President's Update - November 2023

It was great to connect with those who could attend our first two events in the 2023/24 ASHRAE year. We look forward to more great events this year. This year’s ASHRAE president is Ginger Scoggins and her theme is “Challenge Accepted: Tackling the Climate Crisis”. We will be looking to involve aspects of the ASHRAE theme and how that effects the building design, planning, construction, and operation into our meeting topics and tours. Our next meeting in November will be discussing data centres, their trends and the energy demands that have come with the increasing digital world. We are actively looking for a tour location in early 2024, if you have any suggestions, please reach out to a board member.

We look forward to seeing you at our meetings.

 Mike Cottreau

SAC-ASHRAE President

President's Update - January 2023

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday break!

I would like to thank everyone who came out and participated in our first December charity event.  We managed to raise a total of $3,375 for the charity MindFuel, to provide STEM outreach to our youth and support diversity in our field. I’d like to recognize everyone who donated auction items:

ESC, Aqua Air, ME Sales, Hatch, Johnson Controls, Smith + Andersen, AME, E.H. Price, Erich Binder, Tim McGinn, Williams Engineering, Engineered Air, Merlin Instrumentation, Remedy Engineering, Strathcona Mechanical, George Niksic, Morrison Hershfield

I’m excited to say that we have a lot of great meetings coming up, including topics on refrigeration, diversity in ASHRAE, and the disconnect between design, construction, and O&M. We also have some special events to look forward to, such as our curling bonspiel, Lobsterfest, and our annual golf tournament.  Please keep an eye on our website and sign up for our emails to be notified of new and upcoming events. I hope to see you at the next meeting!

Should you have any questions, please reach out through the contact form on the website and someone from the board will be in touch with you.

Thanks,

Rick Westover

SAC-ASHRAE President (Delegate)

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President's Update - September 2022

Welcome back everyone!

I am excited to be your Chapter President this year and bring to you our first in-person site tour since 2019. We will be touring the University of Calgary’s MacKimmie Tower for our first meeting in September.

Your board of governors are working hard to plan the rest of the year’s events, looking at incorporating tours, important technical topics, and social activities to bring everyone in the HVAC community together. This year’s presidential theme is “Securing Our Future” and we are planning several activities around this theme, so please check the website regularly for upcoming events.

Should you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, please reach out through the contact form on the website and someone from the board will be in contact with you.

I’m looking forward to a great year and connecting with you at this year’s events!

Thanks everyone!

Rick Westover

SAC-ASHRAE President (Delegate)

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President's Update - January 2022

I hope you all had a lovely holiday break and stayed warm during the very long cold snap.

With the new variant making its way through our city, we have decided to pivot our in-person dinner event to webinar style event for January. We will evaluate again in February and how best to keep our activities going.

We are excited to announce some of the event planned for our 2nd half of the year! Starting off January with Tim Wentz presentation; Back to the Future; Our Industry in 2030. Curious to know what he sees in his crystal ball? Well don’t delay and sign up to get your link to the presentation for Jan 18th! Then in February our local member and DL, Greg Scrivener will present a case study of Fernie Arena Accident; where he participated in the investigation.

Now we still can’t confirm if our annual bonspiel can go ahead as planned yet, this will depend on health regulations and Covid cases at that time. Please check in again on the website in February. In March we will have Karine Leblanc, DL, presenting Everyone Communicates, Few Connect. She is a great speaker and not to be missed!

If you have any questions or concerns or would even be interested in volunteering your time and joining the BOG for next year, please reach out to any of your fellow SAC ASHRAE Board Members or email through the website under the Contact us tab;

Saron Zarai - SAC-ASHRAE President (Delegate)

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President's Update - August 2021

Welcome back SAC ASHRAE members!

I am excited to kick start this year as your Chapter President, and our first in person activity with the Golf tournament in September.

The amazing volunteers on the board is already hard at work planning out this year. As we slowly return to normal we hope to be able to enjoy some of our past favorite activated together. This year presidential theme is ‘Feed the Roots’, and we are planning several activities around this very theme so stay tuned.

I would like to thank you all for your continuous support, and should you have any questions, please reach out through the contact form on the website and I will direct your question to the board so we can address your questions.

Looking forward to a great year and connecting with you at our monthly meetings.

Thanks!

SAC-ASHRAE President (Delegate)

Saron Zerai

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President's Update - April 2021

Hello fellow SAC ASHRAE members! I hope this message finds you all doing well, happy, and healthy!

Unfortunately we will not be able to dine on Lobster and enjoy each other’s company at the Annual Lobsterfest this year, but we are very hopeful in person events will start to happen again soon!

With that in mind, we have re-booked the Annual SAC-ASHRAE Golf Tournament for September 2021. We have a few more events planned for the last few months of this campaign year as well, so keep an eye out for updates on our website.

I would like to thank you all for your support throughout the year, and should you have any questions, please reach out to me at david.lamarre@exelsystems.ca, and I will direct your question to the board so we can address your questions.

Thanks everyone!

David Lamarre - President (Delegate)

President's Update - December 2020

Hello fellow SAC ASHRAE members! I hope this message finds you all doing well, happy, and healthy!

I would like to share this year’s SAC ASHRAE budget with you.

This is going to be a very challenging year, but we have an amazing board that has some great ideas to pull us through the year.

Should you have any questions about the budget, please reach out to me at david.lamarre@exelsystems.ca, and I will direct your question tot he board so we can address your questions.

Thanks everyone!

David Lamarre - President (Delegate)

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President's Update - November 2020

Hello fellow SAC ASHRAE members! I hope this message finds you all doing well, happy, and healthy!

SAC ASHRAE is proud to announce our association with BUILDEX Alberta! Delivered 100% virtually in 2020 as part of Buildings Week, this national platform will virtually connect 70,000+ design, construction and real estate professionals across Canada. Visit www.buildexalberta.com to learn more.

Please visit www.buildexalberta.com for more information.

Thanks everyone!

David Lamarre - President (Delegate)

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President's Update - September 2020

Hello fellow SAC ASHRAE members! I hope this message finds you all doing well, happy, and healthy!

First off, I would like to provide a warm welcome to the new board members, and a big welcome back to the returning board members. There have been a few changes made to the various chairs this year, (as well as a few vacant positions!), so for the first meeting of the year, we will be introducing the current board. Should any of you be interested in getting further involved in ASHRAE, please reach out to me, and we can discuss the opportunities further.

One big change that happened over the summer is to the position of Chapter Administrator. I would like to welcome Doreen from Books-b4-Breakfast who has joined us. She has hit the ground running.We would like to thank Kathy Habke for her many years of service, and wish her all the best in the years to come!

Now, in regards to our upcoming monthly meetings, even though the province of Alberta is allowing social gatherings of up to fifty (50) people, I am not certain that we would be able to safely host a well attended and meaningful meeting in coming months. For the month of September, we have decided to host an online meeting to introduce this years board members and provide our budget for approval.

Moving forward, we are planning a number of online webinars. Check our website regularly for updates!

Should you have any ideas, questions, or concerns, please reach out and we can discuss in further detail.

Thanks everyone!

David Lamarre - President (Delegate)

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July / Golf Tournament Update

Hello SAC ASHRAE Members and Non-Members,

It is great disappointment, that we as a Board of Governors and Tournament Planning Committee, have decided to cancel this year’s SAC ASHRAE Golf Tournament.

Due to obvious concerns with group gatherings, we would have had to make some drastic changes compared to other years to keep it going. Because of this, we think it best to cancel and start planning an even better tournament for 2021.

We would like to thank all the sponsors who graciously stepped up to sponsor this year’s tournament and hope that their support continues forward to next year.

If you have any questions, please reach out to myself or any of the BOG Members.

Stay Safe & Well,

Kyle Shummoogum, P. Eng.

SAC ASHRAE Chapter President (Delegate)

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June Update

Good Day SAC ASHRAE Members and Non-Members,

Firstly, I hope that you and all those close to you are doing well and are healthy. We are in unprecedented times, and the SAC ASHRAE Campaign is not an exception to the many changes and cancellations we have faced over the past couple months.

As it is unsafe to gather in large groups (in person), we have had to cancel or indefinitely postpone all remaining events for the campaign year, which would have ran through the end of May 2020. As we do not know when the regulations will change on gatherings and people will be comfortable to do so again, the only remaining event that has a definite rescheduled date is the Annual SAC ASHRAE Golf Tournament. The new scheduled date is Thursday, August 20th, 2020.

In the coming weeks, we will reach out to the regular sponsors to gauge interest for the tournament. Please watch out for updates through email and on the SAC ASHRAE Website!

As other Chapters have planned some webinars during this time of isolation and working from home, we may try and see if there are any interested speakers to do the same through the SAC ASHRAE Chapter. If you have a speaker in mind, please contact our CTTC Chairs.

Please see letter attached from Society President, Darryl Boyce on ASHRAE’s developed proactive guidance to help address COVD-19 concerns in our industry. Please share with whomever you wish.

Stay Well,

Kyle Shummoogum, P. Eng.

Chapter President (Delegate)

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March Event Cancellations

In order to keep our members and volunteers safe in light of the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the SAC-ASHRAE board of governors has decided to cancel this month's technical seminar as well as the evening dinner meeting.

Thank you for your understanding, and we will keep you all informed as to when our next event will take place.

Thank you,

Kyle Shummoogum

SAC ASHRAE President (Delegate)

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Happy New Year SAC ASHRAE Members!

Happy New Year SAC ASHRAE Members!

A new decade for the Southern AB Chapter brings more great events and lots of plans through the Spring of 2020.

Apologies on our behalf that we did not hold a Christmas Event as our neighbours to the North have done in past years. It turns out there wasn’t a huge response for attendance when it was proposed in our Board of Governors meeting. Perhaps we could try again this year, but in the meantime we have some events planned in the next few months. Firstly, we will kick off the second-half of the campaign year with a tour of 707 Fifth Tower (Manulife Place) on January 21st, followed by dinner at venue that is new to us: Barcelona Tavern. Tickets are almost sold out, please sign-up soon if you are interested. February will see us bring last year Society President: Sheila Hayter who speak at the lunch meeting and will also be joining us for the annual Women in ASHRAE social event in the evening. Also in February, we will have our annual local Curling Bonspiel, please check the website for details on this and to sign up your foursome! March will see a technical session course with a DL presenting a topic on High Performance Building Design. Please see the CTTC section for more details on the topic and plan for March.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns or would even be interested in volunteering your time and joining the BOG for next year, please reach out to any of your fellow SAC ASHRAE Board Members.

Kyle Shummoogum – President

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A Great Year Ahead

Hello Fellow SAC ASHRAE Members!

I am pleased to be your Chapter Delegate/President for this 2019-2020 Campaign Year. As always, I have a great Board of Governors and volunteers this year, offering their support to help organize bigger and better events for you to attend!

This year will see a short reprieve from the Tradeshow which we hope to offer again next year. Even though this was a success and we had very good vendor turnout, we thought it would be best to hold it every second year and alternate with our friends in Northern AB. Instead we plan on having a Technical Seminar put on by a Technical Speaker from ASHRAE. Please stay tuned to the website for more details.

September saw our first tour at the Seton YMCA which had a great turnout. As it seems, tours seem to be the most popular events, and therefore we will try and schedule three tours this year. For the other monthly meetings we will be welcoming some very special guests and distinguished lecturers. These guests include the current Society President: Darryl Boyce and Past President Sheila Hayder.

We will continue with our partnership with SMACNA and MCA for Lobsterfest and will run our own golf tournament to be held at Elbow Springs again this year, in May. We will be continuing to have a curling bonspiel, Women in ASHRAE event and a Young Engineers in ASHRAE social event.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns or would even be interested in volunteering your time and joining the BOG for next year, please reach out to any of your fellow SAC ASHRAE Board Members.

Looking forward to a great year!

SAC-ASHRAE President

Kyle Shummoogum

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A Productive and Prosperous 2019 to All

Another year is almost gone and a new one is about to start. Thank you to all the past presidents who braved the downtown core parking and came to Saltlik for a very nice dinner. See below Historian article for more. Our last meeting of the year in November was a very well attended lunch meeting back at the Danish Canadian Club. A big thank you to our speakers, Justin Pockar (City of Calgary) & Alexander Tansowny (Dialog), who were engaging and informative. Look for a lot more discussion and changes to come to the energy code very soon.

We have a lot planned for you in the new year. Our meeting in January will be a tour of the new Central Library, which has been getting a lot of attention since it opened on November 1st. We will also be doing a wine survivor fund raiser for ASHRAE research, so dust off those old bottles and bring a colleague. February and March meetings will both be handpicked ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturers and not to be missed. Trade show booths are going quickly for our April 23rd event, and you will soon be able to sign up for our first ever Women in ASHRAE wine tasting on April 4th. See the respective articles for more information.

As the year winds to a close and we think back on our successes and plan improvements for the future, I’d like to thank everyone who has been a part of making this chapter a vibrant and growing one. Here’s to a great 2019 for all!

Dana Heller

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Preparing for Past Presidents' night

Guided by the expertise and wit of Owen Zarazun, Regan Moffat and their teams, our first tour and meeting was a great success. We had over 70 people attend the tour of the SAIT library and Co-Gen facility and enjoy a cold brew at Wild Rose after.

We are busy planning for a lively Past Presidents’ night back at the Saltlik on October 16th. More details will be coming soon.

I have also seen e-mails already about the ASHRAE Winter conference in January. This year for the first time ever it will be in the city of ASHRAE’s headquarters; Atlanta, Georgia. I’m sure they will put on a great event, so if you haven’t made it to one yet, this is the year to do it. Maybe I will run into you on the floor of the AHR!

Dana Heller

SAC-ASHRAE President

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Welcome to the 2018-2019 ASHRAE year

Hello everyone, 

As this year's president, I would like to invite you all to our first meeting and tour of the year. We will be learning about the new MRU library and CHP plant with our guides Owen Zarazun, Director, Facility Operations at MRU and Regan Moffatt, P.Eng., Principal at Smith + Andersen.

Dinner, drinks and an introduction to your new board will follow at the Wild Rose Brewery. There is no cap on attendees for this tour, but please register by September 14th so we can plan appropriately. Please join us and find out what exciting things your fellow ASHRAE members have been doing all summer. 

The amazing volunteers in our chapter have planned a packed year, which will include a trade show and technical conference, local and guest lecturers, fun events and at least one more tour. Please contact us if you have ideas on how to make your chapter more valuable to you.

Dana Heller, 2018-2019 SAC ASHRAE President

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Thanks for a great year, everyone!

Our final ASHRAE meeting has occurred and we are left with only the Lobsterfest and Golf Tournament left this year! Meeting attendance has increased significantly from last year with an average of 75 purchased tickets per event, which is a strong figure when compared to area assigned members and is a good indication that we are doing something right as a board. I would urge people to contact us should they have any suggestions or requests for future meetings themes, venues, speakers, tours, etc.

Your incoming President for next year, Dana Heller, has already recruited a board that will continue the success of the Chapter; a few of the board will be attending the upcoming CRC in Victoria to receive training for the coming year and report on the successes of this year.

I would like to thank you all for continued support of the Chapter and ASHRAE Society and I look forward to mingling as your outgoing President in the Fall.

Many thanks,

Matt Parkes

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Happy 2018!

Happy New Year! 2018 is looking to be a solid ASHRAE year; we have our sold out BIM panel discussion being held on January 16 at The Winston’s and will follow this with DL talks in February and March before closing out the year with a New Central Library tour, Lobsterfest and the Golf Tournament. We will be sending notifications for the events through our new website, which seems to be working out nicely. If you have any comments or suggestions for future meetings then please don’t hesitate to contact me or one of your other board members. I look forward to seeing you all at our events this year, all the best, Matt Parkes.

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