New England Chapter of the SFPE News (blog)

Industry Events Spring 2012

Amanda Kimball — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:59:30 GMT

16 February 2012, 12:30pm - 2:00pm (EST), Free NFPA Webinar on Hazard Assessment of Fire Service Training Fires, sponsored by the Fire Protection Research Foundation. Register here.

26 February 2012, 2:30pm (EST), Free AFAA Webinar on The Evolution of Commercial Wireless Fire Alarm Systems. Sponsored by Commercial Wireless Systems International (CWSI). Register here.

5-8 March 2012, Fire Protection Research Foundation's Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications - A Technical Working Conference (SupDet 2012), Phoenix, AZ. Details here.

28 March 2012, NFPA's 2012 Health Care Summit - National Trends in Delivery of Health and Long Term Care: Implication for Safety Codes and Standards, Baltimore, MD. Details here.

29 March 2012, 12:30pm - 2:00pm (EST), Free NFPA Webinar on Code Compliance for Healthcare, sponsored by Koffel Associates. Register here.

3-5 May 2012, NFSA's 2012 Annual Seminar, Los Cabos, Mexico. Details here.

16-19 May 2012, AFAA 2012 Codes Conference and Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ. Details here.

11-14 June 2012, NFPA Annual Conference and Expo, Las Vegas, NV. Details here.

20-22 June 2012, SFPE 9th Annual International Conference on Performance-Based Codes and Fire Safety Design Methods, Hong Kong. Details here.

Upcoming Industry Events

Amanda Kimball — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:05:19 GMT

23-28 October 2011: 2011 SFPE Annual Meeting in Portland, OR. Details here.

27 October 2011, 12:30-2:00pm (ET): Free NFPA Webinar on High-Speed, Low-Volume Fans and Sprinkler Operation, sponsored by the Fire Protection Research Foundation. Register here.

7-9 November 2011: Center for Campus Fire Safety Campus Fire Forum 2011 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Details here.

9 November 2011, 12:30-2:00pm (ET): Free NFPA Webinar on NFPA 80, Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance. Sponsored by DHI, FDAI, Door Security & Safety Foundation & Intertek. Register here.

16 November 2011, 2:00pm (ET): Free SFPE Webinar on Mass Notification sponsored by Honeywell. Register here.

29 November 2011, 12:30-2:00pm (ET): Free NFPA Webinar on Code Compliance for Healthcare Facilities. Sponsored by Koffel Associates. Register here.

8 December 2011, 12:30-2:00pm (ET): Free NFPA Webinar on Smart Grid and NFPA Electrical Safety Codes and Standards. Sponsored by the Fire Protection Research Foundation. Register here.

12-14 December 2011: NFPA Fire and Life Safety Conference in Orlando, FL. Details here.

2011-2012 Nominating Committee Report

Andrew Woodward — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:59:18 GMT

On behalf of the Nominating Committee, Andrew Woodward, P.E. (Immediate Past President) has submitted the following recommendations for election to the positions indicated below for the 2011-2012 Chapter year.

President
Edward Orazine, P.E., Rolf Jensen & Associates

First Vice President (Program)
Seth Sienkiewicz, P.E., FM Global

Second Vice President (Membership)
Kevin LaMalva, P.E., Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger

Treasurer
Dana Haagensen P.E., Massachusetts Department of Fire Services

Secretary
Christopher Lynch, P.E., Rolf Jensen & Associates

Directors (two year terms)
Ed Ledoux, BR+A (second year)
Ted Dow, Hughes Associates (second year)
Tracy Golinveaux, National Fire Protection Association (first year)
Andrew Neviackas, P.E. Arup Fire (first year)

Scholarship Committee
Kevin Cox, Firepro, Inc. (chair)
Amanda Kimball, P.E., Arup Fire
Jeffrey Paoletti, FM Global

As current President of the Chapter, Jeffrey DeMaine, P.E. will automatically assume the position of Immediate Past President, holding responsibility for nominations for the 2012-2013 chapter year.

As required by the Chapter-By-Laws, this report is being submitted at least thirty (30) days prior to the Chapter’s Annual Meeting and will be presented to vote by all members in good standing at the Annual Meeting on Monday, May 2, 2011. As per Section 11.2.2 of the Chapter Constitution, “nomination of any eligible candidate may be made by any Chapter Member for election to any office, if the candidate’s name and proposed office are submitted in writing to the Secretary seven (7) days prior to the Annual Meeting, together with the signatures of five (5) members of the Chapter.”

The official 2011/2012 Nominating Committee Report is available for download.

Educational Opportunities - Carbon Monoxide Codes and Legislation

Jeffrey DeMaine — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:55:39 GMT

This is an opportunity for the SFPE membership to hear about the code changes being proposed for NFPA 720 and other NFPA codes that deal with Carbon Monoxide detectors.

The program has been developed by AFAA - New England. The speaker is Richard Roberts, Industry Affairs Manager for System Sensor/Honeywell Life Safety.

Date/Time: 12/1/2010 5pm - 9pm

Place: Four Points Sheraton, Norwood, MA

Cost: $45 for Members / $55 for Non-Members

New SFPE Fellows from the New England Chapter

Jeffrey DeMaine — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:13:30 GMT

During SFPE International's Annual Meeting in New Orleans on October 3-5, 2010, three members of the New England Chapter attained the status of SFPE Fellows:

Nicholas A. Dembsey, Ph.D., P.E.

Beth A. Tubbs, P.E.

Jeffrey S. Tubbs, P.E.

Please join me in congratulating them.

Improvements to AHJ Program

Andrew Woodward — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 13:30:24 GMT

The New England Chapter of SFPE has recently improved our Authorities Having Jurisdiction program to streamline the registration process for eligible individuals. This program will continue to be open to current municipal building and fire officials throughout New England. We will also continue to provide our dinner meetings free of charge to these officials as funds are available. Additional information on our AHJ program is available on our website.

Please help the Chapter by forwarding this notice to AHJs and encourage them to sign up free of charge on our website to receive event email notices. If you receive our emails and are a current municipal building or fire official in New England, please send us an email and we will change your membership level so that you will be able to receive special event pricing for our upcoming events.

The Board would like to thank you for your assistance with this Chapter initiative.

2nd Annual A.L. Brown Golf Outing

Amanda Kimball — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:05:13 GMT

Our 2nd Annual A.L. Brown Golf Outing held on September 10th was a success raising approximately $3500 for the scholarship! We would like to thank all of our sponsors and golfers. We had 64 registered golfers this year compared to 50 last year, so it is a good sign of things to come. We hope that everyone had a great time - we know that we did! Our sponsors were: Kidde Fire Systems, Fenwal Protection Systems, Chemetron Fire Systems, Marioff North America, AIR Intelligence, The Protectowire Co, Robert Benedetti, Hughes Associates, Norel Service, Xtralis, SimplexGrinnell, Arup, Fike Alarm Systems, Tyco, and FM Global.

We would like to congratulate our winning golf team: Mike Smith, Joe Paier, Carl Koslowski, and John Crean!

Our second place team was: Seth Sienkiewicz, Jerry Parker, Adam Cormier, and Will Briggs. Congratulations!

Third place went to Jeff DeMaine, Peter Brooks, Mike Coleman, and Jeff Cambell. Congratulations!

NFSA Meeting including Technical Program on Antifreeze Sprinkler Systems

Jeffrey DeMaine — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:20:10 GMT

As part of an effort to keep the membership up to date with other technical topics, I would like to let you know of a technical program from the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA).

NFSA will have a dinner program on September 29, 2010. The program is titled "Fire Sprinkler Antifreeze System Update" by Kenneth E. Isman, P.E.

Time Starting at 5:30 pm

Location Christina's Fireside Grill, 2 Washington Street, Route 1, Foxboro, MA 02035

Cost $40.00 per person

For more information on the speaker, the topic, and how to attend, please see the attached document below.

nfsa mtg sept 29th.pdf

Upcoming Events / Reminders

Jeffrey DeMaine — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:37:58 GMT

As we are in between our regular monthly meetings, I would like to take the opportunity to reminder you about our upcoming events.

The Second Annual AL Brown Scholarship Golf Outing will be on September 10, 2010 at Cypian Keyes in Boylston, MA. Space is still available including sponsorship opportunities.

Due to conficts with the SFPE International Annual Meeting, our first meeting is September 27, 2010 at the Four Points Sheraton in Norwood, MA.

Finally, please renue your membership as it provides the Chapter with much of its revenue to cover the yearly costs.

Hope to see everyone either at the Golf Outing or the first Meeting.

Passing of James O'Regan

Andrew Woodward — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:35:00 GMT

NEC-SFPE past president James F. O'Regan, 89, of Westborough, passed away peacefully on Saturday, March 20, 2010 surrounded by his loving family.

His funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, March 24, at 10:00 A.M. in St. Luke the Evangelist Church, 70 West Main St., Westborough. Burial will follow in St. Luke's Cemetery. Relatives and friends are invited to attend calling hours on Tuesday, March 23, from 4 to 7 P.M. at the Britton-Summers Funeral Home, 4 Church St., Westborough.

A complete obituary is available online.

2010-2011 Nominating Committee Report

Andrew Woodward — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:02:34 GMT

On behalf of the Nominating Committee, Ronald Melucci, P.E. (Immediate Past President) has submitted the following recommendations for election to the positions indicated below for the 2010-2011 Chapter year.

President
Jeff DeMaine, P.E., Fire Risk Management, Inc.

First Vice President (Program)
Edward Orazine, P.E., Rolf Jensen & Associates

Second Vice President (Membership)
Amanda Kimball, P.E., Arup Fire

Treasurer
Dana Haagensen P.E., Massachusetts Department of Fire Services

Secretary
Kevin LaMalva, Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger

New Directors
Ed Ledoux, BR+A
Ted Dow, Hughes Associates
Christopher Lynch, P.E., Rolf Jensen & Associates

Scholarship Committee
Kevin Cox, Firepro, Inc. (chair)
Russ Deubler, P.E., Hartford Steam Boiler
Jeffrey Paoletti, FM Global

As current President of the Chapter, Andrew Woodward, P.E. will automatically assume the position of Immediate Past President, holding responsibility for nominations for the 2011-2012 chapter year. Seth Sienkiewicz, FM Global, will serve another term as Director. Kevin Cox, Firepro, Inc. will assume the position of Scholarship Committee Chair.

As required by the Chapter-By-Laws, this report is being submitted at least thirty (30) days prior to the Chapter’s Annual Meeting and will be presented to vote by all members in good standing at the Annual Meeting. As per Section 11.2.2 of the Chapter Constitution, “nomination of any eligible candidate may be made by any Chapter Member for election to any office, if the candidate’s name and proposed office are submitted in writing to the Secretary seven (7) days prior to the Annual Meeting, together with the signatures of five (5) members of the Chapter.”

The official 2010/2011 Nominating Committee Report is available for download.

Upcoming MA BBRS Meeting on Residential Sprinklers

Andrew Woodward — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:59:54 GMT

The subcommittee report on one and two family residential sprinklers will be discussed and possibly reported out with a recommendation to the full BBRS Board on March 9th. This is the first step in the process as the new 1 & 2 family residential code will soon begin to be revised.

The BBRS Meeting will be Tuesday, March 9th, from Noon to 1 p.m. Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts (FCAM) is presenting a white paper outlining the Association's position on the installation of residential sprinkler systems in new construction one and two family residences.

The meeting will be at the Wellesley National Guard Armory.

Directions:
Traveling toward the West on Route 9, Minuteman Lane is 1800 feet from Route 128 (95)
On the right. Traveling East, make “U” turn at the lights 800 feet before Route 128.
Minuteman Lane is 1200 feet toward the West.
Pull into the parking lot and enter through the side door DO NOT USE THE FRONT DOOR.

Greater Atlanta Chapter Hosts 6th Annual Fire Safety Conference

Andrew Woodward — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:01:03 GMT

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers Greater Atlanta Chapter will host their Sixth Annual Fire Safety Conference in Duluth, GA. For additional information and registration information is available at https://sfpeatlanta.org/events_conference.htm.

Mid Year Chapter Update

Andrew Woodward — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:49:39 GMT

Our new website and online membership management software has been available to the public for nearly six months. Over the past six months, we have had 950 visitors to our website, 2,150 total visits, and 11,000 pages have been viewed. We have also processed 173 membership applications, renewals and 131 event registrations.

We are five months into our fiscal year and currently have 175 active members. We will be continuing to contact and assist members with their annual membership renewal. By comparison, over the past three years our membership numbers have been between 200 and 220 by the end of the year. We expect our membership numbers to be slightly above average for this year. We will continue to encourage any of our 482 contacts that are not currently members to join the Chapter.

So far this year’s event attendance is good. For the October meeting, there were 42 attendees and the November meeting had 68 attendee. By comparison, last year we had 34 registered for the October meeting and 38 for the November meeting. This upward trend is an improvement and shows the strength of our Chapter.

In the months ahead, we will be unveiling a member’s only section of our website. Features of this area will include a member directory. Prior to deployment of the member directory, we will send a notice to remind members to review their privacy settings to protect their identity.

Thank you for your continued support!

Upcoming Events AFAA-NE and ASSE-GBC

Andrew Woodward — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:02:37 GMT

The Automatic Fire Alarm Association of New England will be hosting a discussion on the changes to the 2010 edition of NFPA 72. The presentation will be Thursday, November 12th at 5pm. The presentation will be by Wayne Moore of Hughes Associates and Tom Hammerberg the President of AFAA National. Additional information is available on the AFAA-NE website.

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Greater Boston Chapter (GBC) is holding a tehcnical meeting on Wednesday, November 18th at 5:30pm regarding fire damper regulations. The presentation will be by Joe Wioncek of Freeman Air. Additional information is available on the ASSE-GBC website.

NEC Receives Gold & Supports Education & Scientific Foundation

Andrew Woodward — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:14:12 GMT

At the SFPE Professional Development Conference and Exposition, the New England Chapter presented the SFPE Educational & Scientific Foundation with $800. The funds will be used to support the foundations mission, "To advance the science and practice of Fire Protection Engineering internationally, by advocating and supporting engineering research, technology transfer and education".

Also, at the Chapter Senate meeting the New England Chapter received the Gold Chapter excellence award. Ronald Melucci completed the evaluation form documenting the contributions of our members. The Board thanks Ron for all your hard work on the evaluation form.

Scholarship Awards

Andrew Woodward — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:19:15 GMT

At the October meeting on Monday, October 5, 2009 the New England Chapter of the SFPE awarded $7,000 in scholarships to five students. The recipient of the A.L. Scholarship was Richard Emberley, a Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) student. Additional $1,000 scholarships where awarded to Brandon Finzel and Tracy Golinveaux at WPI, Cathleen Childers at the University of Maryland, and Shawn Mahoney at the University of New Haven.

These scholarships were funded by the proceeds from our annual seminar in March and the raffles conducted during our monthly meeting. The chapter would like to acknowledge the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) for their generous donations of NFPA publications that are raffled as prizes during the monthly meetings.

Scholarship applications will be on our website and distributed to colleges offering a fire protection program in November with applications due January 31, 2010. Scholarship recipients will be announced at the May 2010 meeting and awarded in October 2010.

Golf Tournament

Andrew Woodward — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:30:14 GMT

In September, we held our first annual SFPE-NEC Golf Tournament to benefit the A.L. Brown Scholarship and we are pleased to announce that it was a success raising approximately $3600 for the scholarship! We would like to thank all of our sponsors and golfers who braved the weather conditions. We hope that everyone had a great time - we know that we did! Our sponsors were: Siemens, enGauge Inc., Fenwal Protection Systems / AirSense, Marioff, Norel Service, Rolf Jensen & Associates, WPI Department of Fire Protection Engineering, The Protectowire Co., Robert Benedetti, Xtralis, Fike Alarm Systems, The Pappas Company, and SimplexGrinnell.

We would like to congratulate our winning golf team: Jeff DeMaine, Thomas Garbedian, Peter Brooks, and Ron DeMaine!

Winning Team: Ron DeMaine, Jeff DeMaine, Thomas Garbedian, and Peter Brooks

We also had two teams tie for second place: Team 1 - Lance Harry, Carla Pizzarello, Mike Beatrice, and J.J. Schoenrock; Team 2 - Mike Theriault, Ralph Tiede, Dave Hague, and John Dellogono. The longest drive winner was Peter Brooks and the closest to the pin winner was Chad Binette.

Second Place Team: Mike Beatrice, Lance Harry, J.J. Schoenrock, and Carla Pizzarello

Second Place Team: Dave Hague, Mike Theriault, John Dellogono, and Ralph Tiede

June Board Meeting

Andrew Woodward — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:50:26 GMT

On June 17th the board held its first meeting of the 2009-2010 chapter year. This year should be a very interesting year for our chapter and we hope to increase our attendance at upcoming chapter events. The board is trying several new initiatives including a golf tournament, a new technology night, and the changeover to an integrated online management system.

Our program chair, Jeff DeMaine (program@sfpe-newengland.org), is working on developing the fall program and potential topics including mass notification, home sprinkler systems, seismic bracing, sprinkler pipe corrosion, and the fire protection issues relating to green technology. The board approved an increase in the price differential for guests from $5 to $10 to be more in line with our current chapter dues. With the previous price differential, it was less expensive to pay the differential for all monthly meetings than to join the chapter. This price difference helps support the A.L. Brown scholarship; therefore, we voted to increase the differential.

Our membership renewal process began June 15th with your first membership renewal notice being distributed by email. Additional reminder emails will be distributed on July 15th and August 1st. We will not be mailing invoices for membership dues this year. In accordance with our by-laws if you have not paid by August 15th, your membership will be considered inactive and you will not be able to receive the member only pricing for upcoming events. Your membership dues pay for the chapter administration and the costs for students and AHJs to attend our meetings for free. As always, free memberships are available to full time students. If you have any membership related questions, please contact the membership chair, Ed Orzine (membership@sfpe-newengland.org).

Financially, the chapter was very strong last year and the online meeting registrations improved the cash flow. Last chapter year we had a total income of $41,353.80 and total expenses of $45,993.94 for a loss of $4,640.14. Since our chapter year is June to May, we paid several expenses last year that occurred in the previous 2008-2009 chapter year, which had a $19,000 net profit. Over the past two years, we had a net income of $14,400 showing the strength of our chapter.

The golf committee has been busy since last winter working on organizing our first annual golf tournament that will be held on Friday, September 11th at Blackstone National Golf Club. The registration fee will be $130 per golfer and will include breakfast, 18 holes of golf, a cart with GPS, and lunch. We are also soliciting prizes and companies to sponsor this event. If you are interested in registering or becoming a sponsor, please visit the event webpage for details. Like all of our events, all of the proceeds will be used for scholarships or deposited into the scholarship fund.

At the meeting, we voted to not pursue a new contract with the Engineering Center who previously provided management services for the chapter. We will instead be using a web service as a management tool, which provides access for all board members and manages the day to day membership renewals and event registrations with minimal intervention from the board. For example, no intervention is required for renewing members that pay online by credit card. Another important feature is the ability for members to review and update their contact information, which we hope will improve the strength of our membership by keeping up to date information. In addition, our address has changed due to the management change, so please update your records.

Our future board meetings will review and improve the AHJ program, prepare for the scholarship application process, revamp the corporate sponsorship program, consider filing for 501(c)3 status, and discuss the best method to handle the numerous requests that the board receives for job postings.

Have a great summer and I hope to see you at the golf tournament or one of the meetings in the fall. If you have any concerns or questions about the chapter, please do not hesitate to contact me by email at president@sfpe-newengland.org or phone (617) 349-9295. Thank you for your continued support.

Achievements & Next Year

Andrew Woodward — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:23:27 GMT

The 2008-2009 chapter year for the New England Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (NEC-SFPE) that ended May 31st was spent preparing for some significant changes to how the chapter is administrated. The past year was very successful for the chapter with high attendance at the monthly meetings and a record number of 95 attendees at our annual seminar. In October, we will be awarding $7,000 in scholarships to five students and have transferred $5,000 to help replenish the A.L. Brown Scholarship Fund.

LAST YEAR’S ACHIEVEMENTS
This past chapter year we used an on-line shopping cart service to secure your credit card information and facilitate meeting and seminar registrations. While this system made it easier and more flexible for our members to register for events, it did not provide an integrated on-line system that managed the membership and event registrations. By increasing the number of on-line credit card transactions, our cash flow was improved and the time required to perform the financial management of the chapter was reduced.

Last winter we investigated several options to integrate the management of our membership and event registration. The board decided that an on-line service would meet our needs and be the most cost effective solution. Over the course of the past several months, we have reviewed our membership records and collected updated e-mail addresses for most of our members including those that we have lost touch with in the past few years. We hope this initiative will reduce our management costs by 85% and the cost savings will be used to provide additional financial support to the A.L Brown Scholarship Fund.

OUR NEW WEBSITE AND ON-LINE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Our new website will allow you to change your contact information, pay your dues, and register for an event at any time. We will continue to accept MasterCard, VISA, American Express, and Discover credit card payments and we have added PayPal payments. All payment information is securely transmitted and encrypted for your safety.

We will continue to accept check payments. When renewing your membership or registering for an event, select the manual payment method during the transaction process. Once you confirm your registration, an e-mail will be sent with information on where you should be mailing your payment. You may also pay with an electronic check with a PayPal account that is linked to your checking account.

Please take a few minutes to explore our new website, setup a password, and verify your contact information. Details on how to how to setup a password can be found below. If you have any problems please send an email to info@sfpe-newengland.org. Note that you must be logged in to renew your membership and receive member only pricing for events.

How to setup a password to our new website:
1. To setup a password, please visit http://www.sfpe-newengland.org/Common/Password/ForgottenPasswordRequest.aspx, enter your email address, and click submit. You should receive an e-mail with a link where you set your password.
2. Log in to your account by entering your e-mail and password and clicking the Login button.
3. Please take a minute to review the information that we have on file by clicking the 'View profile' link on the left side. If you need to modify the information, click the 'Edit profile' button at the top.

THIS UPCOMING YEAR
As noted in previous correspondence, this coming year all chapter communication will be distributed by e-mail from the email address info@sfpe-newengland.org, please add this email address to your safe sender list. In the middle of June, you should be receiving your first reminder that your annual membership dues are due August 1st. Dues will remain steady at $40 for the upcoming chapter year.

On September 11th, we will hold our first annual NEC-SFPE golf tournament at Blackstone National Golf Club in Sutton, MA. Registration information will be distributed this summer. If you are interested in sponsoring a hole or donating a raffle/auction item, you can contact the golf committee (golf@sfpe-newengland.org).

We will continue to hold our regular dinner meetings on the first Monday of October, November, December, February, March, and May. Our annual seminar will continue to be held in March and in April we will hold a field trip to a location of interest to our members, similar to the tour of the FM Global Research Campus last year.

We will begin the planning process for these upcoming events at our board meeting on June 17th and meeting topic suggestions are always welcome. Please e-mail the First Vice President, Jeff DeMaine (program@sfpe-newengland.org) with your ideas.

Updated contact information for specific board members is available online at www.sfpe-newengland.org/ExecBoard.aspx.

Thank you for your continued support of NEC-SFPE and I hope to see you at an upcoming chapter event.