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Quarter 1: January to March 2010
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| Volume 1, Issue 1 | Quarter 1: January to March 2010 |
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| MESSAGE TO ICC MEMBERS |
| Dear Members: With this email, we are kicking off a new effort to reach out to our members: the CEO Quarterly Report. This Report will go beyond ICC eNews and the Building Safety Journal, and focus on why what's happening inside ICC is important to our members. Each issue will cover four categories: "State of the Organization," "Connecting the Dots," "Member Benefits Update," and "The Road Ahead." Our goal is to help our members better understand what ICC is doing and why we are doing it. Our fast-changing world has affected—and will certainly continue to affect—the ICC. In particular, I see our organization being impacted by the following realities: • Altered fundamentals of the national and global economy • Rapid evolution of the Internet and the way information is delivered • Increased competition • Changing market and customer demands • Emerging issues relating to building safety • Increased attention on the ICC as codes intersect with high-visibility issues of public policy Sometimes, change takes the form of new opportunities; sometimes it appears as new threats or challenges. At all times, however, the ICC—like individuals, governments and organizations everywhere—must constantly evolve in order to thrive. My primary responsibility as CEO is to ensure that as ICC grows and adapts to the world around us, it remains a strong and healthy organization that can fulfill its mission of developing the nation's best codes and serving the needs of its diverse membership. My hope is that this new Quarterly Report will help you better understand how the actions we take further those goals. A few months ago, we conducted a comprehensive survey of our members and came away with some very interesting results. Seventy-nine percent of our members approve or strongly approve of our programs, our direction, and our focus. At the same time, only a small percentage are “engaged” in the business of the Code Council—attending hearings and conferences, serving on committees and boards, and regularly using the services and products of the ICC. Our members tend to be over 35, see us as their primary member organization, and rank code development and professional development as their top reasons for joining us. They most value code interpretations, the member discount on products and services, and are likely to renew their membership. These survey results are helpful and can guide us as we plan for the future. Membership organizations around the country are being challenged on how to both remain relevant to the next generation of members, and to retain existing members even as budgets and technology require new approaches. While ICC appears to be doing well in the overall area of customer satisfaction, we can and will strive to do even better. Keeping in touch, staying accessible and communicating the right kind of information is more important than ever. I look forward to your feedback. —Rick Weiland |
| The State of the Organization |  |
| We ended 2009 in the black. What does this mean for 2010 and what does this say about 2009? For starters, our 2009 budget was designed to break even, based on reduced expenses in staff salaries and benefits through a combination of layoffs and across-the-board salary and benefit cuts. To accomplish this, we laid off 100 people, remaining ICC employees took a 10-percent pay cut, ICC senior staff deferred an additional 10 percent of their pay, we suspended the employer match of employee contributions to their 401k plans, and employee healthcare premiums were increased by 150 percent. We also scaled back our free chapter training program and offered an online version. We used technology both on the web and by phone automation to service our customers. We looked for new revenue sources in areas such as Products and International, and we were successful in both areas resulting in a better performance than we predicted. In many ways, we beat the odds by being bold and decisive. Because of our strategic planning efforts several years ago—embodied in our "Blueprint to the Future"—and because of our operational discipline, we had the tools to strongly position ourselves for the post-recession economy. At the winter meeting of the Board of Directors, the Board endorsed a 50-percent restoration of staff salaries and benefits, replenishing of our "rainy day fund", and a Chapter Education Benefit, providing a 50-percent discount for most courses and course materials. With this new budget we are also pushing our services components to expand their focus toward new markets and new members so that we can diversify our revenue and create a more sustainable future. I remain optimistic about 2010, yet cautious. ICC is not immune to these economic downturns. Diversifying our revenue, creating more sustainability in our programs and businesses, and building a healthier rainy day fund will not happen overnight, but you should know that we committed to doing just that. |
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| Connecting the Dots |  |
| Our member survey indicated that some members did not see a lot of value in two specific areas: our work in Washington, D.C., and our work around the world. Here's why our work in these areas matter. Our efforts with the U.S. Congress can result in support for code departments to hire staff and improve the effectiveness of enforcement. It’s as simple as that: while other government disciplines routinely receive federal grants, a huge oversight exists regarding a federal grant program to make our built environment safer and more sustainable. Going one step further, we now see new federal programs that depend upon our members and our codes to fulfill commitments to greater energy efficiency and creating new jobs. We believe the Code Council should be in the front seat of these efforts. Your voices should be heard when national policy is made, and these national efforts should strengthen our ability to keep on providing the best information and expertise available. So every time one of us can talk to a member of Congress, a federal agency official, a senior member of another organization or anyone who can help spread our message, we must act. Our staff offices in D.C., along with the visits from many of you, have made the Code Council a much more recognized and respected organization. We are also watching the possible threat of federal law acting to replace, or "pre-empt" our code development process. Our efforts to explain and educate national decision makers on who we are, what we do and how it is done, led to our International Energy Conservation Code being referenced in two bills before the U.S. Congress: the stimulus bill that passed early last year, and the House Climate Control legislation that passed last year and that is pending in the United States Senate. Our ongoing efforts, with support of our members when they visit Washington and talk to their elected officials back home, have made ICC much more recognized and understood in the United States Congress. To date, we have one sponsor and 15 cosponsors in the House and one sponsor and seven cosponsors in the Senate for our grant program. Five years ago, it was difficult to even get a phone call returned. Instead of creating a national energy code or green building code, most members of congress have come to realize that such activities are best left to non-profit organizations like the ICC. Developing countries around the world want the same things we do: a safe place to work, live and play. Many do not have the internal resources to accomplish their goals, so they turn to the Code Council and its subsidiaries. Every project we pursue on an international level pays for itself and brings in additional resources to secure our ability to maintain our mission in the U.S. and abroad. Whether it is providing guidance for accreditation through the IAS, expertise on safer water and sanitary provisions through our PMG programs, or supporting a wholesale code adoption with publications and professional development, the International Code Council leverages the expertise of its stateside experts to fulfill its mission of building a safer world. We are happy to report that our Global Services (formerly International Services) staff had already been working with the consortium of Caribbean nations before the Haiti earthquake on ways to utilize our codes in a comprehensive effort to improve building safety across the region. We are working to creatively address potential barriers regarding language, inch/pound versus metric, and other issues. We have begun preliminary discussions with the United Nations and the U.S. State Department regarding our desire to provide technical support ranging from written materials to expertise in creating the capability to rebuild a safer and more sustainable built environment. As eager as we all are to assist, we must continue to be mindful of the many competition priorities that face the Haitian nation, and also be respectful of their sovereign status. As the Haiti recovery plan is developed, including a defined set of protocols and designated leaders, we will provide more information through our website. In the meantime, the public focus on the impacts of natural hazards provides yet another opportunity to remind everyone that codes save lives, and that effective code adoption and code enforcement is the most cost-effective way to reduce the risks these hazards present. I hope you will continue to work in your communities to spread this message, and help raise the profile of code officials. |
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| Member Benefits Update |  |
| As mentioned above, our Chapters will now be able to apply a 50 percent Chapter Education Benefit to their annual Chapter Education Benefit Day. This deep discount achieves two important goals: it provides a way for our chapters to provide low-cost, classroom-style training while serving as a chapter fundraising tool, and reduces the overall financial impact. Providing free training and free materials to our members and non-members through our Chapters turned out to be unsustainable, but I do hope this 50-percent discount will help provide you the training and revenue you need to remain a viable ICC member. We have also established several members-only benefits through our online capabilities. At our conference last year, we unveiled the return of the Building Safety Journal, this time as an online publication. Members receive an email with the link to the latest edition. Readers can click directly to their articles of choice, as well as link to more information about specific departments, programs or advertisers, and obtain additional information through the use of embedded video. We also have opened up our "Communities of Interest" as an online feature to network with others in the same discipline with more to come in the form of webinars and chats with experts in the field. These Communities have designated teams of a staffer and outside experts as co-facilitators. Non-members can access general information with the specifics reserved as a member benefit. In real time you can talk to a peer about a difficult interpretation issue, share information that will help decision-making in the field, and pass along ideas for things ranging from professional development to potential code hearing topics. |
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| The Road Ahead |  |
| The adoption of the 2009 family of I-Codes is well on its way in many jurisdictions across the U.S. Over time, a number of state and local governments have built automatic adoption into their laws. In some jurisdictions, deliberations are lengthier due to reasons ranging from provisions seen as controversial to concerns about economic impacts. We stand by all of our Codes as the consensus recommendation of our governmental members, reflecting the latest in knowledge about building safety and sustainability, including issues around design, performance, and the latest in technology and construction techniques. Communities adopting the 2009 family of I-Codes will be safer. I hope yours will be among them. Please contact our Government Relations staff regarding any questions or assistance needed to ensure an informed and efficient code adoption process in 2010. Our International Green Construction Code (IGCC) reaches an important milestone this year, as we unveil the Public Version of the only green code for commercial buildings that is integrated with the family of I-Codes. Governmental members and jurisdictions, along with the building industry and other disciplines in our community, have applauded the timing and the focus of this effort. Joining us as Cooperating Sponsors are the AIA and ASTM-International. The Board asked the Sustainable Building Technology Committee (SBTC) to undertake the drafting of the first Public Version of the IGCC, set to issue on March 15. The last of five SBTC public meetings occurs in Austin January 28-30. The SBTC and its working groups will finalize the language of the IGCC Public Version, which will be polished by our technical staff so we can begin the public comment period and provide a resource document for jurisdictions on a fast-track adoption schedule. The public comment period will culminate in open hearings in Chicago in August. An amended Public Version will then be submitted to the Spring Code Development Hearings in Dallas in 2011, with Final Action Hearings at the Phoenix Annual Conference in the fall of 2011. The SBTC has made sure that the IGCC is not only integrated with our other codes, but that each provision is "adoptable, enforceable and useable by the book." Please submit your comments and try to attend the Chicago hearings if your schedule allows. |
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| In closing, I hope you found this report useful. Please let me know what topics you would like me to cover in the next CEO Quarterly by emailing me at richardweiland@iccsafe.org. Don’t forget to sign up for the Group A Final Action Hearings in Dallas this coming May. I’m looking forward to seeing you as the year progresses. |
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| Rick Weiland |
| Chief Executive Officer |
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