by Jonathan Bushman

The 2009-2010 year was a year of shaking things up a little for the Saskatoon chapter of ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers).  The ASHRAE President visited our little chapter this year.  We had a few new things with programs, tried to get PAOE points, missed the curling tournaments, talked to mechanical classes, raised money, and had a fairly young board of governors

Presidential Visit:  On January 11, 2010, ASHRAE President Gordon Holness visited the Saskatoon chapter of ASHRAE and spoke on “Sustaining Our Future by Rebuilding Our Past”.

We had two Membership Promotion / Student Nights, one in November and one in February.  For the November Student Night, we had a panel discussion with representatives from sales, design engineering, construction, and operations.  The panelists were asked for advice and about how things had changed over the HVAC industry has changed over the years and students were encouraged to ask questions.  Before the November meeting, an ASHRAE Saskatoon board member spoke to mechanical classes at the University of Saskatchewan and Kelsey SIAST (Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology), inviting them to ASHRAE.  To have an industrial or mining theme to one of our programs, Travis Harbicht, a senior mine engineer with Cameco’s McArthur River uranium mine, spoke to us in February about the refrigeration process used to freeze ground around the ore and about the mine ventilation.  Our electronic newsletter (POWUr, for Saskatoon’s Potash, Oil, Wheat and Uranium industries) was switched back to PDF form and our member-at-large started working on reviving the website.

Social Activities:  In December, the Saskatoon chapter had its annual Past Presidents’ Pool Tournament social event.  Some years, we had both a local curling bonspiel for fun and participated in the grand John Ross Curling Tournament, but this year we had neither.  (The John Ross is a curling tournament for the ASHRAE chapters in the prairies, namely Manitoba (Winnipeg), Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, and Edmonton.)  We have our annual golf tournament scheduled for June 11, 2010. 

Financials:  Unlike last year, our investments did not lose money and added a bit to the chapter’s funds.  We raised some money for ASHRAE Research Canada via 50/50 ticket draws and a golf club donation.

PAOE:  This year, the Saskatoon chapter actively pursued PAOE (President’s Award Of Excellence) Points.  So far, we have enough points to earn the PAOE designation for our chapter and have not quite made the STAR level.

Board of Governors:  We had a fairly young board of governors, with seven board members being YEA (Young Engineers in ASHRAE) members.  We switched our meeting times from a week or two before the meeting to the hour and a half before the regular meeting, gathering at the Park Town Hotel (which hosted our regular supper meetings / technical presentations).

President:  Chris Conley

Vice-President / Programs Chair:  Jonathan Bushman

Treasurer / CTTC Chair:  Andrew Thomson

Secretary:  Chris Watt

Research Promotion Chair:  Ryan MacGillivray

Membership Promotion Chair:  Colin Hilderman

Student Activities Chair:  Jonathan French

Refrigeration Chair:  Manfred Gerber

Historian:  Jack Scott

Webpage / Newsletter Editor:  Jeff Frie

Member-At-Large:  Mike Nemeth