Allen Inlow
IAPMO Senior Director

IAPMO: Where ‘It Happens’

I missed my deadline for this column.

I have missed deadlines before, not frequently, but I have missed them. When that happens, I always contact the editors, apologize, and ask if they could squeeze a little more time out of the schedule for me to get my submission to them. None of this happened, not this time. I just flat missed the deadline, by a lot.

I was traveling and was on a very hectic schedule, arriving at a new function or meeting, in a new location every second or third day. Upon my arrival back at IAPMO World Headquarters in Ontario, Calif., I immediately went to Jeff Ortiz, co-editor of OFFICIAL magazine. One of his responsibilities is the layout of the magazine, and layout is literally the last stop before the magazine is published.

“Hi, Jeff,” I greeted him, mustering my friendliest smile. He greeted me warmly. I apologized, “I’m sorry, Jeff. I missed the deadline and worse, I don’t have a column written for you and don’t think I will. I hope this will not cause you too much extra work.” With a shrug, Jeff just said, “It happens,” but he looked really sad.

I did not want him to be sad. What I wanted was a little empathy, sympathy even, along with his understanding. So, I continued explaining the situation — or trying too. I wanted him to know that I was just too busy to give any thought to writing the column.

I explained that I had met with Dr. Stu Asay of the IAPMO Backflow Prevention Institute about the expanded training and educational programming we have undertaken and the classes we will be conducting in Africa and South America. A very good beginning to the program, which is expanding across the United States, as well, into regions in which IAPMO or the Institute have not been before. We also worked on the timeline and process for creating a second edition of the Backflow Prevention Reference Manual in concert with the United Association. The Backflow Prevention class at the UA Instructor Training will review the draft of the new Manual this year. The second edition of the Manual will be published and available in late November. An interesting aspect of the new Manual is that it will spawn a new IAPMO BPI Test Procedures Manual, covering all of the generally used and approved Test Procedures in the United States.

Jeff was listening, so I went on explaining that the IAPMO Chicago office was expanding into a new larger space, big enough to accommodate the Green Technical Committee’s meetings toward development of new initiatives. In addition, we are discussing a “Green Certification” tied to the IAPMO Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code Supplement and discussing how we could tie it into the GreenPlumbers USA program as part of a comprehensive package. Once implemented in America, we have a plan to next introduce it in India, as well as offer it to other countries.

Also, the Training and Education Department in Chicago has completed the first phase of a US AID contract with the Country of Jordan, which provides the materials to train and certify plumbing, all based on the plumbing code of Jordan, which utilizes the 2009 UPC as its basis. Further, we have training contracts with the State of Oregon to teach the IMC, as well as initiatives in several other States and Countries.

I could tell I had Jeff’s interest now, so I went on to explain that we just had a meeting with the new Director of Government Relations in Washington, D.C., and were working on establishing an office and the strategic legislative plan.

Then I moved the conversation to India, where our UPC – India is continuing to expand and grow, along with the training and education efforts, with several Universities and Colleges implementing the program. Our relationship with the Indian Plumbing Association just getting stronger and better, with the introduction of the Green Plumbing Code Supplement – India and the Uniform Swimming Pool, Spa and Hot Tub Code – India under development. I did tell Jeff I had a secret to share about India and his eyes got really wide with curiosity. In a hushed tone I informed him that we are just completing an agreement to develop the Uniform Mechanical Code – India! This will include the premier Mechanical organization in India and is supported by several Government Agencies and the Indian Green Building Council.

In addition to all of this, I am working with Dwight Perkins to put together a meeting of the IAPMO Field Service Managers, designed to make an already great group even better in serving the needs of the membership and promoting the use of IAPMO Codes and Standards across the country.

I was ready to tell Jeff that with all of this going on I hadn’t even had time to think what I would write a column about. Then it dawned on me, everyone just might like to know what we have going on. I could write about what I just explained to Jeff. “Wow, Jeff,” I exclaimed. “You are a real inspiration.”

Jeff just smiled and said, “It happens.”