CONFERENCES AND EXPOSITIONS COMMITTEE. Minutes from the Meeting of June 28, 2014 Seattle, Washington

Transcription

1 CONFERENCES AND EXPOSITIONS COMMITTEE Minutes from the Meeting of June 28, 2014 Seattle, Washington Members Present Members Absent Guests Staff Monte Troutman, Chair Walid Chakroun Pat O Donnell Tiffany Cox Wade Conlan, Vice Chair Dan Fisher Benny Skelton Tony Giometti Pam Androff Yunho Hwang Bill Coad Chris Balbach Mo Hosni Bill Harrison David Claridge Joel Primeau Gary Debes Doug Cochrane Carol Marriott Ben Leppard Jon Cohen Jeff Smith Frank Schambach Chuck Curlin Andrea Zarour Rachel Romero Kevin Gallen Cindy Moreno Thomas Kuehn Michael Collarin Jennifer Leach Dennis Alejandro James Liston Sarah Maston Mike McDermott Alan Neely Ann Peratt Leon Shapiro Jeff Spitler Samir Traboulsi Bill Dean, BOD Ex-O 1

2 ASHRAE CEC June 28, 2014 Meeting Action Items 1. Staff will post the criteria for holding an ASHRAE annual conference. 2. Staff to implement a way so that authors can indicate their preference for giving an oral presentation or a poster presentation. 3. Mr. Conlan will form a task group to implement adding a no conflict of interest and a source of the funds to support the work question to program submissions. 2

3 1. Call to Order Mr. Troutman called the meeting to order at 8:10 am. 2. Approval of January 18, 2014 CEC Minutes It was moved by Ms. Androff and seconded by Mr. Cohen that the minutes be approved. Mr. Giometti said that he needed to add Bill Harrison to the attendance list. Vote: , CNV. Passed 3. Review of Action Items Mr. Troutman reviewed the action items from the past CEC meeting: 4. Staff will post the criteria for holding an ASHRAE annual conference Open. 5. Staff to determine the grassroots committee members percentage of conference registration versus non registration over the last four conferences Complete. 6. Staff to determine the number of conference attendees from developing economy nations as well as the number that registered for the AHR Expo Complete. 7. Staff to implement a way so that authors can indicate their preference for giving an oral presentation or a poster presentation Open. 8. Staff will compile paper statistics for item #34 in the task list that will include: Abstract Submitted, Abstracts Accepted, Accepted Papers Submitted and Number of Papers Accepted Complete. 9. Staff will compile viewership statistics on the Virtual Conference Complete, addressed through the Task List. 10. Staff will add Mr. Harrison to the distribution list for all CEC correspondence Complete. 4. Seattle Host Committee Pat O Connell, Seattle Host Committee Chair, reported that all of the preparations for the conference have gone well. The only curve ball was the sustainability project, which was a huge struggle for the committee. He said he did not have any guidelines to work from in preparing to take it on. The committee upgraded a middle school for disadvantaged children. 5. BOD ExO Report Mr. Dean reported on several Society activities that have taken place since the New York Conference in January He said that the Society has developed a new Strategic Plan that addresses four goals: Connect, Extend, Educate and Adapt. For each goal, there will be at least two objectives and each objective will have initiatives. The Strategic Plan will be voted on by the Board at this conference. After the Strategic Plan is approved, an implementation plan will be developed and then it will be turned over to the committees. 6. ExCom Report Mr. Troutman announced new member duties on CEC. He said that Walid Chakroun will be serving as the Specialty Conferences Chair and that Tom Kuehn will be the technical conference chair for the 2016 Annual Conference in St. Louis and Leon Shapiro will be the technical conference chair for the 2017 Winter Conference in Las Vegas. He then presented the ExCom report. He said that there were action items assigned to CEC from Members Council, which ExCom voted on. The items discussed and voted on are as follows: 1. ExCom moves that Members Council Motion Motion 5.4 Region X (San Diego) - reduced registration cost for all grassroots committee members be defeated. Background: This motion would result in a 40% reduction in registration income. 2. ExCom moves that Members Council Motion Motion 28.1 RAL (Pakistan) reduce conference fees by 50% for developing economies be defeated. 3

4 Background: ExCom agrees that it should look at ways to increase attendees from developing economy countries, but the 50% reduction in registration fees is a steep fiscal loss. CEC will create a task group to look at the issue and report to ExCom by the Chicago Conference. 3. ExCom moves that Long Beach, California be approved as the location for the 2017 Annual Conference pending the acceptance by the chapter of an invitation to host the conference. Background: Twelve -15 cities were evaluated, but were not available to host the conference. 4. ExCom moves that in response to Members Council Action Item #2 (09/13), CEC to recommend procedures for choosing plenary speakers, the following be adopted: Currently the Conference Chairs of the Winter and Annual Conferences are charged with the task of recommending a speaker for the Plenary. Selection of a speaker is based on recommendations from members and staff who have heard a good speakers at other industry events and research from reviewing speaker bureau sites. Once the speaker has been selected by the Conference Chair it goes to the CEC Committee for a vote. Staff contacts either the speaker or the agency to obtain a contract and forwards the contract and recommendation to ASHRAE s Executive Vice President. Recommendations are shared at that time with the Executive Committee. CEC is well aware at this time that military speakers should be avoided due to the diversity in culture of our membership. The intent of the Keynote Speaker is to set a positive start to the conference. Given that the audience is a blend of members, spouses and guests a technical speaker has been deemed to not be the best choice. The criteria is to search for someone who is a good speaker and has a good story to tell. Based on past evaluations these speakers have received the highest approval. 5. ExCom moves that That ROB Section be amended as indicated: OPERATION General Requirements The ASHRAE members of the ASHRAE/AHRI Joint Exposition Policy Committee shall report to the Conferences and Expositions Committee Society s Executive Committee. Background: In 2008, several changes were made to ROB Section ASHRAE/AHRI Joint Exposition Policy Committee. One of these changes was to Section General Requirements to state that JEPC would report to the Conferences and Expositions Committee (CEC) of Members Council rather than to Society s Executive Committee (ExCom). In the Background for the Motion in which these changes were proposed, the change to the reporting structure is stated as being editorial. In actual practice, JEPC has continued to report to ExCom. In addition, CEC s leadership has participated in JEPC meetings regularly and concurs that the items discussed, including contracts, are more appropriate to be addressed by the Society s ExCom than CEC. Fiscal Impact: 6. ExCom moves that a no conflict of interest and a source of the funds to support the work question be included on the submissions of technical papers, conference papers, seminars and workshops to be implement by the 2016 Winter Conference in Orlando. Background: To better understand the basis of the content contained in papers and presentations, a conflict of interest and a source of funding is requested be disclosed by the author or presenter. This information will help the reader and viewer determine if the content is biased towards whoever actually paid for the work and/or against their competition. Mr. Conlan will form a task group to implement this new procedure. Mr. Troutman said that he would like to move the above as consent items for the committee to vote on them. Mr. Cohen seconded the motion. Vote: , CNV. Passed. 4

5 7. Annual and Winter Mr. Cohen reported on the subcommittee s meeting and distributed the minutes from the meeting. He highlighted one action noting that an item on the Session Chair Form be added that asked if there were any problems that took place during the presentations. The purpose is to identify possible reasons why a speaker may have received a low rating form attendees. Also, he said that notifications would be going to TCs to let them know that CEC is starting to look at presenters who do not upload their presentation in advance of the conference and is identifying consequences. 8. Host Committee Reports 2015 Winter Conference Benny Skelton. Mr. Skelton said that the planning for the conference is nearly complete as the Welcome Party site will be the Chicago Cultural Center, members Night Out will feature a jazz band and casino night, and several tours have been arranged. He is making an effort to get people involved who have never been to a Society meeting. He appealed to CEC for an increase in funding for the sustainability project, requesting $25K instead of the $20K, which is in the budget for the two projects. Mr. Troutman asked that he prepare a letter describing why the additional funds are needed and submit it to CEC Annual Conference Bill Coad. Mr. Coad thanked CEC for the opportunity to host the conference. He said the Vincent Vinny Stanec will be the host committee chair and will do a fine job. 9. Specialty Conferences Mr. Troutman said that since the 2014 ASHRAE Winter Conference in January in New York, three specialty conferences were held: a) First International Conference on Energy and Indoor Environment for Hot Climates, February 24-26, 2014, Doha, Qatar. Attendance was about 150 and there were about 55 papers presented. The conference produced a small surplus for the Society. b) High Performance Buildings Conference, April 7-8, 2014, San Francisco, CA. This conference had an attendance of about 180 people and there were some 50 presentations made. The conference produced a small surplus for the Society. c) Efficient, High Performance Buildings in Developing Economies, April 24-25, 2014, Manila, Philippines. The conference had an attendance of nearly 200 people thanks to the efforts of the Philippines Chapter. Despite the good attendance, a fair registration fee, and multiple sponsors, the conference incurred a penalty because of room attrition at the hotel and the conference lost money. The Society lost about $15K. The following conferences are in process: 2014 ASHRAE/IBPSA-USA Joint Building Simulation Conference, Sept.10-12, 2014, Atlanta, GA. Chris Balbach said that the Scientific Committee is currently completing the review of the papers. The non-paper presentations have been selected. The steering committee has secured sponsorships. At this point, everything is on track for the conference. International Conference on Efficient Building Design: Materials and HVAC Equipment Technologies, Oct. 2-3, 2014, Beirut, Lebanon. Mr. Traboulsi reported that the steering committee is currently completing a review of the papers. He noted that the Lebanese Chapter and the American University of Beirut are organizing the conference. Energy and Environment in Ships, May 22-24, 2015, Athens, Greece. Mr. Troutman said that a meeting has been set up to talk to the conference organizer. The conference is being organized by the Hellenic Chapter, the Hellenic Navy, the Technical Chamber of Commerce and ASHRAE. 10. Joint Expo Policy Report Mr. Harrison gave an update on the May 2014 meeting. He said that the 2019 Winter Conference and AHR Expo will take place in Atlanta, Georgia. He provided some additional background on the CEC motion to revise the Rule of the Board to have the Joint Expo Policy Committee report to the Society s Executive Committee and not to CEC. 5

6 11. CEC Task List Mr. Conlan said that he had developed the Task List in response to action items previously identified by the committee and for items assigned to the committee from Members Council and others. In addition to identifying tasks, he assigned people to complete the tasks and a deadline for their completion. He reviewed each of the items in the list and the assignments. 12. CEC MBOs for Mr. Troutman updated the committee MBOs for See Attachment A. 13. CEC MBOs for Mr. Conlan reported that the committee goals would be included in the report to Members Council. See Attachment B for Mr. Conlan s MBOs. 14. Adjournment Mr. Troutman adjourned the meeting at noon. Respectfully submitted, Anthony Giometti CEC Staff Liaison 6

7 ATTACHMENT A Committee Objectives Committee: Conferences and Expositions Committee Year: Chair: Monte G. Troutman Objective Planned Completion Date Fiscal Impact Responsible Party Cost Budgeted 1. Complete work on Reference Manual and/or Operations Manual Ongoing CEC Chair & Staff 2. Develop long-range committee plan, based on increased committee size and increased term to allow consistent rotations each year 3. Provide increased, on-site training for incoming CEC members 4. Develop a database of potential conference paper reviewers Complete CEC Chair Complete CEC Vice Chair, Annual/Winter Chairs & Staff Complete Annual/Winter 5. Review balance of research papers and practical application papers for presentation at conferences; make recommendations for changes, if needed 6. Review policies for classification of papers at conferences; make recommendations for revisions, if needed 7. Create and implement an Annual and Winter Conference Speakers list for the CTTC Ongoing Vice Chair, Annual/Winter Complete Chair, Vice Chair, and Staff Open, carried forward Chair, Vice Chair, and Staff 7

8 ATTACHMENT B Committee Objectives Committee: Conferences and Expositions Committee Year: Chair: Wade H. Conlan Vice Chair: Sarah Maston Objective Planned Completion Date Fiscal Impact Responsible Party Cost Budgeted 1. Complete work on Reference Manual and/or Operations Manual 2. Develop long-range committee plan, to properly address the Specialty Conferences Sub-Committee growing needs. 3. Analyze a method for reduced conference fees for those from developing countries. 4. Develop a method to have a Conflict of Interest and/or Source of Funding to be identified for papers, seminars, workshops to provide transparency for the viewer/reviewer. 5. Improve the interface for the speaker, session chair, reviewers, etc through improvements to available training, system improvements, and other yet unidentified items. 6. Improve the Virtual Conference to get a larger audience and branding/marketing in different methods. 7. Create and implement an Annual and Winter Conference Speakers list for the CTTC June, 2015 CEC Chair, Vice Chair, Past Technical Chairs & Staff June, 2015 CEC Chair, Specialty Conference Chair, Staff June, 2015 CEC Vice Chair, Anuual/Winter Chairs & Staff Mar 2014 for Winter 2016 Use Annual/Winter on-going Annual/Winter June, 2015 Chair, Vice Chair, and Staff February, 2015 Chair, Vice Chair, and Staff 8