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Most Recent Capitalaire
April 2025 Capitalaire
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Upcoming Events
2026 ASHRAE Region III CRC
Additional information to come. We hope to see you there!
2025-2026 Meeting Dates & Themes:
September 25th, 2025 - Membership Promotion
October 15th, 2025 - YEA/WiA/DiA
November 12th, 2025 - Research Promotion
February 18th or 25th, 2026 - Government Affairs / Sustainability
March 18th or 25th, 2026 - Past Presidents / Historian
April, 2026 - Student Activities
National Capital Chapter Members,
There are some big shoes to fill as I step into the President role for the 2025-2025 society year. A lot of work has been done over the past five years to help our chapter react to the pandemic and then try to settle into a new pattern to meet our members’ expectations in the new post-pandemic normal. My vision for this year was to allow our chapter to fall into a predictable rhythm and return to a more stable calendar of chapter meetings and venues. Unfortunately - to borrow a quote from Robert Burns – “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”.
The plan was to keep a format similar to the one we adopted in the last couple of years, hosting the bulk of the monthly chapter meetings at Rhodeside Grill, which provides a more casual setting that better matches our chapter’s current needs, and a more upscale September kickoff meeting at AUSA. While we were able to secure Rhodeside for the two fall chapter meetings following our kickoff, they informed us that their building has been sold, they are operating on a 6-month rolling lease, and they may not be around after December. This leaves our chapter with some uncertainty over our venue for the spring meetings, and we may have to adapt to another venue change this year.
Society year 2025-2026 is going to be a big year for the National Capital Chapter of ASHRAE. Our chapter has always been a leader in ASHRAE Region 3, providing strong speakers in diverse topics as part of our monthly meeting program content to our chapter members, taking the lead in grassroots efforts like Women in ASHRAE and Young Engineers in ASHRAE, testing new methods and approaches and sharing the lessons learned with other chapters, and having members step up in both regional and society level leadership roles. As such, when the chapter that was scheduled to host the Region 3 Chapters Regional Conference (CRC) for 2026 ran into difficulties and was unable to hold the commitment, National Capital Chapter stepped in to plan and organize the regional conference on a significantly accelerated timeline. Luckily, National Capital Chapter is in good hands with a strong team of volunteer leaders at the helm, and a few of our chapter leaders have volunteered to do double duty to help with the planning for both the National Capital Chapter year as well as the Chapters Regional Conference, however, we could use some additional help from any of our members who might be interested in stepping up to help lead the chapter or plan a regional conference. This also means additional sponsorship opportunities for companies with exposure that extends beyond the DC metropolitan area to additional markets in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
While we are on the topic of our own Region 3, I would like to highlight that this year’s ASHRAE society president, Bill McQuade, P.E., CDP, Fellow ASHRAE, LEED AP, hails from our region’s Central Pennsylvania Chapter. Bill’s Presidential theme for the 2025-2026 society year is "Healthy Buildings: Designing for Life”, highlighting the interplay between energy efficiency and IEQ and presents practical solutions to enhance air quality, thermal comfort, acoustics, lighting and water quality in buildings.
Despite the venue uncertainty mentioned earlier, we have a great program schedule locked in for our fall chapter meetings. I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday, September 25th for our virtual lunchtime PES, where Eric Yang will be presenting “Keeping AI Cool: Mechanical Fundamentals for Sustainable AI Data Centers”, and for dinner at AUSA, as we bring in ASHRAE Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer Jim Vallort to present on “Achieving a Green Data Center: More than a Good Design Is Needed”.
Sincerely,
Michael Spencer
President
ASHRAE National Capital Chapter
Thank You to our 2025-2026 Sponsors!
To become a sponsor, please do not hesitate to contact Michael Spencer at [email protected], or become a sponsor here.
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