In this February 2021 Edition of our Condenser Magazine, you will read about progress made with the California Air Resources Board, completion of the ice arena for the upcoming 2022 Olympics, an overview of research projects, and ANSI standards development…..all initiatives conducted by IIAR volunteers, members, and the organization as a whole towards furthering our mission to provide advocacy, education, and standards for the benefit of the global community in the safe and sustainable design, installation, and operation of ammonia and other natural refrigerants.

In my August 2020 and November 2020 messages, I detailed the many other advocacy, educational, research, training, guideline, and standards initiatives, with results that continue to benefit our members and the world, and to show real value created from our/ your organization!

I would be naïve to believe that IIAR is meeting the needs of everyone. Therefore, I continue to ask for input from members and non-members and ask again that you call, email, or text me to discuss any concerns or ideas to enhance or improve our organization.

In November we held our first Talk it Out virtual session, the topic was Membership Fees. This topic was suggested by one of our members and was received after a call for topics was sent to our email database. Over 20 participants provided very candid and sincere comments during an open forum and led the discussion attended by IIAR staff and some board members.

Since then, a Membership Taskforce has been formed of volunteers, staff, and Executive Board members with three goals

1. Create financial sustainability for IIAR where the organization does not have to rely on revenues from the annual conference to meet non-conference expenses
2. Create a membership structure and membership dues that promote financial sustainability while focusing on increasing membership and
3. Create member benefits that promote new memberships and retention of existing memberships. These goals will not be easy to achieve and even more difficult to measure, and such efforts have certainly been conducted in the past 50 years of our organization. But I am excited to see the results and anticipate future actions that can benefit most existing members and increase our ranks.

We are entering exciting times for natural refrigerants as companies, governments, and code bodies worldwide revisit the use of ammonia and natural refrigerants for applications once left to the many medium and high GWP and ODP refrigerants, and as countries and the private sector explore the use of ammonia as a green fuel source. Buckle up….