Big Movement in Process

A few months ago I briefly mentioned a glazier certification movement and so this week after fielding some questions from interested parties, I looked into it to see what was new.  What I found was everything is still on pace and looking good.  I communicated with the program managers (John Kent and Jeff Dalaba) and they shared their excitement on the progress including having 14 companies going through the process so far and the plan of releasing the first batch of certified glaziers in July.  More information can be found at http://www.naccprogram.com 

This program could surely help companies improve themselves but more importantly improve the industry as a whole.  And as I have noted here many times (like last week on Hale Glass and their internal programs) making the industry better benefits everyone in the end.

Elsewhere….

--  Registration for GlassBuild America opened this week and expectations for the show are strong.  The floor is loaded with some amazing suppliers and the amount of innovation that will be on display will be mind blowing.  Obviously I am excited because I believe in the importance of this show (and I do work for the show too), but this year the level of exhibit is beyond any expectation.   That said… you know you are going, so get registered now and if you do it before June 25^th, you will be entered into a contest to win 4 tickets to the Braves/Blue Jays games at GlassBuild America night at the ballpark.  Good stuff.  Obviously as the show grows closer I will have more previews and insight here.

--  Follow up from last week; Scott Surma does NOT have an Apple Watch.  I am stunned.  My next guesses were Dan Plotnick and Ted Bleecker but since I did not hear from either guy I am guessing they don’t have one either… so far no one I know is fessing up to having one.

--  As an industry we get many bad raps.  One of them is that we are not great on retrofits of historic buildings.  The excuse is that the glass ruins it, because it will stand out as newer.   That has been disproven many times and now once again.  The project featured in “Great Glazing” proves that we can do so much… congrats to everyone involved on this project.  Simply awesome.

--  Welcome to one the brightest and best in the industry joining those of us who blog at Glass Magazine and on e-glass weekly.  As you surely saw last week, a post from John Wheaton appeared on GlassMagazine.com and it’s great to have him on the team.  I am a huge fan of John’s and I know his posts will be incredibly popular.  John is as dynamic and interesting as they come.

--  I read an article this week on solar paved roads.  There’s five pilot projects that are slated to happen in Idaho later this year and it will be interesting to see if the materials used work and are at all user friendly.  If this works at all, it should have a huge effect on society and also our overall energy usage.  The only bad news is this process is surely decades away from being mainstream but I have a feeling that is when we will need it the most.

--  Last this week- while in some meetings recently I made mention of a person that I was huge fan of.   At that point others in the meeting immediately jumped on me for “always complimenting everyone” and asked if I actually have negative words to say about anyone.  The main person asking has only known me for about 2 years, so they never saw me in my miserable, rip on the world mode.  I did tell them to go look at my blog in 2005 and 2006… and I actually went back and looked and my goodness was I unhinged sometimes.  While I know many wish I could unload on things like I used to, I surely never would want to go back to the maniac I was then!

LINKS of the WEEK

--  A decent run through 10 TV pet peeves.  Some legit, some petty for sure…

--  Possibly a contender for most frivolous lawsuit ever?

--  I am heavily involved in the non profit and charity world and stories like this depress me.  What went wrong with the Red Cross in Haiti?  This answers some questions…

VIDEO of the WEEK

So another movie trailer this week… this one for the newest edition in the National Lampoon Vacation series… not sure this can  top the legendary Chevy Chase one, but we’ll surely be checking it out somewhere down the line.