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GANA Perspectives
Priceless Resources
GANA GIBs are Growing
by Brian Pitman
In a time of economic downturn, the last thing most people expect to
hear is that something is free—especially something of real value or use.
This sentiment is something the staff of the Glass Association of North
America (GANA) sees and hears frequently when discussing the variety of
free things GANA offers to the industry. Among those items are webinars
and information on the GANA website, but, most importantly, the GANA informational
bulletins. These bulletins offer a great amount of useful information
across a variety of subjects, and they have always been free to anyone
who wants to download them from the website.
GANA began offering its informational bulletins in the early part of this
decade. Initially the association released two to three bulletins per
year, focusing on different items such as heat-treated glass surfaces,
cleaning architectural glass and other topics.
The process for creating an informational bulletin can be lengthy: the
bulletin is given to a task group to draft and then revise to the point
of submitting it to the division in which the topic is based (ie project
management bulletins go through the Building Envelope Contractors Division)
for further revision and approval. Finally, the bulletin is submitted
to the GANA board of directors for final revision and approval, and then
the bulletin is published on the GANA website. Any snag along this chain
of events can send the bulletin back to the task group for further revision,
and then the process begins again. Some bulletins can take two years or
longer before release.
The process, of course, guarantees that as many GANA members as possible
have access and input to the document, as well as making sure that each
one is up-to-date with the latest information. It is also the result of
several rounds of consensus building, which is key to a trade association
moving forward through tough times.
More Information Coming Soon
Even with the length of time to create an informational bulletin, the
process has been increasing significantly as more GANA divisions are creating
task groups to tackle such topics as blast mitigating glazing, bullet-resistant
glazing, proper ways to fabricate flat glass mirror and more. As such,
the number of bulletins being released is increasing each year. As of
the time this article is being written, four bulletins have been released
in 2009 alone, and a handful more are about to be released. This is a
result of GANA’s technical staff raising their game and working to increase
the offerings in this area.
And so, the amount of free material from GANA continues to increase. This
is music to the ears of many companies that really need the information
but may be strapped for financial resources. To download any and all of
the informational bulletins, simply visit GANA’s TechCenter online at
www.glasswebsite.com/techcenter.
Brian Pitman is the director of marketing and communications for
GANA. Mr. Pitman’s opinions are solely his own and not necessarily those
of this magazine.
USG
© Copyright 2009 Key Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
No reproduction of any type without expressed written permission.
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