Monday, November 3, 2008

Why AGRSS Matters: Part I

The following took place on Friday, October 3, 2008, on State Route 1 in Spotsylvania County, Va.:

I was riding down the road catching up with my old friend, Frank Baitman, whom I’ve known since college. Frank’s gone on to have quite a career: Fulbright scholar, former VP of IBM, president of a number of multi-national companies with a broad variety of experience—quite the intelligent, experienced guy.

Frank also loves photography and, many years ago, supplemented his income while in grad school by taking pictures of auto glass installations for the magazine at which I worked. He became familiar with NAGS® numbers and pricing, parts and proper installations and the issues of auto glass safety.

As we were riding down the road, Frank asked me if the auto glass industry had changed much since his picture-taking days in the late 1980s. “Oh yes,” I replied, and explained the current dynamics of the industry, the influence of insurance companies, the rise of the mega-chains, etc. I told him there had been a number of industry shake-outs since the 1980s and the one bright spot was that those companies still in business have increased in their levels of professionalism and proficiency. The auto glass industry, I declared, had become much more professional in the past twenty years.

I’d barely completed the sentence when we were passed on the right by an old, brown sedan sporting dents and dings all over it. It had a wobbly front right side and the backseat was almost unrecognizable as it was filled with what looked like garbage up to the middle of the backlite. Attached to the back fender with some sort of handmade wood carrier was a windshield just riding along outside about 8 inches from the ground with a sign that said “AUTO GLASS” and a Virginia phone number (Note: We've removed the last four digits of the phone number from the photo.)


We pulled up behind the car and took some pictures. Frank looked over to me and said “You know, Deb, to a lot of consumers that guy is the auto glass industry.”

When I got back to my office I called the number on the sign and asked about windshield replacement. A man named Otto answered and, in broken English, told me that he could replace my windshield. He said he took all types of insurance. I specifically asked about State Farm and Erie and he said, yes, he did work for those companies.

I told Otto that I might want to come to his shop and have my windshield replaced. “No, no,” he said, “we just open. I come to you.”

“Do you have a shop?” I asked.

“We come to you. Give me your address. I be there tomorrow,” he replied.

I asked if he had certified technicians and he said yes. When I asked who they were certified by, he wanted to know why I was asking.

I said I had seen on the web that I should ask for certified techs when I had my windshield replaced.

”But we are not on the web,” Otto said. “not on the web. Don’t worry about certified. Everyone certified me.”

* * *
People occasionally ask me why I am so involved with and passionate about the AGRSS Council and what it is doing. It’s because my friend Frank is right. To many people, Otto remains the face of the auto glass industry. And the people in the professional auto glass industry who I care deeply about, for whom I have worked more than 28 years, have to compete with the Ottos of the world every day. They might even watch their insurance work go to him with pricing that only an Otto can meet. And I wonder, too, how many networks refer their work to him.

AGRSS is the best greatest hope our industry has. It’s come a long way in its ten-year existence and it has the potential for greatness. But no one is going to raise the lowest common denominator of professionalism other than our industry itself. The AGRSS conference opens in Vegas this week and it will unveil an ambitious program of self-regulation coupled with third-party validation unlike anything ever produced by an industry for itself.

It’s my hope that, in the next few years, all quality auto glass replacement companies will be AGRSS-registered so that when Frank and I ride down the road behind an auto glass truck, it will be the face of true professionalism with a strong commitment to safety.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Glasstec Leaves Questions

Though glasstec—the ginormous* bienniel glass show in Düsseldorf, Germany is now history, it left behind two questions just begging for answers. The first (and most important from a business perspective) is that of a central theme emerging from the halls, the show floor and within the industry. Next month, USGlass will provide extensive coverage that explains exactly what those themes were and why they are important. In the meantime, you can check out our coverage of the event, including extensive video, at our daily news site, www.usgnn.com.
The second question (and the one that I find more interesting from a sociological point of view) is: “What does the rest of the world think of the United States?” Well, this year, the answer to that question is in the questions that the Europeans were asking of us. glasstec 2008 proved quite an eye-opener in that respect. Just about everyone I met, from every walk of life, asked a variation of the following questions:
• Who is going to win the U.S. presidential race?
• What the heck happened to your (country’s) economy?
• You know all the world’s economic problems are your fault, don’t you?
• How are you going to fix it?
So a few thoughts on all these questions. Assuming we don’t have a 2000 election redux by the time you read this, we will have a new president. I hope we make the right decision because it is very evident to me that the whole world is not only watching, they are involved. The importance of this election to the entire world is obvious by the comments I received. And while it gives me some pride to think the U.S. is such a powerful world leader, it makes me hope we chose the right guy.
Second, the blame for the current worldwide economic situation has been placed squarely at the doorstep of the United States. We are seen as creating the problems around the globe and we are expected to fix it.
The world is interconnected as it never has been before. And every day it gets more so. Let’s hope our leaders, who ever they are, can inspire, solve problems and move us forward—for the good of the entire world.

Regards,
Deb
*For those you purists who scoff, ginormous is now a legitimate word; along with “smack down,” “crunk” and “DVR”, it entered Webster’s Dictionary last year.  But, as a Webster’s editor points out, you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Glasstec Day Two


Every day at glasstec is really two days--the business sessions from 9 a.m until 6 p.m. and the evening activities which include various receptions, dinners and the obligatory visit to the Altstadt (Old Town) area.

The center of the glasstec universe in the Old Town area is the GPD Pub. Machinery manufacturer Glaston hosts Glass Performance Days (GPD) every other year in Tampere, Finland. It rents out an Altstadt pub for the evenings of glasstec.

Though the Euro may be the currency of Germany, and U.S. Dollars still have some value, the real currency of glasstec are the drink tickets for use in the GPD pub. There is a brisk trade in GPD dollars at the hall worthy of the best black market. And the keeper of those drinks tickets, Glaston's Jorma Vitkala, is a very popular guy around here.

(Now just because I am writing about the pub --shown in photo above by Brian Pitman-, don't think I spent my whole evening there or anything like that. No sir-ee. In fact, I haven't even made it over there yet. From the sounds of it though, every one else has.) A visit to the GPD pub has become a glasstec right of passage.

Day two was filled with visits to many stands and many visitors to our stand. Russ Ebeid of Guardian stopped by and told me he had a hot story, so I plan to try and find him today. If stalk him I must, I will. Larry Johnson of Edgetech explained what it took to get permission to use a replica of a window from an a recently completed job in Abu Dhabi. The exquisite replica, at 70% the original size, sits in their booth.

AGC's stand has been very crowded, the result of their recent new product announcement, as has Glasslam's as well, which features a Rubik's cube about 50 times its original size, though the Porsche standing on glass has garnered much attention, as has glasstec's own version of the bridge to nowhere--the total glass bridge that visitors continue to walk under and over.

With two days in one glasstec leaves little time for sleeping. There will be time enough time for that on the way home.

Deb

P.S.--anyone with extra GPD drink tickets can drop them off in Hall 13, stand C73 which is, coincidentally, the USGlass stand. We will take it upon ourselves to see they get used.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Glasstec Times 20



The only thing that could overcome the intense jetlag that overtakes me on trips to Europe is the intense excitement of glasstec. The world's biggest trade fair for the glass and glazing industry is held every two years in Dusseldorf, Germany and attracts the industry from around the world. It is the show's 20th anniversary.

In addition to final stand set-up, yesterday's events included the opening ceremonies as well a number of press conferences and meetings.

One of the nicest part of glasstec for me is getting to see a number of people with whom I have acquaintance around the world, including members of the world glazing press. It's always great to see colleagues who publish glass-related magazines from other parts of the world.

The number of exhibitors at glasstec is up this year compared to 2006. It seems to me that the number of U.S. visitors, as well as those from Asia, is down. (My colleague Charles Cumpston thinks the U.S. contingent is about the same in size so we will have to wait for the final numbers to see who is right.) While a reduction in U.S. attendance would be understandable, we think the increase in glass shows in Asia might be enabling attendees from that part of the world to stay closer to home.

U.S. visitors walking the massive trade show floors (that's right, plural, think GlassBuild times 5) included Bill O'Keeffe and his group from SAFTI as well as Cliff Monroe and his colleague from Arch who stopped by our booth the first day five minutes after the show opened. Doug Canfied of Casso-Solar is exhibiting in the North American pavillion, and said he had a good day yesterday.

The weather hasn't been too bad. Monday was a beautiful day and for the show's start yesterday it was normal Dusseldorf weather--a bit rainy and overcast. But it doesn't matter much since we are not outside any way.

If you are at glasstec, please stop by our stand in Hall 13 C73. Here's a video review of Day One. More later.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Promising Start

He seemed like a nice, sincere young man, about the age a son of mine would be. So I was trying to be positive. “Surely,” I had opined, “ there must be something good about Vegas. After all there seem to be lots of pretty single girls here…”

“No,” he said sadly. “All the women around here are –look, you seem like a nice lady, so let me say it this way, they are all ambitious. All the women around here are looking for a .. How do I say it? .. a sugar daddy. When you meet them the first thing they ask is ‘what are you going to do for me? Will you buy me a house? Will you get me a ---let me say it this way--will you pay for a medical procedure to enhance my looks? (I told you his English was good.)

Not quite expecting that answer and not sure what to say, I said nothing. It was my fault, I’d asked the question.

“They are all show and promise,” he said shaking his head “They are all show and promise but they leave you with nothing,” he repeated as I paid him and sprinted it out of the cab.

Show and promise. Got me thinking.

People go to shows for the promise of what that show may offer: the new customer to sell; the new product see; the new technique to bring back home; the newest information to learn. Shows bring promise and day one of GlassBuild America was no exception.

There were notable changes from the 2007 event in Atlanta and 2006 when it was last in Vegas. The number of exhibitors is down significantly, and many exhibitors had rented smaller amounts of space than in previous years. Companies involved primarily in residential fenestration are scarce, and the machinery displays are much smaller than in previous year. The presence of actual glass manufacturers and major fabricators is also light, but that was not unique to this year’s event.

Yet there was promise. The number of attendees on Day One exceeded the dire predictions of most. The floor was very busy for the main hours in the middle of the day and some exhibitors, such as Contact Industries and Erdmann, had neat new products and heavy traffic all day. Major sponsor Edgetech did a great job marketing its “Edgetech University” in a stand complete with grammar school writing tablets and employees dressed in shirts that said “Edgetech University.” They always do a great job getting their message out.

So on a day when the Dow plunged in a downward spiral and cable TV networks screamed gloom and doom, there was at least in Las Vegas for a few hours, show and promise.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Strip of Nervousness


“I hate it here,” the taxi driver tells me on the way from the airport to the Hilton yesterday afternoon. Okay,.I think, it’s a short ride, I’ll bite. “If you hate it so much, and don’t mind me asking,” I say, “then why are you here?”

My question elicits a long response. He tells me he moved here from Turkey three years ago and I congratulate him on his English, which is excellent. He came here because he heard Vegas was always busy, and there was always work. He bought a house right away with “one of those mortgages on the news now”. But, just yesterday, he says, they announced the tourism dollars are down 50 percent from the same month last year. There is no work. He is making half what he made last year at this time. “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t gamble and I now I have a house I can’t sell,” he says “ I hate it. I am very worried. I don’t sleep so good at night.”

Welcome to the club. There’s an aspect of nervousness and unease among those attending the GlassBuild America Show in Vegas this week. The effects of the economy can be seen everywhere—even in the cab you take from the airport.

It will be an interesting show, I think, so check back for more reports this week. I don’t know whether to feel really good or really bad about the following fact, but I am going to share it with you anyway: this is actually my 27th consecutive year of attending this show. Sometimes I was working at it, sometimes exhibiting, one or two years just attending but I haven’t missed a one since the first I attended in 1981 when I was barely out of college.. (Besides my esteemed colleague, Charles Cumpston, who has the exact same record, I’d be curious to know if there’s anyone else out there who has a longer consecutive attendance.).

I remember when the show was in March (much better I think for the industry), when it went to family-friendly cities like San Antonio and all the stories I have from things that have happened during it. (I’ll put them in that hypothetical book I write some day.).

So what, besides a nervous industry on a nervous strip, will we find this year?

I lean back in the cab. We are stuck in traffic due to an accident and my short trip has gotten longer. I look at the cabby and around the cab. He has no wedding ring, no pictures of a wife or kids around. “Okay,” I say, “you don’t gamble, you don’t drink and you don’t smoke, but what about girls? Surely Las Vegas is good place to meet women, no?”

Oh he gave me an answer all right, but I’ll save it for next time….

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Fixing the NFRC

Our report on the most recent meeting of the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) is included in the September issue of USGlass magazine. The decision-making process continues to be the source of major frustration for most in the know in the glass industry. In fact, some leading members of the glass industry are considering boycotting the next meeting. And Greg Carney of the Glass Association of North America (GANA) and Marg Webb of the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) have already withheld their votes in protest at a previous meeting.

Those in the contract glazing industry who got involved early have long since seen their input ignored. Contract glaziers are among our industry’s busiest segment and most are happy to provide their input when they feel it will be considered as part of the democratic process. But they will not be part of a charade that does not have an open and fair process. And anyone who thinks that there is democracy going on in the NFRC’s process has either drunk the kool-aid or been fed a great line—or maybe dinner—by NFRC officials.

Yet, there is a way to fix this. There is a way to make sure the process is open and democratic and that all parties involved from every industry segment or any “stakeholder group” (as NFRC calls them) feels the same way. There is a way to ensure that participants have no quarrel with the process and no market segment feels cheated. Here’s how: NFRC should develop its programs in accordance with the ASTM or ANSI methods for consensus standards development.

These methods provide a sound, proven method for developing documents. The procedures have been properly vetted for fairness and balance. Since NFRC professes a commitment to openness, the adoption of such procedures should only be welcome by the group’s board of directors. And the development of all procedures, policies, approaches, certifications or other items would no longer be suspect.

If an effort such as this is not made, the commercial glass industry’s buy-in will never occur. At a recent GANA meeting one participant was so upset by the NFRC’s antics that he said he plans to add a separate line on all his estimates and invoices called “NFRC compliance fees.” “I want the architects—and everyone else who sees this estimates—to know right away how much this is costing them,” he said. NFRC’s use a proven consensus-building process might also help advance the acceptance of its work without such measures.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Sailing Away for a Day



Our office always tries to take a day or two each summer to do something a little different. We get just a few days a year without a magazine in production and used to hold the stereotypical “office picnic” on one of those days.

A few years ago, we tried something a little different and went to a local amusement park—King’s Dominion for those of you who know Virginia—and it was a great hit. Last year, we spent the day at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. We got to see the new baby panda, the refurbished reptile house, one very tired looking sloth bear and a great variety of unique mammals. The best part of that trip for me was watching the looks on the faces of the kids of our employees as they got to see the animals. I have some great pictures of the Taffera girls (daughters of DWM publisher Tara Taffera) at the petting zoo that I treasure.

Our venues are always chosen by majority vote and this year, a trip to Tangier Island (http://www.tangierisland-va.com/island) won.

If you’ve never heard of Tangier Island, you are not alone. It is a 1 ½ mile wide and three-mile long island at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. It was one he first places settled by the British in the 1600s and was relatively isolated until the 1960s. Some of it older residents still speak the King’s English with a decidedly English accent that is neat to hear. The only businesses are crabbing, fishing and a little tourism. Tangier Island has just over 600 residents, 20 cars, a ton of golf carts. It has no post office, no bank and ferry service twice a day to both Virginia and Maryland.

Everything used for the construction of buildings there comes by boat. Glass is brought in via boats from three glass companies that work on the island and is rolled in carts from ship to site. “Most of the glass that comes in is already in windows,” explained Captain Billy, captain of our vessel, Liquid Assets http://www.captbillyscharters.com/charters.asp), and our tour guide. “None of the pieces that come over are too big because of the transportation. You just don’t see large expanses of glass.”
Pity, because the views are beautiful.

After a day of visiting the island (and, boy, did we pick a hot day) we all gathered at Hilda Crockett’s Chesapeake House (http://tangierisland-va.com/cheshouse/) for an indescribably delicious meal of Tangier fare, including crab cakes made with crab so fresh I was expecting it to crawl away.
The islanders were so hospitable that they opened the new Tangier History Museum (http://tangierisland-va.com/water_trail_brochure/) especially for us in the early evening. We saw a very moving film about the history of the island and how the Chesapeake, their way of life and their livelihood is being destroyed by environmental irresponsibility. It gave life and new cause to everything we are trying to do in the office to be green. We then boarded Liquid Assets and enjoyed a peaceful trip—and beautiful sunset—on our way home.
Photo Captions (from top to bottom)
  • Views of Tangier Island
  • The Key Communications team enjoys a visit to the Tangier History Museum
  • Art director Dawn Campbell, chair of Key's activities committee with Captain Billy (right) and first mate Tony (left) on Tangier Island.

Monday, July 14, 2008

The Thrill of the Scoop

Some of the most enjoyable times of my life were those I spent working on my college newspaper. In those days, issues came out twice a week, tabloid size, anywhere from 32 to 64 pages an issue. The Student Press was quite an undertaking, considering it was produced totally by students who stayed up all night twice a week to make sure the issue got done. Then, as the sun came up, we’d draw straws to see who would drive it the 90 miles to the printer. This practice continued until one of the editors nearly feel asleep behind the wheel on the way back and we decided to hire a driver—who was henceforth listed in the masthead as “chauffeur.”

Being at the university and working at the newspaper was the most fun I ever had in my life. You might think I’d be bittersweet about it now and long for those times again, but I don’t. That’s probably because I enjoy working for USGlass quite a bit, and also because I knew what I gift I’d been given when I had it.

Anyway, I digress. At the newspaper, I worked with a lot of talented award-winning young people who went on to write for the New York Times, USA Today, the Boston Globe, Gannett News Service, Forbes, Rolling Stone—you get the idea. I still enjoy reading their bylines and seeing their names on the wires.

So I had to smile when I saw this story yesterday written by Jill Coffey, night editor of the New York Daily News. Jill might have learned how to be a night news editor by working all those late nights at our student paper, but she became part of a story earlier this week when a yet a third person decided to climb up the exterior of the New York Times building.

So THIS is how the News scooped the Times on a story about the Times own building, which I know Jill absolutely loved and HERE is how they are going to fix it. Yet again, it’s always about the glass.


P.S.: Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve checked in, but truth is, this is my slow travel time. I enjoyed a July with very few trips in it but I am getting ready to get back on the road this week.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Business Lessons Sealed With a Kiss

My “baby” sister is only two and one-half years younger than me, and she lives just one hour from central Pennsylvania. So, when it was decided I’d be going to the summer meeting of the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA); there seemed a plan to be hatched. We’d both arrive at the Hotel Hershey in Pennsylvania late Saturday, have dinner and do a little sightseeing Sunday morning before she headed back to Delaware when the meeting started.

After all, why would AAMA have a meeting in the middle of an amusement-park, tourist-attraction-land if they didn’t expect us to check it out?

Well, I found out why. In the course of our half-day sightseeing, which included the obligatory visit to Chocolate World and the exquisite Hershey Gardens, we toured the Hershey Museum. Yes, it seemed a little scattered with its three separate collections (Native American, German Dutch and Hershey history) but what it really provided was a reminder of just what entrepreneurs do and how much of a difference one person can make to the business landscape.

Milton Hershey grew up in a household of very modest means and was sent to New York in his late teens to become a candy maker’s apprentice. A failure at the candy business in three cities, he returned to this area in Pennsylvania and set up shop there. He achieved some notoriety in standardizing the manufacture of caramel candies and become known for them. Then he set his sights on chocolate, then a strictly European delicacy. He then began incorporating milk (thus keeping local farmers in business) and sugar.

Convinced that there would be a market for “milk” chocolate, he sold his caramel business in 1900 for one million dollars. Let me write that again. That’s one million dollars in 1900 (approximately equal to $25 million today). He used the proceeds of the sale to perfect his milk chocolate process and the Hershey bar was born. Hershey’s Kisses followed a few years later and still look the same today—except their price has increased considerably from the half penny they were in 1903.

Hershey eventually made the decision to sell the caramel company and to concentrate on making only a few products on a massive scale, thus turning candy making from a local “mom and pop” industry in a nationwide one. Hershey’s entrepreneurialism led to mass production in an industry where it had never existed before and led to massive changes in an industry.

Hershey was quite the philanthropist in his day, using his profits to build the town of Hershey, then to build the attractions to bring tourists to town and fund a wide variety of causes including disadvantaged youth.

Of course, Milton Hershey is basically canonized everywhere you go in Hershey. One display in the museum quotes an employee of the 1930s saying how working at Hershey was really just fun all day, while the display on the opposite side of the room mentions the strike of 1937 and the subsequent unionization of Hershey’s plants. But leave it to those folks at AAMA to remind us how great success in business can be built on a conviction and a bowl of beans. Cacao beans.

Please visit http://www.usgnn.com/ for updates about the AAMA meeting.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Memorial Day Travels

Even though Memorial Day weekend is known as a great travel weekend, sometimes the time you spend on the road is all in your head. My trip started when USGlass editor Megan Headley asked if I would rustle up some old issues of the magazine. The June issue of USGlass includes our 25th Annual New Products Guide and Megan wanted to scour the very first New Products Guides for ideas and artwork. Megan knew that I (like so many of you, I am sure) keep a complete set of every issue of USGlass magazine in “archives” in my basement (fear not, we have a true offsite archives as well) and that borrowing the issues wouldn’t involve more than a trip to the cellar for me.

Now Megan is usually spot-on, but when she suggested this would be a quick and simple task, she was dead wrong. Once I’d brought the requisite issues out, I just had to go through them. So I sat down with a cup of tea, and away I went through a time tunnel.

What a trip it was! Names that I hadn’t heard for years kept flowing through my brain: PTI had a new adhesive … Tempglass (long since acquired) was advertising “flat, clear distortion-free tempered glass” (funny, we have an article about this in the June ’08 issue too) and Hordis Brothers was heralding the machinery systems to make it. Vistawall trumpeted its 11 locations round the country … PPG was celebrating Solarcool’s 15th anniversary … Interpane was announcing its first plant in the United States, to be located in Deerfield, Wis.; the company planned to make a little-known, misunderstood product called low-emissivity glass.

I saw the names of companies that had faded away or gotten out of the industry, such as Ateco and Morton Thiokol. Binswanger was hiring “contract management professionals,” and the Flat Glass Marketing Association was selling its Glazing Manual (in this case, the name of the organization has changed, but its Glazing Manual is still going strong). An ad for J. Sussman had a picture of daughter Erin in it—in diapers—and Glass Medic was explaining this thing called “glass repair.” Glastec ’88 (one “s” in it then) was being heavily promoted as attracting 30,000 attendees and being held in Dusseldorf, West Germany. In a few months, more than 60,000 will attend glasstec ’08 (double s) in a unified Germany.

There were some constants too, such as Palmer Mirro-Mastic, C.R. Laurence and USGlass itself. The only primary manufacturer that bridged the time warp was PPG, but I wonder how much longer that will last. Pilkington didn’t own LOF yet, AGC didn’t own AFG, Cardinal wasn’t a manufacturer and Guardian was still a very quiet company, though you can see in the news stories that it was growing fast.

The people in the news gave me pause as well. Don Goldfus had just been named chairman of Apogee Enterprises … a guy named Rick Wright of Hordis Brothers had been appointed chair of the Glazing Committee of the Sealed Insulating Glass Manufacturers Association (SIGMA) … and there was a picture of Rick Cunningham at a trade show …

In 1986, we were just beginning to talk about the idea of the value-added glass products. Well, that’s an idea that took more than 20 years to stick. I don’t think anyone thought then that U.S. manufacturers would finally move toward value-added products because so much of the commodity glass business has moved offshore.

You can see why it was a trip I could take for hours on end. So even though I didn’t use a single gallon of gas this holiday weekend, I went far and away and back again.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Yee-haw!

Glass TEXpo ’08 was a mighty fine event. Nearly 500 industry professionals from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana—along with a smattering of attendees from as far away as Calgary and Pittsburgh—came together for a great two days of education and exhibition. There were three things that made me feel especially good about TEXpo.

First was the number of first-time attendees at the show. I stopped counting at ten, but had at least ten shop owners tell me that this year’s TEXpo was the first industry event they’d ever attended. Most mentioned how hard it is to get time away from their shops and how having something relatively close by made it so they could attend. That gives me a really good feeling because it was one of our goals when we started providing regional education in 1994.
I also was heartened to see a number of new products introduced at the show. One exhibitor from Germany showed a great new glass handler that was no bigger than the palm of a large hand. (CLICK HERE for more information.)

Another exhibitor from Japan showed examples of 3D glass that mimics a beveled appearance at a fraction of the cost. (CLICK HERE for more information. ). And first-time exhibitor Techniform had this to say about TEXpo:



But most memorable moment came toward the end of the first day of the show, when Lou Green of A1 Glass Co. in Beaumont, Donald Day of the Texas Glass Association in Victoria, Texas, and Bob Lawrence of Craftsman Fabricated Glass in Houston got together and reminisced about the formation of the Texas Glass Association (which co-sponsors the event) and the various and assorted characters they’ve come to know in the industry and the association over the years. Boy, do they have some stories. I could have listened to their colorful tales all night, but had some business to attend to just as they were talking about a former employee who had been married 11 times.

As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas.

Glass TEXpo will return to San Antonio in Spring 2010. I am already looking forward to it.

P.S. After TEXpo was over on Saturday afternoon, Tina Czar and I headed back to Dallas (see previous blog). Let me just say that even though Hertz advertises its GPS as “Never Lost,” it shouldn’t, that downtown Dallas is lovely at midnight and that when the shuttle bus driver looks at you with nine bags, laptops, cameras, LCDs and boxes between you and says “take the elevator to the skywalk,” you shouldn’t listen. The skywalk is actually three long flights up and three long flights down. The bus driver is probably still laughing at us now.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

San Antonio Bound … and Princesses for a Night

“You know, we have three or four things we have to do in Dallas,” said our ace event planner Tina Czar to me one afternoon nearly six months ago. “Why don’t we go to Glass TEXpo a day earlier than usual, do our stuff and drive down to San Antonio?” Now the fact that Tina was planning this nearly half a year ago would surprise anyone until they met Tina. She is planner extraordinaire and that means she plans well, often—and early. She was to handle everything, except our leg from Dallas to San Antonio. That was my job.

So I decided to show Tina that I could plan a few things of my own. And, while not six months ahead of time, I did decide SIX WHOLE DAYS ahead of time that I wanted us to spend the night in Waxahachie. I’d been there a number of times before. (USGlass has a great advertiser there, U.S. Aluminum) and been enchanted by the old downtown feeling, the magnificent Courthouse (at right) and the beautiful homes along Main Street. It would be a straight shot from there down to San Antonio.

There are no chain motels in the old downtown area of Waxahachie. So I started looking at bed and breakfasts (B&B) and found one right on Main Street. Now, I’ve never stayed in a B&B before, but knowing Tina would be with me gave me the courage to try something new. And we both have spent more than our fair share of time in Hampton Inns and other assorted motels so I thought such a visit would be something different for a change. So I booked two rooms at the Chaska House on Main Street in Waxahachie. If nothing else, Tina would know I’d done my homework.

You know the drill. We’d both gotten up around 4 a.m., driven to the airport, taken our respective flights, got the car, had the meetings and driven almost 90 minutes in rush hour when we arrived there around 7 p.m. We were greeted by the notes of some very peaceful music escaping out of the home’s beautiful wrap-around porch. Our hosts, Linda and Louis Brown, had raised their family in the house, then moved out for a year, gutted and had converted to a B&B nearly 20 years ago. It’s an exquisite home.

Louis is a retired engineer and Linda, who hails from Atlanta, was kind enough to show me some of the unique glass features in the home. Each guest room had a unique glass door leading inside to a distinct theme. (One room, the Mark Twain, looked like the inside of a treehouse). I slept in the Teddy Roosevelt room, with a skylight directly over the bed (at left). “That’s got to leak,” I said to myself as I eyed the room with trepidation. It didn’t. The heavy rain and hail storm that woke me in the middle of the night proved that.

In the morning, Linda showed me the front door of the house. It was an almost full glass door (at right) with exquisitely beveled edges on all four side—and a big bullet hole right at eye level. “Some boys got real mischievous one night and shot it will a B-B gun,” said Linda. “We were going to replace it, then we found out it wasn’t just glass, it was crystal, real crystal. We decided to keep it as is.”

If you have never stayed in a B&B before it does feel a bit strange in the beginning—like you are intruding in a stranger’s home. But the graciousness and hospitality of the innkeepers quickly overtake any such feelings and their desire to see you have a good time is so genuine it’s easy to feel like family quickly.

“No, you sit,” said Linda to Tina (who had emerged from the Great Gatsby room as refreshed as Daisy Buchanan herself) as she tried to help clear the breakfast dishes, “you both are princesses while you are here.”

But, alas, it was time to go.

Louis and Linda were great hosts. Linda even tracked me down after I left an important folder behind and was kind enough to take it to Fedex it to me. I know, I know—poor planning on my part. Please don’t tell Tina when you see her.

-Deb

P.S.: We have made it to San Antonio now and are staying at the historic Menger Hotel, where TR himself recruited his Rough Riders (and check out that unique skylight!). I hope you get a chance to join us here at Glass TEXpo Friday and Saturday. It’s going to be a great event. See you there.

Friday, April 4, 2008

What’s the Story, Deb?

Like a lot of people, I usually end up working over the weekend when it’s quiet and I can catch up (and write things like this). It’s just a usual part of a routine. So taking a whole day to play hookey is an unusual occurrence and, to my mind, sure better be worth it.

Well this past Saturday, it was. The main purpose of my trip was to visit the Nationals' new stadium and see the first (though exhibition) game played there. (It’s a nice stadium, but more on this another time.) So I made an outing of it and spent the whole day tooling around Washington D.C. like a tourist. I had a great time in the process.

First, I got to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. I'd never seen them before. Now you may laugh at this, but it’s been my experience that most people never play tourist in their native land. I grew up in New York (but don’t hold that against me) and have never been to the Statue of Liberty. I didn’t see the Empire State Building until just a few years ago when visiting friends from Spain dragged me there with them. I never went to the top of the World Trade Center. It’s just that, when you live somewhere, you think you’ll get there someday, but without a sense of urgency (or a guest from out-of-town) someday never comes.

I’ve lived in the D.C. area for 28 years and that’s how long it took to get me to see the area’s famous cherry blossoms. I should have gone sooner. They are well worth the visit.

From there, I headed over the 42nd annual Smithsonian Kite Festival on the mall. The mall is not your typical mall. Instead, it’s a rectangular area with the Capitol at one end and the Lincoln Memorial at the other. The buildings of the Smithsonian make up the other two sides, and the White House sits among them as well. The Washington Memorial is sort of in the middle of the rectangle. It was great windy day when I visited, and there were thousands of kites of assorted shapes, sizes and heights billowed through the sky. I had to laugh at the image of the kites flying about the IRS Building, the Justice Department and the other bureaus. It is the one day a year you can tell the government to go fly a kite and mean it.

After that high-faluting fun, my day turned serious. I was lucky to be one of a select group of journalists who was invited to tour the new “Newseum” scheduled to open on April 11. The Newseum is a 250,000 square foot museum dedicated to news reporting that moved its headquarters from cramped quarters in Virginia to a brand new location on Pennsylvania Blvd. (Here’s some info.) The most moving item in the Newseum is the actual broadcast tower that once stood atop the World Trade Center and rode down 107 floors to the ground as the building collapsed. It is such a mass of twisted broken pieces and wires fused with molten metal that it takes your breath away when you come upon it. A somber reminder, as the Newseum wanted, of how important news is every day.

Yet what was the first thing I saw when a entered the cavernous building? A lite of broken glass in a railing. “Oh,” I thought I’d murmured to myself, “that’s a story.” Now I say “thought” I’d whispered the comment, but even whispering “that’s a story” in group of journalists is enough to get 15 of them to stop talking and quickly look at you then decide to follow you to the glass. It was a pretty humorous sight.

In fact, a lot of the glass looked like it had just been put in and, despite the preview, a lot more had to be put in. One person who’d joined the parade commented that the glass guys didn’t seem to have their act together. No, I explained, it’s probably that the glass guys are always among the last in the construction process and have to make up for everyone else being behind. You can’t assume it’s their fault, although the unique design of the railings make me think the glass guys have a lot to do in the next few days.

And so you can see how, for me, even on a crisp day in D.C. spent playing tourist, the story is that the glass is always the story.

Monday, March 31, 2008

What A Response …

Boy, are you angry.

Not since I wrote about my father’s love of hockey have I seen such emotion pour forth in response to something I’d written. In this case, though, instead of sharing stories about their dads and their hobbies, our readers are sharing their concern and anger.

I’d venture to say I’ve heard from more than 100 people about their concern with what the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) is attempting to inflict on the glass industry and the methods they are using to do so.

In fact, some are so upset that that they are forming a coalition to fight against the group. I’ve heard suggestions in these last weeks of everything from public relations campaigns to legal action. Keep checking back to this blog—and to our daily newsletter, USGNN.com—for more on this in the next week or so.

What’s interesting to me, too, is that not one person has said they are against some type of energy coding and testing. The problem is how the program is being developed and the lack of the democratic process being used to do so.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

A Crying Sham(e)

“Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it …”

It is time for members of the glass industry to re-evaluate their participation in the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) with careful thought. The NFRC board of directors continues to ignore the votes of the Council regarding the Component Modeling Approach (CMA) as well as a variety of other topics.

The NFRC likes to create the illusion that the commercial glass industry is a participant in the process, but its participation is just that—an illusion.

Instead, the NFRC board of directors has ignored the voices of the commercial glass industry on the Council and continues to do as it wishes without regard for the opinions of stakeholders.

What makes the effort especially distressing is the perception that certain members of NFRC continue to advance. They say that NFRC is a participatory Council open to the opinions of all. If participatory means you can talk, but won’t be heard, then it is. If participatory means you can vote, but that vote will be overridden by the board, then it is. If participatory means anything beyond this, then NFRC is a sham and it’s time to call it so.

The participatory illusion is being created in an attempt to make other groups—most notably architects—believe that the CMA was developed with input from the commercial glass industry and, the story would go, since the glass industry was involved with its development, shouldn’t architects embrace it as well? The individuals and groups from the glass industry involved in NFRC form a very well respected list. But they are attempting to hold back an NFRC
locomotive called the Railroad Express and that is an impossible task.

Reality is not perception. These pages have continued to monitor NFRC and have seen instances in which input has been ignored and votes overridden. If the NFRC board does not begin to follow the wishes of its committees, then those committees are meaningless and those who serve on them merely shills in a public relations war. If our industry’s voices cannot be heard within the Council, then our industry should recognize the Council as flawed and move on to a better form of governance. It should not allow itself to be used as pawn in a game of public relations.

The words above ring as true today with regard to the NFRC as they did the day Thomas Jefferson wrote them in the Declaration of Independence. When government, or regulators, ignore the will of the governed, or regulated, it is time for independence from the oppressor. NFRC members in the commercial glass industry will want to evaluate whether or not being part of the Council really serves a purpose. As Jefferson wrote:

“… when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”