stakeholders by increasing opportunities for visibility.

“Every time NFRC meets, it’s the premiere gathering of the nation’s foremost experts on fenestration design and engineering,” Gendron said. “We’re thrilled that PAMA recognizes the advantages of connecting with these industry professionals and we look forward to welcoming many other sponsors in the months to come.”

Anyone interested in sponsoring a future NFRC meeting can contact Cheryl via email or phone at 301-589-1776.

Storm Windows and the Stimulus Package

During the Storm Window Task Group meeting, Thom Zaremba of Roetzel & Andress discussed tax credits for storm windows in light of passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

According to Zaremba, when it comes to tax credits storm windows fall into a different category than windows, doors and skylights. For one, in order to qualify for tax credits storm windows are not subject to the 0.30/0.30 requirements for U-factor and solar heat gain coefficient.

Instead, eligibility is assessed over a base window and must comply with either the 2001 supplement of the 2000 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) or the 2004 supplement of the 2003 IECC.

To determine eligibility, storm window manufacturers are directed to provide certified “statements of compliance” for classes of products that meet IRS requirements and make them available on their Web sites. Consumers would then download these statements and use them to show compliance when filing their tax returns.

Zaremba emphasized that different people have different interpretations of how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act affects storm window tax credits. “We don’t have the final word on this yet,” Zaremba said.

PCP Review TG Continues Work

The PCP Review Task Group reviewed ballot comments and agreed to bring forward a recommendation to remove Res97 language from the PCP. The recommendation will be made at the Certification Subcommittee meeting on Wednesday, March 4.

According to Steve Strawn of Jeld-Wen, Inc., who substituted for task group Chair Tina Jenkins of Simonton Windows, the task group will continue to work on other issues included in the ballot related to validation testing and private labelers.

"We need to go back to the task group on validation testing and private labelers for additional work, taking into account the comments made on the ballot and discussed here today," Strawn said.

Attachment Groups Discuss Guidelines

The attachments task group track began with a presentation by Jim Benney on the guiding principles for attachment ratings established by the NFRC Board of Directors.

The Board developed the guidelines to help attachment manufacturers as they seek to navigate the process for developing new ratings and procedures, and to ensure that NFRC continues to provide technically accurate ratings of value to its various stakeholders.

The guidelines are:

1. All attachment products are to be evaluated (on a case by case basis) per the New Product Rating Guidelines.
2. Attachment products should use the existing NFRC standards system – require all attachments to come through Attachments Subcommittee that report to existing Technical and Ratings committees.
3. Create a new trademark representing NFRC ATTACHMENTS (to differentiate from whole window product rating).
4. Allow attachments to have different ratings depending upon their business need.
5. That a separate NFRC technical document (covering NFRC 100, 200, etc.) be developed with separate sections pertaining to individual attachment types (storm windows, awnings, blinds, etc.).
6. That a separate Attachments PCP document also be developed with sections related to various attachment types as appropriate.

The attachment task groups meeting in Tucson are applied films, storm windows, and awnings.

We're Off and Running!

NFRC’s 2009 Spring Membership Meeting has begun in beautiful Tucson, Ariz. It’s sunny and warm here, with an expected high of 85 degrees!

Today begins with 14 task group meetings on a wide variety of topics split into three tracks. Check back later for reports on key developments from these hard-working sessions, as well as from all the subcommittee and committee meetings and special gatherings to come.

A total of 102 people registered for the meeting. Jim Benney, NFRC’s Executive Director, called the attendance “incredible, especially given the difficult times in the fenestration industry and the economy as a whole. It just shows how dedicated NFRC members are to fulfilling the organization’s mission.”

The Board of Directors also wants to welcome and thank the following first-time meeting attendees:

Jeld-Wen
Per Friis Mortensen

New World West
Michael Carlson
Ben Mausar
Peter Valentin

Solatube Inc.
Robert Westfall

Silver State Specialties, LLC
Dale De Mann
H. W. (Bill) Ickes

Heschong Mahone Group
Lisa Heschong
Mudit Saxon

Switch Materials
Caleb Willis

WeatherShield
Emory Budzinski
Dave Koester

More to come…

Welcome to NFRC’s Tucson Meeting!

NFRC will kick off the Spring Membership Meeting for 2009 on Monday, March 2, 2009, in Tucson, Arizona at the Marriott University Park – right on the doorstep of the bustling campus of the University of Arizona.

Attendees and those unable to make the trip to the meeting alike can get a jump on the week’s activities by reviewing/downloading meeting materials online at the NFRC Meeting Page – including member’s comments on the 19 documents that will be discussed at the meeting, proxy forms and other information. The meeting’s detailed program booklet will be available on site but is also available for download as well. The book includes meetings agendas, draft meeting minutes from the fall meeting, committee rosters, pre-registration listing and more.

Please note: Registration and prepayment is required for all planning to attend the conference – those who wish to attend last minute can check-in at the registration table – opening at 6:30am, on Monday morning.

All NFRC stakeholders are encouraged to continue to check this LIVE meeting update during the week for the informational updates on the meeting’s progress.

Safe travels to all who are headed to Tucson. The weather is shaping up to be warm and sunny for most of the week with highs in the 80’s!

If you have any questions on the meeting please feel free to contact the NFRC staff: at your service!