In the April 2013 edition of PE Magazine, NSPE published an article on NABIE titled Setting the Standard for Building Inspection. It was written obviously after our current Standards of Practice (SOP) were revised and accepted by the organization and the change in the SOP was noted in the article. But more importantly I think, there are several reasons for reflecting on this article for this newsletter.
First the article described several important things NABIE must do to remain relevant:
- Provide help to members when economic times are tough – maybe as a marketing resource, maybe as a referral service, maybe as a sounding board
- “Represent the face of professional engineers to the public at large”
- Championing the cause for PEs to do work in building assessments that should always be the work of engineering professionals & perhaps to broaden the work that PEs should be engaged in
This is relevant for this newsletter as your current team of officers and board members complete ½ of their term with the focus squarely on improving service to members. Our esteemed colleague, John Cronin, was quoted in the article in several places and I encourage you to re-read it if you can. John makes the point that while NABIE has provided service to the building inspection profession for nearly 25 years, it is time to seek improved ways to be relevant to those engaged in this field.
Second, the article mentions two important contributions NABIE has made to the inspection profession during its history – one is the creation of SOPs for use by NABIE members. These SOPs give us a foundation on which to perform our consulting work, and the current SOPs give more members greater flexibility in using the practices for a wide range of services. The article also mentions the building inspection certification program started by NABIE and now managed by the Building Inspection Engineering Certification Institute (BIECI). Both of these accomplishments have moved our inspection profession forward. We must continue to build on these accomplishments to further the work of NABIE members.
*This article had been posted in the Winter 2013 edition of The Examiner.
