Decorative division members of the Glass Association of North America (GANA) were awake bright and early today for the group’s 7 a.m. meeting as part of Glass Week, taking place at The Palms in Las Vegas. The day began with the membership committee meeting followed by the technical committee meeting.Cathie Saroka, membership chair, reported that the division now has 45 member companies and that the group is working to continue increasing membership. A task group was formed that will work toward generating ideas on how the group can continue to bring in new members and to also find ways to show all the benefits of membership.

The group also discussed which types of companies are eligible for membership in the division. Ashley Charest, GANA account executive, said primarily members are decorative glass companies/artists, their suppliers and also installers.

During the technical meeting, committee chair Greg Saroka said that the group’s LEED position paper is now complete. The white paper was created to identify ways that LEED credits can be applied to decorative glass products. The members discussed ways they can now use the paper and decided that they will work to get it approved as a GANA-wide document.

Also during the technical meeting Jeff Nixon of Glass Coatings and Concepts gave an update on the product color and durability task group. Nixon explained that the group’s goal has been to:

· Prepare an easily referenced document on color and durability;
· Identify test methods;
· Consider available specifications and standards; and
· Determine whether there is a need to develop a standard or specification.
·
Nixon said they have grouped color and appearance together and then durability. They have created a list of color/appearance properties (i.e., a glossary), which include the term (such as lightness/darkness), a definition, an example, test methods and units of measure.

Nixon said they are hoping to determine whether the document is useful so that they can eventually flesh it and submit to general membership for feedback.

During the decorative division membership meeting, Kris Vockler, division chair, noted that there is no longer a decorative marketing committee; all association marketing committees have been merged to form one GANA marketing committee. Vockler said, though, that all projects that had been in the works within the decorative marketing committee will remain with the division. As a result, new decorative committees are being formed, including a website committee.

But the biggest discussion topic during the meeting was the question of whether the mirror division should become a part of the decorative division.

“There’s been talk of merging the two groups. I want to hear your questions, concerns and positive thoughts on this,” said Vockler.

One member in attendance spoke out and asked what the value of merging would be.

Marc Deschamps of Walker Glass answered.

“The mirror division membership has decreased and there is a lot of synergy between the two groups, since mirror is a decorative product,” said Deschamps. “The decorative division has a strong membership based already … we can all pull together to create an even stronger division.”

Greg Saroka agreed.

“The traditional use of mirror will always be there, but the bigger possibility is the growth in the area of finding new opportunities with mirror in the decorative market,” he said.

Not everyone, however, is completely convinced that merging is the best way to go.

“I agree that mirror is decorative,” said Randy Brooks of Gardner Glass Products, “but there are areas where mirror is not used as a decorative product, such as in the emerging solar market … I’m concerned because [the solar aspect] may not fit into the scope of the decorative division.”

Greg Carney, GANA technical director, said there was not really a right or wrong way to go.

“It makes sense to have a mirror committee under decorative, as well as part of the energy committee. There is no clear answer.”

The topic of merging the two groups was first discussed during the Fall Conference meeting last September(CLICK HERE to read related article). As a way to try and increase membership and interest, the mirror division had decided to explore the area of solar uses for mirror. As a result of that, the group is co-sponsoring a solar panel discussion that takes place later today.