Is There A Group In My Area?
Building Science Discussion Group
Portland, Maine
Contact: Steve Konstantino or Dan Kolbert
BS + Beer Charolotte
Charlotte, NC
Contact:
BS + Beer Columbus
Columbus, OH
Instagram: bs_and_beer_columbusoh
https://passivehouseri.org/
BS + Beer Ballarat
Ballarat, Victoria Australia
Instagram: bs_and_beer_ballarat
Some Recommendations From Our Groups
BS + Beer
Mike Maines:
• “We've had up to 25 people and as few as one. (I recommend taking June-August off.) Average probably about 10-15. I live in a rural area, about 30 people per square mile, so sometimes I'm surprised that anyone comes.
• You need a venue, and for better or worse I think it’s important that beer is allowed. I've thought about rotating ours around to different breweries and may try that eventually but it's nice to have a home. The one in Portland is at a building products retailer.
• We don’t charge admission. We provide food; for me it's easiest to get a few pizzas and chips, and chalk it to marketing expenses. Steve gets more gourmet with the Portland group. He provides beer and people bring their own, while mine is at a brewery so we buy beer from them. I've been thinking about adding a donation jar, probably to go to a charity of some sort.
• Keep a consistent day and time each month, as much as possible, anyway, so people can plan ahead. I've been sending out announcements roughly two weeks, one week and 1-2 days before each event.
• It seems to be helpful if the topic includes one or more specific questions. In the announcements we often include some links to relevant articles (often from Green Building Advisor).
• We start each discussion with an introduction or overview of the topic, announcements of upcoming events, and a quick round of introductions (unless the group is large, say 25-30 it gets to be too many people to bother with).
• We use a moderator system, Dan in (Portland) or I (Mike) stand in front of the group and control the conversation as best we can. Dan used to be a teacher so he's good at it. It's not in my comfort zone but I’m learning.
• Take notes of the discussion. I use a portable whiteboard; the Portland guys use a chalkboard that is built into the wall. Take photos and share them, and/or use them to write blogs and articles.
• Make people raise hands to talk. Many don't like to, but it helps avoid one or two people dominating the conversation. If you notice someone isn't talking you can ask if they have input.
• We try to keep the discussion to an hour, so there is an endpoint, but if the discussion is rolling we extend it for a bit.
• Consider having "guest speakers," but try to avoid sales reps as much as possible. Sometimes in Portland they have done design critiques, using a projector, and they have been popular. Sometimes for detail-oriented discussions people will come up to the board to draw. Definitely avoid Powerpoint presentations.”
Building Science Discussion Group
Dan Kolbert, moderator at BSDG:
“Rules I’ve learned:
One is certainly to know the experts in the room. I always tell people everyone thinks I know a lot because of moderating, but mostly I know who to ask the question to.”
Steve Konstantino, host of BSDG:
I think some of the key things that got our group off the ground:
• Repeated location and day of the month (although we are not always consistent).
• An email list to work with. I think we started with about 200 people on the list and now it is about 830. I only add people to the list if they want to be added and I try to keep it
to building professionals. Homeowners are a different type of discussion. I still use the free version of MailChimp.
• Snacks and beer. It is the end of the work day and hard working builders are hungry!
• Networking time at the beginning. This gives everyone a chance to meet new people and catch up with friends. Primes the discussion a bit too.
• Someone knowledgeable like Dan to facilitate and tell people to shut up if they talk too much. Maybe he used better language as a teacher?
• Discussion and not a presentation. The only powerpoint events were to show photos of a project to discuss.
• I try not to invite sales reps. Many have asked to be on the list and I just avoid it. And I know a lot of sales reps! They try to take over sometimes and quickly dominate as the expert in their field. They want to sponsor the event.
I am happy to share our topic history for anyone interested. There are plenty of ways to focus a group so our list of bad-dad-joke topics may not be the best.”
Midwest BS + Beer
Travis Brungardt
• The BS* and Beer Midwest Chapter has been up and running for several months and I’m pleased to say it been well attended and a lot of fun.
• Our first gathering was heavy on the networking and light on the formal discussion, but we got about 36 engineers, architects and tradespeople in attendance for what was essentially a Happy Hour. Myself and my business partner Joe Cook, along with Joe Nickels of Thrive Building Solutions sponsored the event so everyones first beer was free. I think this helped to get people in the door and set us off to a good start.
• We had a postcard with several topics (most pulled form your list of past discussions) for people to express interest in learning more about. This amounted to some informal voting / feedback which we used to set up our next event.
• The next month we gathered with the intent of being more deliberate in starting formal discussion but the enthusiasm from the 40+ in attendance kept numerous mini-discussions underway simultaneously. As a result, we elected to forgo the one formal unified discussion idea in favor of the organic progress we stumbled into. I got a couple DMs in my Instagram expressing disappointment that the discussion never formalized so I responded directly and promised a good discussion the following month.
• One of the guys in attendance at each of our first two events was from Lawrence KS (45 min West of here) and he enjoyed the events so much he decided to start a Lawrence group for quarterly meetings. He set up Prosoco and Huber as sponsors but made it clear that they would not get to do any formal presentations, just have a presence and answer questions about their products. We threw the support of our Kansas City Group behind the event and suggested everyone attend there for that month rather than offer a competing event. It was a nice break for us as organizers to get to just enjoy the Lawrence group in attendance rather than hosting. It also showed us a way to allow vendors a presence without allowing them to make a sales pitch.
• The following month we had Joe Nickels at Thrive present on Aerobarrier at our next gathering and we really had a fantastic discussion. This was in the heat of July and I saw why you take summers off with our attendance dropping into the teens. That said, it was the event I’ve enjoyed most to date. Several of the builders in attendance were users of AeroBarrier and had a lot to add in real world experience. There were tons of questions and a great exchange of ideas. This is precisely what I had envisioned when I first learned of your event so I was really satisfied to have “arrived”!
• Last month we brought in a recently retired local teacher who I’ve relied on for years for HVAC system and duct design assistance. He led a brief introduction on advancements in the industry but didn’t focus as much on the elements our group would be most interested in so the discussion was rather broad. Still a successful event with 24 in attendance but could have been more in depth with a higher focus. We are really fortunate to have had new faces at each of our events but I wonder why some folks don’t come back. Is it the topic, the time and date, the vibe from the previous event or just that we’re all crazy busy? We’ll never know.
Need Topic Ideas?
Here are a few we have used over the years
Topic history:
Exterior Foam Insulation
Basement Insulation
Indoor Air Quality – Constant Ventilation vs HRV
Is Residential Geothermal Heating Practical
Double vs Triple-Glazed Windows
Hot Roof vs Cold Roof
Selecting Sustainable Materials
Heating System Options for High Performance Homes
Slab vs Full Foundation (and what are the best solutions for all these wet basements?)
Energy Modeling – What Good is it anyway?
Critical Details in Weatherization
The Great Insulation Debate – review the study of global warming impacts of insulation
Shooting Holes in Wall Sections
Alternative Heating Systems
Efficiency Maine Program Review
Bright Built Retrofit Design Charrette
Shades of Green – How do you Present Better Building Practices to your Customers?
Passiv Haus Discussion
Crazy Idea Review: “Heat Pump in a crawlspace?!”
Vented or Unvented Roofs
Crazy Idea Review : Expanding foam tape on PEX tubing
How Occupants Effect Buildings and Energy Performance.
Let’s Talk Net-Zero
The Pretty Good House
The Contractor’s Checklist for Architects
Conference Review
Passive House vs Pretty Good House
Retrofit Project Review
UnZipped: Sheathing-Free Walls
No Pane – No Gain (glazing choices)
Resilience
From the Ground Down
Pretty Good Retrofit
Vocational Project review
All Talk and No Data – Monitoring Energy Performance
Getting into Hot Water
Frost Protected Slabs
Air Sealing for Retrofits
Air-Source Heat Pumps
Historic Preservation & Energy Efficiency
Window and Door Install Details
What’s your Dew Point?
What’s Your Net-Zero Worth? Appraisals
Ventilation for Super-Tight Houses
Common Building Science Mistakes
Square foot cost of high performance building
To Bid or Not to Bid…that is the question
Give ‘Em Shell – separate budget for building shell
Flash and Batt or Flash and Fill – Is this good bldg science?
Designing for Ventilation
Vapor Control Details in Retrofits
Talking about Efficiency in an Era of Cheap Energy
Rating Systems
Don’t Forget to Breathe: Build Tight – Ventilate Right
Apocalypse Now: Building in resiliency in times of uncertainty
Training the trades
Using Bldg Science to Attract Young People to an Understaffed Industry
What’s Your Number? ACH-50, PERM, U-Value, SHGC
Exterior Insulation vs Double-Stud wall throw down
Foam and climate change (EPS, XPS, Polyiso)
Self-adhered membranes
How Green is your jobsite?
Electrify Everything
Indoor Air Quality
How to Size Air Source HP’s
Making a Difference – Where should we spend our energy?
Low Carbon Diet Edition
Building Without Foam or Concrete