The 2015 Region VI Chapter Regional Conference was held in Quad Cities, Iowa in April. The St. Louis Chapter was well represented by members looking to expand their technical knowledge and network with HVAC&R industry professionals. Around a dozen St. Louis Chapter members attended.
Chapter representatives attended meetings to discuss ways to improve individual chapter operations and share ideas about how to improve membership, research promotion, young professionals’ involvement in Young Engineers in ASHRAE (YEA), developing programs, managing chapter funds, and overall improving the functionality of each chapter. In addition, Chapter Board Members attended workshops related to their position to learn how to improve in their respective roles for next year.
Numerous technical sessions were held, including presentations by Jennifer McIvor of MidAmerican Energy, Jeff Boldt of KJWW Engineering Consultants, Adam Wright of MidAmerican Energy, and Julia Gauthier and Ryan Schwartz of Weidt Group. Themes included supply side energy production, demand side energy consumption, wind energy in Iowa, and energy modeling versus verification.
Chapter Member Brian Ingenthron attended with the intent to research how to organize such a conference, as he is the chairperson for the 2017 CRC that will be held in St. Louis. Of the conference, he said, “In other CRC’s I have attended, I never looked at them through the eyes of those putting it on, only as one who was attending the event. Going into it looking at how the event progressed and how it was run gave me and my co-chairs a completely different perspective. Getting to spend time with the organizers and attending the wrap-up meeting really gave us the opportunity to see inside the running of a CRC and now we have a starting point of Do’s and Don’ts that we didn’t have before. Though we have two years, we have already selected a venue, and expect that we will have a “major league” CRC to offer the membership in 2017.”
Organized social events included a dinner on the Celebration Belle boat as well as numerous companion tour events.
Thank you to the Mississippi Valley Chapter for hosting a great conference!
