A Message from the President
WE’RE CHANGING TO BETTER SERVE THE BUILDING REGULATORY COMMUNITY - JOIN US!
By NCSBCS President Cynthia Wilk
Despite all the technological advances that have been made and all the new "timesavers" that have come into our world, most of us feel like we have more to do these days and less time to do it. This point came home the other month as my office prepared and published information on the number of permits issued, number of certificates of occupancy issued and other construction information gathered from all municipalities in New Jersey. The latest report for August, 2004 indicates that housing continues to boom. The four best months over the last ten years of authorized houses have all been in 2004!
What does this mean? It means most code officials are busier than ever. But not just in terms of plan review and inspections for all of this new construction work. Today there are new requirements for buildings that didn’t exist in 1967 – - accessibility, energy, green buildings. There are also new responsibilities – disaster planning and response, homeland security, incorporating new technology.
It’s hard to keep up with all the competing issues that demand your attention.
When a work group appointed by Past President Tom Joachim looked at where NCSBCS should be headed given our changing world, there were some very clear recommendations. NCSBCS needed to expand to better serve all levels of government – States, Major Cities, Counties, Municipalities, Townships and Boroughs. And NCSBCS needed to better focus on the issues confronting today’s code official, providing information, serving as the voice of code officials with Mayors, Governors and the Federal Government, and providing opportunities for code officials to exchange information.
And we are doing just that! NCSBCS has partnered with AMCBO and we are expanding both our services and our outreach efforts to invite all code personnel (administration and enforcement) to join the organization. If you look at our insert on membership services, you will see what NCSBCS and AMCBO are offering.
So join us! Make use of our conference calls, new "The Code Administrator Communicator" and website and tell us what information would be valuable to you and help you in your work as a member of the building regulatory and construction community during these changing and challenging times.