Association Integration Focus: Technical Services & Advocacy

Imbedding GANA’s strengths in NGA.

The National Glass Association (NGA), Vienna, VA, has formed a new Technical Services & Advocacy Department to ensure continuance of the important and ongoing work by the Glass Association of North America (GANA) committee volunteers and staff upon closing of the combination.

Committee volunteers will continue to work on documents in process before the combination close and will renew their collaborative focus on topics affecting more than one industry segment. Task groups will continue to be formed and charged with developing industry related guidelines and bulletins. Previously generated legacy GANA documents will be maintained and offered.

Per the combination Agreement, GANA’s legacy divisions will form a new association structure, a separate department, reflecting the full supply chain. The Glazing Industry Code Committee (GICC) and Flat Glass Manufacturing Division (FGMD) retain their separate identities and processes in the new structure.

Code consultants Tom Culp, Birch Point Consulting, and Thom Zaremba, Roetzel & Andress, will continue their work on behalf of the Association, monitoring and representing the industry’s interests at building code hearings, ASHRAE, NFPA and NFRC, etc.

The Integration Task Force is working on a technical document development plan, refining the voting and approval process for technical publications consistent with maintaining due process, and determining the process to advocate for formal positions before third-party groups outside the building and energy code arena when needed, among other tasks integral to the success of the combined associations. The end product of the Integration Task Force’s work will come before the NGA Board of Directors as recommendations.