IIAR staff and IIAR’s many volunteer committees were hard at work throughout 2024 and have strengthened the membership offerings, provided valuable education, and furthered the organization’s mission through advocacy, work with regulatory agencies and new partnerships

INDUSTRY OUTREACH

Gary Schrift, president of IIAR, said the association has been focused on outreach. “We’ve been taking the tools that we developed, standards, our guidelines and our training programs and making them broader and more well known to the industry, both within the U.S. and abroad,” he said. “We have also been focused on making connections with other organizations, including those in academia and government, and the hope is that we can bring all groups even closer together.”

As part of that outreach, IIAR has entered into memorandums of understanding with several agencies, including the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología, Normalización y Metrología (INTN) in Paraguay, the International Institute of Refrigeration in Paris, France, and the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council in the U.S.

The number of scholarships IIAR offered for the 2024-2025 fiscal year increased, connecting more students with the industry. IIAR issued 12 new and seven returning scholarships.

MEMBERSHIP ENHANCEMENTS

Staff continued their focus on creating value for members. Membership enhancements included adding more videos and classes. Plus, IIAR offered 12 webinars in 2024, took part in three Latin American educational conferences and exhibitions and offered inperson IIAR ANR Certificate Course Training at RETA.

The association launched the Refrigerant Evaluator Tool to allow users to compare different refrigerants. “The Refrigerant Evaluator Tool was done in record time by several committees—the Education Committee, Research Committee, the Marketing Committee, and others. It’s online for the world to see,” Schrift said. Staff also updated the Natural Refrigerant Directory website. The directory now includes an advanced search function, making it easier for someone to locate a natural refrigerant expert by location, product or service, or type of company. “We’re working to provide more member value without any increases in costs,” Schrift said.

CONFERENCE CHANGES

Education is a top priority for IIAR, and the association has made several changes to its conference, doubling the number of session programs and creating tracks, including a basic natural refrigeration track for end users and students who are not experts in the field.

“With the conference enhancements, we listened to our surveys and made changes based on the feedback we’ve gotten,” Schrift said.