My last article was written during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses were shutting down along with restrictions that affected our normal routines, and ASSE was faced with the reality of conducting our Mid-Year Meeting online. I want to thank all of you who participated in the meeting – especially the ASSE International staff who worked additional hours to coordinate everything. Given the circumstances, I believe the meeting was very successful and any issues that developed were quickly resolved. It was a valuable experience, exposing us to what has now become common practice. The Board of Directors will conduct their 3rd quarter meeting online and the 2020 ASSE Annual Meeting will be held online instead of in San Diego. The dates will remain the same, Oct. 26-29, and the meetings will be open to all, free of charge. More information will be available soon at https://www.asse-plumbing.org/am20.
The one “normal” that we can always rely on is change. Today, change is happening at an accelerated pace. As new information is released, theories developed, and studies conducted, changes are made quickly to compensate. What I couldn’t do yesterday, I can do today – unless I live in a certain part of the country where I still am not allowed to do it. It can be overwhelming, but if I don’t like what I hear, I find that changing my informational resource and locating one that agrees with me helps. I’m just kidding about the previous sentence, so please don’t send letters.
Our industry is accustomed to change and our product and professional qualification standards are reviewed and updated on a regular basis. The changes may occur at a slower pace, but the new technology that is developed, and all of the relevant information, is thoroughly vetted before a decision to make a change is made. We need to continue developing new, and revising existing, standards to improve our industry and achieve our end goal of “Prevention Rather Than Cure.”
IAPMO/ASSE’s COVID-19 resources and free standards can be a useful resource. Please check out the link at: https://www.iapmo.org/code-standard-development/covid-19-resources.
I hope to see many of you soon. Stay safe and healthy.
