Dallas 2003

[Fred S. Sturm]

Fellow cauts,
    For those of you who haven't heard yet, the caut segment of the 2003
convention/institute in Dallas will focus on "Humidity Control in the
Institutional Environment." We'll have three periods devoted to that
topic, which is so dear to all our hearts (or, more likely, ulcerous to
our stomach linings), and a fourth period for other caut concerns
(probably open forum with a presentation of some sort to do with the
Guidelines and supplementary material). All 4 periods will be on Sat,
July 5. Roger Wheelock has agreed that Dampp-Chaser will sponsor the
event, defraying any extra costs we may incur. So send a big thank you
Roger's way when your paths cross.
    This idea grew from a couple things. First, Roger Wheelock
approached us in Chicago offering to do a presentation for us. And
second, PTG home office was planning a mailing to higher education music
administrators across the country (a list of about 1900) as part of a
long term project to raise the profile of PTG. It seemed reasonable to
follow up on Chicago's Symposium with an invitation to academics to
attend Dallas (as observers, not panelists), and humidity control seemed
a good topic to garner interest. (BTW, several of the academics I
conversed in Chicago were very much struck by how often cauts mentioned
humidity control, saying they hadn't realized the degree of its impact
on pianos). Whether or not any actually attend, just informing them of
what we are doing, and giving them a small taste of the importance of
humidity control, will help our image, and maybe have a small positive
affect on the overall state of things.
    As it stands now, we will have Roger Wheelock doing a presentation
first period, featuring, among other things, results from the datalogger
loan program. Second period we are hoping to have an outside expert or
two doing a presentation on whole building humidity control. And third
period will be a panel of three to four cauts presenting success
stories: how they have successfully dealt with humidity, with questions
and discussion from the floor following.
    For periods two and three, I'd like to solicit your help in
identifying appropriate people (or volunteering yourself), particularly
so for experts in whole building systems. After some initial
investigation, it seems that one likely possibility would be to find an
engineer with HVAC expertise, either on the faculty of a local
university or from a local engineering firm, to give us some design
background; and a person from physical plant/facilities management at an
educational institution or perhaps a museum which has such equipment, to
give us some practical information on the care, maintenance, and control
of such systems in the real world. So if any of you from the greater
Dallas area would be willing to make some local inquiries and/or make
some initial contacts, that would be very helpful. (Even just a listing
of the universities with the largest engineering departments, and names
of any institutions that have humidity control systems, would be most
helpful as a start).
    I'll note here that there is a professional engineering association
devoted to HVAC - The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration  and
Air-conditioning Engineers, http://www.ashrae.org ). And that it seems
humidity control as part of institutional HVAC systems is custom
designed using three types of components - humidification,
dehumidification, and controls - each of which is made by a separate
manufacturer (at any rate, I have found manufacturers specializing in
each area, and so far none that covers more than one of the three). So
the notion of pursuing a manufacturer's representative doesn't seem
likely to be very fruitful.
    That said, any suggestions as to how to find a good presenter or two
on the subject of whole building humidity control would be very welcome.

Regards,
Fred Sturm
co-chair, caut committee