NFRC Summer Meeting opens

The National Fenestration Council’s Summer Meeting opened July 28 in Chicago. There were 117 attendees representing 84 companies,12 first-time attendees, and three new member companies: Glen Raven Inc., Burlington, N.C.; the National Glass Association, McLean, Va.; and the Professional Awning Manufacturers Association, Roseville, Minn.

A series of task group meetings took place this morning along two parallel tracks: task groups on Component Modeling Approach; and task groups on storm windows, dynamic attachments for swinging doors, interior attachments such as shades, blinds, and exterior attachments such as screens and awnings.

An expert panel held an Attachment Forum and drew close to 50 participants.The panel, included Jim Benney, NFRC executive director, Tom Culp, president of Birch Point Consulting, LaCrosse, Wis., Joe Hayden, senior project engineer of certification for Pella Corp. of Pella, Iowa, and Fred Higgins ofWayne-Dalton Corp., Mt. Hope, Ohio,and discussed:

--The length of the process that is necessary to reach consensus and protect the technical integrity of the NFRC rating and certification system.

--How to move forward on exterior attachments through consultation between the task group and the board.

-- How to balance a "top down" vs. "bottom up" approach to attachment ratings to make sure that interested parties benefit both from guidance from the board of directors and the expertise present among the NFRC membership.

On the CMA track, the CMA Labeling Task Group, the CMA Validation Task Group and the CMA Technical Task Group met to discuss unresolved issues. However, all the meetings were marked by conspicuous absence of discussion. Most attendees said they wanted to hold their comments until the sub-committee meetings scheduled to begin tomorrow, rather than discussing the same issue on two days in a row.

A number of the board members were not in town yet for the summer meeting, namely Gary Curtis, president and founder of the West Wall Group LLC in Salem, Ore., Steve FarrarofGuardian Industries Corp., Auburn Hills, Mich.,Steve Rosenstock ofEdison Electric Institute, Washington, D.C.,Steve Selkowitz, head, Building Technologies Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Calif., Rich Karney,DOE Energy Star program manager,and Garrett Stone of Brickfield, Burchette, Ritts & Stone P.C.