PGT's Rod Hershberger was recognized as outgoing chair.

The American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) is holding its annual meeting this week in Coronado, Calif. The meeting kicked off yesterday with talks about strategy, and the association held a strategic planning meeting that was reserved for members only. However, AAMA did share details following the meeting including the following AAMA activities: 

• Exploring implementation of improvements to certification programs;
• Increasingly promoting IG certification with Associated Laboratories Inc. (ALI), which also serves as AAMA’s air-water-structural gold label certification administrator;
• Completed revisions to conference structure, along with the continued gathering of feedback;
• Made legislative monitoring tools available online within the Members Only portion of the website;
• Developing certification exams for the Fenestration Masters professional certification program;
• Exploring social media implementation in 2012;
• Continuing with actions to protect AAMA standards from copyright infringement and increase references; and
• Expanding standards offering.

Following the strategic planning session, AAMA staff did offer a few additional details with the general membership in the opening general session. 

AAMA’s Fenestration Masters program is the association’s new professional certification program aimed at technical managers, sales and customer service employees, dealers/installers and others, according to Angela Dickson, AAMA marketing manager. The program is broken into six levels of certification. 

“This is a great way to differentiate yourselves from the competition,” said Dickson. 

Dickson also gave a preview of the 2011 Statistical Review and Forecast performed by Ducker Research. Preliminary results show that the residential market began to recover slowly in 2010, which will continue in 2011. She also reported that the commercial market will continue to fall in 2011 and “hopefully will recover in late-2011 and early-2012.” The Ducker preliminary results also show that spending fell 23 percent in 2010, with the largest decrease occurring in the manufacturing segment of the commercial market. 

Following the general meeting, AAMA members retreated to their committees and task groups to tackle a variety of issues. Much of the work centered on finalizing AAMA documents that various groups have been working hard on in past meetings. This included the Tornado Hazard Mitigation Task Group, the Liquid Applied Flashing Task Group and the Vinyl Materials Council 109 Maintenance Task Group. 

The Alternative Accelerated Weathering Task Group met only for the second time, following its formation at AAMA’s 2010 fall meeting. Members filled the meeting room to tackle the groups’ scope, which is as follows: To explore and recommend accelerated weathering alternative to outdoor testing in Florida, Northern temperatures and Arizona. 

The Door Hardware Committee reported that the Hardware Surface Test Task Group (whose meeting was open to members only) made some editorial comments to its final draft and the group decided to disband the group. According to the meeting agenda, the group looked at review comments received to proposed hardware lead language in the fourth ballot of NAFS-2011. The group’s original scope was to develop test methods for determining the presence of lead and surface of hardware intended for repetitive human contact. 

Kevin Mulvaney from The Vinyl Institute presented an update regarding his group’s activities. He spoke of an upcoming event at Columbia University which may be of interest to the industry. The university is hosting a conference March 30-April 1, 2011, “Permanent Change—Plastics in Architectural Engineering.” 

“We are excited about what we are doing with Columbia University on this program,” says Mulvaney. 

 He also alerted AAMA members that a congressional fly-in will take place on April 13-14, during which the Vinyl Institute will bring together individuals from all facets of the vinyl chain to talk to congressional representatives about the benefits of vinyl. 

The day ended with AAMA’s Annual Awards Banquet, which honors AAMA members for their outstanding service. The association saluted PGT’s Rod Hershberger, outgoing chair, for his exemplary leadership and welcomed new AAMA chair, Wausau’s Steve Fronek. 

The event continues through Wednesday. Stay tuned to dwmmag.com for the latest updates.