I remember attending my first BCxA conference, held in San Francisco back in April 2006. I had been with my current company just over two years, and while we had close to 250 employees at the time, mostly engineers, I was the only engineer who performed commissioning services. I was excited to attend the conference so I could hear from the best minds in the industry and come back home with a deeper technical background and a stronger sense of commissioning culture.
What I did not expect to happen was to meet so many extraordinary individuals who were genuinely interested in my background, so willing to listen and offer guidance. The relationships I have fostered within the Building Commissioning Association over the years are what have brought me back to the conference year after year. They have driven me to stay involved in this organization, making stops along the way in the local Northeast Chapter, the Building Commissioning Certification Board, and on the Membership Committee, among others – and now as your President.
We don’t know what the future holds, especially as we start this new year, but there is cause for optimism. In 2021, we will be balancing energy efficiency measures with good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). These two individually critical issues haven’t always been linked together but are all too familiar to the BCxA members as part of our daily routines. We will need to find a way for it all to work together, in protection of our health and well-being.
Change is coming – due to many factors like the economy, the need for COVID safety measures, and the ever-changing environment – and we need to continue to adapt to these changing regulations and policies with responses that make sense and benefit our membership.
I am excited about the work our Advocacy Committee has been doing these past few months leading into 2021. Our focus has typically been on driving national recognition of Commissioning Best Practices, but we are transitioning more locally, also – through help of the membership and our Advocacy Committee.
I am excited about record member growth these past two years. We will continue developing our current membership and growing our market presence along with the next generation of members to strengthen the overall industry workforce and help with the growing need for technically-savvy commissioning providers from all backgrounds and geographical locations.
I am excited about the opportunity to have an in-person conference in Toronto later this year. Sure, it’s optimistic, and you know we are already plotting out different backup scenarios just in case.
But I am holding out hope to reconnect with the people who have unknowingly guided me to become a better commissioning provider. I am holding out hope to meet someone coming to the conference alone, for the first time, looking for a reason to make a new career out of commissioning — just like I was 15 years ago. I am holding out hope to share a drink with friends whom I only get to see once or twice a year (hoping to eliminate Zoom happy hours in 2021). And I’m holding out hope that I can get to see the New York Rangers ice hockey team come in and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, so I can rub it in to all of my friends and colleagues north of the border.
I’ve asked myself, “how can we be a part of the solution in 2021?” What if there was an industry of professionals that checks and confirms building systems are working? That these systems are clean? Efficient? What if the world had something like that?
I think you know the answer. We already do. We’re called Commissioning Providers. And the BCxA is the only organization in the world that exclusively caters to us.
Let’s get to work!
Ryan Lean, PE, CCP, EBCP, LEED AP, WELL AP
President, Building Commissioning Association