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Region 12 Makes History-First CRC in the South America.
DRC Ross Montgomery and CRC chairman Roberto Aguilo (left photo, right to left) executed the first CRC in the South American continent August 6-9, 2008 at Sheraton Libertador Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, hosted by the Argentina chapter, and it’s President Eduardo Acosta.
Jeff Littleton, Executive Vice President and Chief Staff Officer called it a “historic event “for ASHRAE, and an “overall tremendous meeting”. Jeff also walked us through the new ASHRAE headquarters building and invited us all to Atlanta for a visit.
President William A. Harrison delivered his “Maintain the Sustain” theme address to a packed crowd at the Presidential Luncheon, and left us with the total understanding of the importance of Maintenance, Operations, and Sustainability. And when you hear Bill speak, you know it is time for ASHRAE members to act.
Vice President Dr. Andrew Persily presented the “ASHRAE Secret Weapon-People Power” speech, and pumped us up to meet our ASHRAE goals and expectations for this CRC.
President-Elect Gordon VR Holness attended and was a DL presenter at the Technical Session.
We had a 2-day CATAAR Congress in conjunction with the CRC, and Associate Society AAF (Argentina Association of Refrigeration) Robert Aguilo as its president, jointly sponsored the entire event.
As a part of the ASHRAE and CATAAR technical session, we also held a total of 10- hours of technical presentations, with simultaneous translation in Spanish and English, a few of the stars speakers are as follows:
Roberto Aguilo-Refrigeration
Julie Ferguson: Dehumidification Equipment and Control
Andy Persily, PhD: Standard 62 and IAQ
Armando Chamorro: Indoor Environmental Quality and Green Buildings
Michael Myers, P.E.: Smoke Control
Gordon V.R. Holness, P.E.: Energy Conservation in Existing Buildings.
Based on advice of ECC and Members Council a year ago, Region 12 bought 2-Panasonic Network Cameras, and its software, and we recorded video/audio of the entire business sessions, to an mpeg file format for playback and future use.
It has been a dream of mine for 9 years since first coming to Buenos Aires in 1999 for work to have a presence in Argentina. I fell in love with the culture and the city, not to mention the great food. I have known the famous Robert Aguilo for many years, and we have grown to be ASHRAE acquaintances at the Annual and Winter meetings. I phoned up Roberto one day while working in BsAs in 1999, and he picked me up in his car and we went to an AAF Board meeting in BsAs together and from then on, we have both worked very hard to make an ASHRAE section, then a chapter, and now to host the CRC in Argentina. Great things happen from small beginnings.
The Central Florida chapter, President Mike Dillard, (right)at the “Tango-Gaucho Awards Luncheon, took high honors as the Best Chapter and Highest PAOE in Region 12.
In photo below, DRC Montgomery, CRC chairman Aguilo and MC Bill Malphus introduce the past DRC Rob Risley and our RVCs in order to give out all of the grass-root committee awards at the Awards Luncheon. 
We had a golf outing and Argentine BBQ outside the city, a welcome party with a private band, a Tango Banquet at a local nightclub “El Querandi”, an Awards Lunch with “Gaucho dancers”, and a 3-track triple set of grass-root workshops. For the spouses and visitors, we had an excellent 3-day private tour set up to see the city and surrounding sites.
We had as many as 160 attendees at some of our social and technical events, and we had 70+ ASHRAE members/spouses in attendance.
DRC Montgomery and many of his ASHRAE amigos proclaim this CRC to be the Best and the Biggest in Region 12 history. We completed a lot of great ASHRAE business and we had a lot of fun. Many thanks go out to the Argentina chapter, its CRC chair Roberto Aguilo and all of his CRC committee.
Next year, we all go to St. Petersburg Beach for a Region 4&12 joint CRC. Jennifer Isenbeck and Debie Horsey as CRC chairs Region 12 and Pam Immekus as CRC chair Region 4.