ASHRAE Journal - August 2021 - 14

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Paul Anderson and Margaret Ingels,
one of our first female members.
Here we are over 100 years after that
1917 decision still independently
funding our research.
To oversee the research, subcommittees
were formed. These were
precursors of our present technical
committees now responsible not only
for research but also our Handbook,
conference sessions and identification
of standards. These are our deep
technical roots.
These three strong and resilient
roots put in place by our founders
have spread globally to our membership
of more than 52,000. As volunteers,
we grow personally when we gather and serve our
grassroots chapters and regions and through our technical
contributions. By uniting, we've had global impact to
serve humanity-the first three words of our mission.
Exploring Our Impact
Let's look at just a few of our global impacts.
First, our technical, education and training materials
are well-known and respected worldwide and are available
to everyone through our Technology Portal. They
help ensure the built environment is efficient, resilient,
reliable and addresses our world's ever-changing needs.
Next, in the last 104 years, you and members like you
have funded research, including more than $2 million
last year. Since 1959, members have donated more than
$78 million. Thank you. This leads to quality, independent
research.
As a board member, I've had the privilege to represent
ASHRAE at other organizations' conferences. Many of
those associations absolutely covet our Young Engineers
in ASHRAE (YEA), who are now about 20% of our membership.
YEA was a vision of many, and the young
women and men who began in YEA are now leading
us into the future and providing strong connections to
young professionals and students entering our industry.
Our most recent global impact is our Epidemic Task
Force. Through volunteer efforts of more than 130
experts, ASHRAE is a beacon, providing needed information
to mitigate the spread of disease, reopen buildings
and deliver education for building owners and
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ASHRAE JOURNAL ashrae.org A U G UST 2021
Members of this year's President-Elect Advisory Committee listed who fed their roots.
operators-all to improve indoor environmental quality
and to keep people safe. The impact has been global and
touched each of us locally.
This hit home personally. My wife, Jen, has an ASHRAE
magnet on her van and was speaking with her college
roommate who works for the La Crosse County Health
Department. Jen's roommate said, " ASHRAE, we use
their information. "
That is impact.
In today's terms, it's time for a shout-out. We would
not have made it through the past year without the guidance,
vision and drive of President Charles Gulledge to
embrace technology. Who would have thought we could
do our work, serve chapter members and carry on our
mission-without leaving our homes for months? Chuck,
thank you for leading us through these tough times.
But we all know that being fully digital has been hard.
This phenomenon was explained by author Alvin
Toffler in his 1970s book Future Shock. As our world uses
higher technology, we as people need and crave personal
connections-in our case member-to-member connections.
To explain this, Toffler coined the term " hightech/high
touch. " I think we all really understand his
point today. How do we use this to move forward?
Many times, I've heard people say, " I can't wait until
things get back to normal. " Please take no offense, but
I don't think we have any desire for " normal. " What we
really want is the " extraordinary " we have. We will use
our best virtual and personal practices, combined with
historical roots, to move on to extraordinary. Here's how.
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ASHRAE Journal - August 2021

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