Chapter Spotlight: Monterrey

CHAPTER HISTORY:

On September 10 to 13, 1997, on the occasion of the AHR Expo-Mexico, a group of distinguished members of ASHRAE that, among others, included Don Holte (President), Leo Stambaugh (Director and President of Region VIII), Robert Gleeson (President-Elect of the Alamo Chapter) and Carlos Estrada (President of the Mexico Chapter), extended an invitation to form in Monterrey a Section of the Alamo Chapter of San Antonio, TX.

Many interested people and a local member attended; the Ing. Geronimo Quintanilla initiated to get the signatures of members (Geronimo J. Quintanilla R., Juan Francisco Álvarez, Anthony Pena, Leopoldo Flores Charles, Fernando Luis Lopez, Enrique Garay de la Garza, Jorge A. Ortiz Lazarin, Ismael Jaramillo, Miguel Ortiz, José C. Padilla, Esteban Mayer Maqueo, Alberto Toussaint Treviño and Donald James Hay) supporting the formation of the Monterrey Section.

This constitution was approved by ASHRAE during the meeting on January 1998 and its formal constitution was scheduled for February 27, 1998.

On January 22, 1998, the Constituent Committee of the Monterrey Section was formed with the Coordinators (Geronimo J. Quintanilla R. and Enrique Garay de la Garza); Secretariat (Roberto González and Leopoldo Pecina Ibarra); Treasurer (Fernando Luis Lopez), Francisco Javier Ayala Arizpe and Antonio Limones Ledezma (Reception Committee).

A message to all the members, dated March 27, 1998, proposed: "In order to become a Chapter soon, we have to propose to act as such, even if we are only a Section.

In April, 1998, elections were called by the first Board of Directors of the Section, which was installed by Robert Gleeson on May 15, 1998: Geronimo J. Quintanilla R. (President), Guillermo R. Montemayor Sandoval (President-Elect), Enrique Garay de la Garza (Secretary), Fernando Luis Lopez (Treasurer), Pedro R. Garza Garza (Membership), José Félix Rodríguez Laveaga (Student Activities), Guillermo R. Montemayor Sandoval, Pedro R. Garza Garza, Enrique Garay de la Garza and Fernando Luis Lopez González (Governors).

In November of 1998, we started the procedure to request the formation of the Chapter, since the membership already included more than 50 people, including those whose application was in process.

The Monterrey Chapter of ASHRAE was approved by the Society during the February 1999 meeting and its official installation was scheduled for March 2, 1999.

RECENT AWARDS / KUDOS:

Our Monterrey Chapter members have won important awards over the past 5 years. Some of the members and their awards at the regional level are the following: Francisco Gastelum, 2013-2014 Student Activities; Ana Cecilia Garay, 2015-2016 Presidential Award of Excellence; Yumei Mata, 2015-2016 Student Activities and K12 STEM; Enrique Garay, 2015-2016 Refrigeration; 2015-2016 Chaparral Award; Enrique Garay, 2016 Chapter Service Award; Edgar Moneta, 2016 Chapter Service Award; Edgar Moneta, 2016-2017 High Impact Award GGAC; Armando Berman, 2016-2017 Golden Gavel, Jack Thompson Award & Best President Message; Eleazar Rivera, 2017 CTTC, Carlos Gonzalez, 2017 Refrigeration; Oscar Ricaño, 2016-2017 Blue Ribbon Award; Armando Berman, 2016-2017 Presidential Award of Excellence and Research Promotion (Recognition for exceeding); Jose Felix Rodriguez, 2016-2017 Gold Ribbon for History Award; 2016-2017 Chaparral Award; Donald James Hay, 2017-2018 Outstanding GGAC Program Award; Alfredo Muñiz, 2017-2018 Best Cross Committee Collaboration YEA & WIA; Gabriela Gomez, 2017-2018 Best Cross Committee Collaboration YEA & WIA; Eleazar Rivera, 2017-2018 Best President Message; Armando Berman, 2017-2018 Research Promotion (Full Circle Chevron & Goal High Five, Challenge Goal). Awards at the Society level are the following: Donald James Hay - 2015 Life Member; Marisa Jimenez – 2016 Fellow Member; Ricaño - 2018 Lincoln Bouillon Award; Yumei Mata - 2018 Student Activities Achievement Award.

CURRENT LEADERSHIP:

President: Yumei Mata, MSc. - Yumei has been working since 2005 as a full-time professor at the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, institution in which she teaches courses in the areas of Thermal and Hydraulics and she is head of thermodynamic processes academy. She has served as SA Committee Chair (2014-2018) and currently as Advisor of the UANL Student Branch (2011-2018).

President elect: Ricardo Gomez, Eng. - Ricardo has been working in Engineering and Projects in the HVAC industry since completing his bachelor´s degree. He has served as Chairman of the YEA Committee (2015-2017), Chairman of the CTTC Committee (2017-2018) and currently as Co-Chair of the CTT Committee.

Secretary: Oscar Ricaño, Eng. - Oscar has been a commercial manager for 9 years promoting good practices and standards to improve indoor air quality. He served as MP Committee Chair (2015-2017), MP retention (2017-2018) and currently as MP Committee Chair.

Treasurer: Donald James Hay, Eng. - Donald has more than 40 years of experience in Refrigeration. He is founder of ASHRAE Monterrey Chapter and served as RP Committee Chair (2001-2002), President elect (2002-2003), President (2003-2004), Treasurer (2004-2005), CTTC Committee Chair (2006-2007), Treasurer (2007-2009), Governor (2009-2010), Treasurer (2010-2011), Treasurer and Governor (2013-2014), Governor (2014-2016), Treasurer and Governor (2016-2018) and has a Life Member.

BRAGGING ON CHAPTER:

Our chapter maintains the inertia to increase the achievements, of course, this is possible with the help of chapter members, sponsors, industrialists and people interested in the development of heating, ventilation, refrigeration and air conditioning. We will continue with the successful programs of the chapter, such as "Talent Development Program" which consists of conducting training workshops, courses, technical visits to companies, conferences, an evaporative cooling contest and scholarships for student partners for their training academic in HVAC & R; "Know your standard" program, which consists of talks and workshops with the purpose of disseminating the information of guides, ASHRAE standards and the commissioning process to achieve sustainable energy efficiency in new and existing commercial, residential and health buildings; "Know your committee" program witch consists of knowing work, the activities of each committee leader and the next events, "Smart Star” program, consisting of young engineers under the age of 35 aimed at student partners who evolve into associates and who may subsequently become committee leaders and future chapter members; "Viral Advertising” program, which consists of increasing advertising through electronic communication to promote and disseminate the courses and workshops of the continuing education program offered by ASHRAE; "Women in AHSRAE” program, with the purpose of beginning to establish the foundations of a community that promotes the participation, growth and retention of women in the world. These are some of the many actions that we will do focused on being one of the most successful chapters and our goal in these 20 years is always to increase membership, raise funds for PR and disseminate the information generated by ASHRAE.