SO , YOU THINK SOMEONE SHOULD BE AN ASHRAE FELLOW

George A. Jackins, P.E., Presidential, Fellow, Life Member

Chairman, Honors & Awards Committee

Well, you are to be commended. First because you care about recognizing those who have distinguished themselves in our industry and second because you are considering making a commitment to spend some time and effort towards that objective. The making of an ASHRAE Fellow is not an easy task – and this is as it should be. Elevating someone in our Society to this highly prestigious membership status must require a rigorous review of accomplishments and credentials with a focus on service and achievement in the HVAC & R industry. Service to ASHRAE, while important, is not a criterion for election to the Fellow Membership Grade. We have excellent means to recognize members who work hard in the Society with other awards. 

It is also very important that we all seek out those in our membership that deserve to be recognized as ASHRAE Fellows. Currently, only about one percent of our membership has achieved Fellow status. We have the lowest level of this membership category of any similar technical or professional organization. This does not mean that we should lower our standards to induct more Fellows – but it does mean that we must do a better job of finding those who qualify in our 55,000 members worldwide. Any member of our Society can nominate a person to be an ASHRAE Fellow, so I challenge you to search your Chapter, Region and Committees for candidates you believe are qualified and then pursue the nominating process to be sure they are considered. 

The nominating process for ASHRAE Fellow is now very well defined. The criteria and forms to submit a nomination are easily accessed and downloaded from the ASHRAE Web Site, www.ashrae.org. They are very detailed and provide an objective means to present the candidates credentials and accomplishments. It will take some time and effort for you and the candidate to prepare these forms in a manner that insures the best possible chance for election. It is critical that emphasis be placed on the candidate’s distinguished works or exceptional contributions to our industry. Being a very good engineer with a lot of projects will most likely not be adequate to achieve success. Letters of recommendation should be written by you, as the nominator, and two additional sponsors. One of the sponsors should be an ASHRAE Fellow. It is very important that the candidates ASHRAE Bio be current when the nomination is reviewed. 

The Honors and Awards committee is committed to helping you and your nominee achieves success. We genuinely wish to increase the number of ASHRAE Fellows in a meaningful manner. This adds greatly to the prestige of our Society. To this end, we wish to assist the Fellow nominator in any way possible to navigate this detailed process. You are encouraged to contact me at gjackins@aol.com or Rosy Douglas at ASHRAE Headquarters, rdouglas@ashrae.org if we can assist you in any way. And, if your nominee does not make it the first time, please do not give up. We encourage you to inquire why so that the reasons may be discussed and possibly addressed in a new nomination.  

Now it’s up to you to support that deserving “SOMEONE”. The deadline is December 1.