Raise your voice in Seattle

It is my great pleasure as president of this esteemed organization to once again invite you to IAPMO’s 81st Annual Education and Business Conference in Seattle, Wash. Your attendance is not only a tremendous opportunity to learn and network with your industry peers and fellow IAPMO members, but provides you with a voice and a vote in reshaping the Uniform Codes for the benefit of millions of Americans.

And what opportunity attendees will have in that regard! At the Assembly Consideration Session scheduled for this year’s conference, IAPMO members will vote on arguably the most substantive changes to the Uniform Codes since the ANSI-accredited code development process began in 2001. If you care deeply or have a stake in the advancement of the Uniform Plumbing Code and Uniform Mechanical Code — and frankly who doesn’t? — these are meetings you do not want to miss.

In addition to the important business of code development, this year’s conference, of course, offers more top-notch educational opportunities, led by the best instructors our industry has to offer — IAPMO instructors. From code review seminars to enlightening presentations and discussions on the most pressing issues of the day, opportunities to advance your understanding of our industry abound.

IAPMO lost a valuable champion of sustainable building practices last year with the far-too-early passing of Joseph Kneidinger, a senior plumbing inspector for the City of Portland, Ore., who dedicated his professional and personal life to the advancement of sustainable and renewable principles. To honor Joseph and ensure his legacy, IAPMO has renamed our annual award honoring the contractor who most embodies the advancement of sustainable practices the Joseph Kneidinger Green Contractor of the Year Award. This honor will be bestowed upon a deserving recipient along with our other annual awards at this year’s conference.

Please join us as we work to advance the Uniform Codes into a new decade of safe, healthy plumbing and mechanical systems for all.

In the pages that follow, you’ll find everything you need in order to register for the IAPMO conference and plan a tremendously enjoyable and professionally worthwhile visit to Seattle. I’m confident that after you’ve seen all that this year’s event has to offer, you’ll make every effort to be a part of it.

Speaking of the pages that follow, please check out some of the offerings in this latest edition of Official. Inside you’ll find IAPMO Board Member Jed Scheuermann’s incredible first-person account of the devastation caused by the January earthquake in Haiti and his own efforts to help the Haitian people recover and regain hope for their future. IAPMO is incredibly proud of Jed and the work his group from DELTA Ministries performed on the island nation. Their selfless contributions are a tribute to the mission on which IAPMO was founded, to help provide safe, healthy water for everyone.

Be sure to read the latest information on the code development process toward the 2012 editions of the Uniform Codes. The UPC and UMC Technical Committee Meetings in Milwaukee, Wis., featured a lot of good debate and a lot of hard work toward making the codes the strongest they’ve ever been.

Have a great summer. I hope to see you all in Seattle in September!