Recent CMA Meeting Discussed in IGMA Technical Services Committee

The first order of business for the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance (IGMA) technical services committee, which met yesterday during the IGMA summer meeting, was to move a report on the National Fenestration Rating Council's (NFRC) Component Modeling Approach (CMA) certification program to the last item on the agenda in order to afford greater room for discussion.

The IGMA Technical Services Committee met yesterday morning in Huntington Beach, Calif., to discuss updates, including a report on the NFRC.

Days after NFRC announced a proposed fee structure for participation in the CMA program [click here to read the original USGNN story], representatives of IGMA, the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA), the Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) and the Glass Association of North America (GANA) met with representatives of NFRC to discuss their concerns over the development of the NFRC's CMA program. According to discussions during the IGMA committee meeting, the four groups have developed a position paper, which has not been released. It was revealed during the technical services committee, however, that the four groups are in 100-percent agreement against the proposed CMA fee structure: "Our current position is that we could not support it," said Margaret Webb, IGMA's executive director.

Some expressed concern that the CMA fee structure could be a financially unsound decision especially since there's no demand for the program coming from the industry.

Webb added that IGMA will begin to actively discuss the next steps with its members, in response to the new CMA fee structure. Should the CMA program prove to be financially unviable, one possible scenario sees the Department of Energy (DOE) offering funds rather than letting the program falter. Webb suggested that the CMA program might be inevitable, in which case it may be prudent for IGMA to go to DOE upfront to underwrite the fee structure to lower the costs. That is one possibility that will be discussed with IGMA members.

The IGMA summer meeting, taking place at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach, Calif., concludes today with a closed meeting of IGMA's board of directors. The next IGMA meeting will be held January 28-31, 2008, in Sanibel Island, Fla.