NEWS RELEASE

REDUCING REGULATORY COSTS WHILE ENHANCING PUBLIC SAFETY: NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON BUILDING REGULATORY REFORM IN DIGITAL AGE BEGINS WORK

(More about the National Alliance)

November 6, 2001 – Washington, D.C. – The organizational meetings of two of the working committees of the National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age are giving shape to the work products that will enhance public safety while  helping the nation’s construction community, to use information technology to “build faster, better, safer and at less cost.”

INTERIM NATIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE

October 10^th, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS) hosted the Alliance’s Interim Steering Committee to its organizational session during which a draft executive summary of the Alliance’s activities was approved along with a new Alliance work product.   The proposed new product entails the development with Federal assistance of a nationwide secure, state-maintained database of designs and evacuation plans for critical structures which emergency personnel could access as they roll up on the site of a man-made or natural disaster.  The database concept was born out of discussions which NCSBCS held in the wake of the events of September 11^th, with public safety personnel, building officials, construction industry representatives and state chief information officers.  Alliance members are following up on this concept with senior officials from the Bush Administration.

The Steering Committee at their organizational meeting also reviewed a survey that has gone out to state and local building regulatory officials regarding the current status of the use of information technology in their communities.  The committee also reviewed and approved the timetable for the organizational meetings of the Alliance’s Technology Task Force and its Planning and Coordination Task Force.   The Alliance survey was distributed at the fall meetings of the nation’s three model building code organizations and will be available on line for building officials to complete during the month of November.

Attending the October 10^th meeting were representatives from the National Governors Association (NGA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),  National Association of Counties (NACo), National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), and NCSBCS.  Representatives from several public sector and from construction industry associations will be joining the Interim  Steering Committee in the coming months.

Other recent Alliance activities have included:  the mailing to all of the nation’s governors and state chief information officers of copies of the Alliance’s report on the May 31-June 1 and July 12, 2001 meetings which launched the Alliance and adopted its Action Agenda, and a half day session on the Alliance and the role of E-governance in the Administration of Codes held on October 23 at the NCSBCS 34^th Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida.  The presentation at the NCSBCS annual meeting included a keynote address by National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)  Past President and Kentucky CIO, Aldona Valicenti and presentations by officials from the States of Oregon and Florida and the City of San Jose, California on innovative applications of information technology in their jurisdictions.  Copies of powerpoint presentations given by these and other speakers during the NCSBCS annual meeting are available for viewing on the NCSBCS website.

In October, the Alliance also held follow up discussions with  NASCIO officials  at which time some of the work products of  NASCIO’s Architecture Committee was turned over for use by the Alliance’s Technology Task Force.

ALLIANCE TECHNOLOGY TASK FORCE

The second of the Alliance’s three work groups, the Technology Task Force will hold its organizational meeting on November 15, 2001, at the Dulles Airport Marriott,  just outside of Washington, D.C.   Joining that body are representatives from NIST, NGA, NCSBCS, NACo, Fairfax County, VA; NASCIO, NIBS, International Alliance for Interoperability,  FIATECH, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and  the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).  Several other private and public sector organizations and associations have been invited to join the Technology Task Force.

Among the work products of the task force are:  common procurement standards for states and localities to use in purchasing hardware and software for use in the regulation of construction, the development of a national data model for information technology and a registry of interoperable hardware and software for building departments to use; and the development of the newly proposed secure national database of building designs and evacuation plans for use by emergency response personnel.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

A second follow up Technology Task Force meeting has been tentatively planned for December 12 at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, Georgia hosted by the International Alliance for Interoperability.   The Alliance’s third work group, the Planning and Coordination Task Force will hold its organizational meeting in either mid-December or early January, 2002.   The Interim Steering Committee will meet again in mid-January.

Membership in the Alliance is open to national associations from the public and private sector which share a concern for the need to streamline the nation’s building regulatory processes through the use of information technology.

For more information on the National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age please contact Carolyn Fitch at NCSBCS at 703-481-2038 or cfitch@ncsbcs.org.

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