September Lunch Meeting
The first meeting of the 2019-2020 season took place on Wednesday, September 18. The lunch meeting was held at the Matrix Hotel with guest speaker Steven Sookdeo from Footprint. Steven presented on the impacts to building design of the upcoming enforcement of the National Energy Code for Buildings (NECB) 2017.
Diversity in ASHRAE – Paint Night
The diversity in ASHRAE NAC chair hosted a Paint Night on Tuesday, October 15 at Fionn MacCool’s. Many a masterpiece were painted by the members and guests who joined.
Past Presidents Night
October’s dinner meeting, held on Wednesday, October 30, at the University of Alberta Faculty Club, was Past Presidents Night. Special guest Darryl Boyce, ASHRAE Society President, was in attendance and spoke on the topic of Building for People and Performance Achieving Operational Excellence – his theme as president for the year. Jason Smith from Intellihot also presented on the topic of tankless water heater design. In all, 16 past presidents of the ASHRAE NAC chapter attended the event.
November Lunch Meeting
November’s chapter event was a lunch meeting held at the Common on Wednesday, November 20. Chris Dziedzic from Price Industries was the featured speaker presenting on acoustical considerations for buildings.
Christmas Lunch Meeting
December’s meeting was the annual Christmas Luncheon held on Friday, December 20 at the Delta Hotel South. The event was well attended and included a prize draw in support of the Edmonton Christmas Bureau. Thanks to the generosity of members who donated the prizes at all those in attendance who bought tickets, the chapter was able to donate $6670 To the Edmonton Christmas Bureau.
Diversity in ASHRAE – Professional Development
The diversity in ASHRAE NAC chair hosted a professional development session on Thursday, January 9, 2020 at the Matrix Hotel. The guest speaker was Brittany Mendiuk from the Technical Services Branch at Alberta Infrastructure whom spoke on the topic of innovative ways to utilize BIM models and the digital files that are delivered to Alberta Infrastructure following the handover of a project.
Student Night
The first meeting of 2020 was Student Night held at MKT on Wednesday, January 22. The guest speaker for the evening was Brian Kammers from Desert Aire who presented on natatorium design and best practices.
February Lunch Meeting
February’s chapter event was a lunch meeting held at the Louisiana Purchase on Wednesday, February 19. Martin Gravel with Camfil Canada presented on Air and Gas phase filtration guidelines for the cannabis industry-from, clean room and ISO space selections, MERV rating recommendations, general commercial efficiency options and air change recommendations for design. Unfortunately this would be the last in person event of the season.
COVID-19 Pandemic
On March 5 the first presumptive case of COVID-19 was reported in Alberta. This would lead to massive changes to society over the next few months and beyond. As a result of the spread of COVID -19 through the province and the issuance of health orders, all non-essential businesses were closed and large gatherings were prohibited. This resulted in the offices of companies in our industry being closed with people having to work remotely from home. In person meetings were replaced with video conferences; construction activities were still allowed to continue but with additional health and safety measures in place to limit the spread of COVID-19.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic a number of chapter events were forced to be cancelled, including the March dinner meeting, the annual John Ross curling bonspiel, the April dinner meeting, and the annual golf tournament. Our chapter was also to host the Chapters Regional Conference at the end of April into early May – this event also had to be cancelled.
From a chapter operational standpoint, chapter board meetings were required to be conducted via videoconference instead of in person.
Spring Update
With everyone adjusting to the “new normal” brought on by the COVID pandemic, the chapter board decided to host an online video conference to provide an update on the chapter to its membership. The video meeting was held on Monday, May 21 and was well attended by chapter members.
June Meeting
The final event of the 2019-2020 season was held on Wednesday, June 17. The event was held via video conference and included Robert Peters with Rinnai Canada. Rob presented on common venting design for multi-family projects for domestic hot water systems.