NEII Insider 2021: Edition 5

NEII Introductions

It feels like a lot of life is changing these days as we emerge from our pandemic lockdowns. And over the past eight months, NEII has changed a lot too. We have some new faces and adjusted roles and responsibilities. So we are taking this opportunity to introduce you to all of the people who are working to support our members and the goals of the industry. Please feel free to reach out to any of us if you need help, have questions or want to touch base on an issue. We are all looking forward to seeing many of your faces again in 2021.

Amy Blankenbiller was promoted in October 2020 from her role leading NEII’s government affairs efforts to serve as NEII’s Executive Director. Read Amy's bio.

Kevin Brinkman is focused on code development initiatives and technical code support, NEII-1 development and staffing the Central Code Committee and subcommittees. Read Kevin's bio.

Chelsea Chaney is the main person for legislative efforts, licensing issues, and select state and local issues. She also staffs the NEII Government Affairs Committee. Read Chelsea's bio.

Phil Grone is the new head of NEII’s government affairs team. He oversees the work of the Government Affairs and Field Employee Safety Committees and is also focused on outreach to AHJs, cybersecurity, and federal issues along with select state and local issues. Read Phil's bio.

Megan Hensley runs point for NEII’s membership, meetings and events, data management, and all general inquiries. Read Megan's bio.

Priscilla Magee manages NEII’s safety issues – including our participation in the OSHA Alliance, code adoption efforts, and staffs the Field Employee Safety Committee. Read Priscilla's bio.

Nicole Van Velzen manages NEII’s communications strategy including social media, neii.org, articles and presentations and staffs the Communications Committee as well as NEII’s Diversity & Inclusion Working Group. Read Nicole's bio.

NEII Featured on Propmodo

This month, Amy was interviewed for a piece on post-pandemic building trends for Propmodo, an influential real estate digital news outlet. The article is titled Elevator Innovation is Fighting Back Against Decades of Fear, and Amy highlighted the forward-thinking nature of the industry using the innovation available to aid in pandemic recovery within buildings as an example while also highlighting our members’ commitment to maintaining the equipment. Click here to subscribe and read the entire piece.

Building Safety Month

The International Code Council’s 41st annual Building Safety Month was held this May with the theme “Prevent, Prepare, Protect. Building Codes Save.”

This is Week 4 of Building Safety Month, which focuses on disaster preparedness, and the International Code Council shared a landmark study from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Building Codes Safe: A Nationwide Study. The study was completed in 2020 and shows how modern hazard-resistant building codes lead to a major reduction in property losses from predictable natural disasters. Learn more and download the study.

Each year, Building Safety Month raises awareness about the importance of building codes in ensuring safety in the spaces in which we live, work and learn. As always, NEII amplified ICC’s Building Safety Month messaging. If you don’t already, please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

BOMA COVID-19 Commercial Real Estate Impact Study

The Building Owners and Management Association International completed the first of a three-part series of studies in the fall of 2020 to gauge attitudes about physical workplaces and office space decisions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that a strong majority of decision-makers believe that in-person office space is vital to conducting successful business.

Additional questions on reassessing business space needs and operational shifts to increase health and safety and more are available in the executive summary available here.

NFPA 101 and 5000 Code Update Cycle for 2024 editions

NFPA is currently accepting proposals for updates to NFPA 101 Life Safety Code® and NFPA 5000 Building Construction and Safety Code® until June 1, 2021. They will hold virtual First Draft Meetings during July where technical committees will review the proposals for possible inclusion in the 2024 editions. The proposals are then subject to a public comment period later this year followed by Second Draft meetings next year to review the comments.