Iowa History 2024 Archive

HISTORY and CRC REPORT

Chapter #051

ACTIVITIES

CHAPTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

• Held 4 DL Meetings
  • Virtual Ethics DL Presentation
  • Local Conference joint meetings with neighbor chapters
  • "SuperTech" with multiple DL Presentations
• Ethics PDH provided
• 2 Chapter Technology Awards submissions to the Regional competition.

MEMBERSHIP AND PROMOTION

• 3 MP events
• Active MP chair contacting lapsed members
• Achieved membership growth goal for the year

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

• Held two joint meetings with the Iowa State Student Chapter and were able to tour two new facilities on campus.
• Awarded $5,000 in scholarships to student chapter members
• ASHRAE Children's book reading event - donated 70 books to local school

• RESEARCH PROMOTION

• YEA
• September Disc Golf event
• February Happy Hour
• May pickleball

• HISTORY PROJECT

HOLLY ELBERT, P.E.
Partner – BBS Architects and Engineers
Reflection of 20 Years of ASHRAE Iowa Chapter Engagement
 

By: Peter Ernzen – Iowa Chapter Historian 2023-2024
 
 
Personal Life
Holly is a Des Moines native. Many members of Holy’s family are journalists/writers including her parents and brother. While Holly is a strong writer, it was not her passion and she decided to pursue engineering. She attended college at Iowa State University (ISU) in Ames, Iowa where she majored in Mechanical Engineering and graduated in 2002.
Initially, Holly thought that machine design/manufacturing engineering would interest her. However, while at ISU she learned that she enjoyed courses like thermodynamics and heat transfer over the manufacturing-related courses. This was further reinforced by her Co-op employment at a power plant in Minnesota. This led her to decide that she wanted to change directions.
Holly had a family friend, Scott Bowman. Scott was a principal at KJWW Engineering, a consulting engineering firm in the Des Moines area. Holly had the opportunity to job shadow Scott as a freshman. Through this experience, she gained exposure to the consulting engineering industry. She also secured an internship with DLR Group, an Architectural and Engineering consulting firm, in Seattle. These two experiences led Holly to seek out positions as a consulting engineer after college.
Holly lives in Ames, Iowa with her Partner, Dawn. Holly and Dawn own a few rental properties which keep them busy. They also enjoy spending time outdoors and with family.  Holly still finds that her strong writing background helps her with her engineering career, especially as it has progressed and become a leader.

Professional Career
After graduating in 2002, she joined Pulley & Associates. Pulley & Associates was a consulting firm in the Des Moines area. Pulley & Associates was then acquired by Durrant Group which was an Iowa-based Architectural and Engineering consulting firm. Holly remained with Pulley & Associates/Durrant for 5 years.
Through her ASHRAE network connections, she met Susan Oltrogge (ASHRAE Iowa Chapter President 2001-2002) and secured a job with BBS Architects and Engineers (formerly Brooks, Borg, and Skiles Architects and Engineers) in 2007. BBS is a Des Moines-based architectural and Engineering consulting firm.
At BBS, Holly grew her mechanical engineering and leadership skills. In 2017, Holly became a partner of BBS. Today, Holly is the Senior leader of the mechanical team at BBS although she still likes to remain involved in the design aspects of many projects.
Since entering the industry, Holly has always been employed at integrated Architecture and Engineering firms. Holly noted that she likes these integrated firms as it gives her a good insight into how Architects work and think. She also noted that she liked the fact that she could work with the same group of design professionals across many projects and that this arrangement has helped her develop great relationships with these team members.

ASHRAE Involvement
In 2001, Holly was taking courses at ISU with Dr. Gregory Maxwell (ASHAE Iowa Chapter President 1993 – 1994). In all his courses, Dr. Maxwell encouraged students to become involved in ASHRAE. In 2001, she started her ASHRAE career by joining the ISU student chapter.
As an ASHRAE student member, Holly developed connections with other members of the chapter and other classmates. She got to know Matt Jesson (ASHRAE Iowa Chapter President 2012 – 2013) and Benjaman Skelton (ASHRAE Region 6 Director and Region Chair 2016 – 2019) and was on a design team with them. As a student member, Holly also was awarded an ASHRAE Iowa Scholarship.

At Pulley & Associates, Holly continued to be an ASHRAE Iowa Chapter Member, joining as an Associate Member in 2002. Many of Her coworkers were ASRHAE Iowa Chapter members, although very few were active in the chapter. It was when Dan Zaug (ASHRAE Iowa Chapter president 2002-2003) reached out to Holly that she decided to become more active in the chapter.
In 2004 joined the ASHRAE Iowa Chapter Board of Governors (BOG). This began her period of active involvement with the Iowa Chapter which has lasted continuously for 20 years. Though this time, Holly has served in several roles including:
•    Board of Governors (2004 – 2005; 2005 – 2006)
•    Student Activities (2006 – 2007; 2012 – 2013, 2013 – 2014, 2014 – 2015, 2015 - 2016)
•    Product Directory Chair (2016 – 2023)
•    Secretary/Newsletter Editor (2007 – 2008)
•    Treasurer (2008 – 2009)
•    Vice President (2009 – 2010)
•    President (2010 – 2011)
When asked about her Chapter involvement, Holly noted that one of her favorite positions was as the Student Activities Chair. She noted that she loved being able to meet the students and could see great potential in some of them. She enjoyed seeing many of these students then stay in Central Iowa and join the industry and the ASRHAE Iowa chapter. Through ASHRAE, Holly was able to stay in touch with these members as they grew in their careers. For her service to the Iowa Chapter, Holly was awarded with a Chapter Service Award in 2016.
 
Holly Presents Student Chapter Scholarships to Adam Puls and Dan Blake

ASHRAE Iowa Chapter President
At BBS, Holly had the privilege to have two co-workers who were very active ASHRAE Chapter Members, Susan Oltrogge and Roger Lesher (ASHRAE Iowa Chapter President 2009 – 2010). Both of them would be ASRHAE Iowa Chapter presidents and both provided valuable experience and guidance to Her. Holly noted that Susan provided a good example of how to delegate tasks and then doublecheck the final work. Holly worked very closely with Roger daily. During his presidential year, she was able to see how he handled this role and the responsibility. Holly noted that Roger made sure that he devoted the time needed and had a strong desire to make sure that his presidential year was successful. Holly then used the experience gained from Susan and Roger to help her in her presidential year which immediately followed Roger’s.

Holly became the ASHRAE Iowa Chapter President for the 2010 – 2011 year. Reflecting on this experience, Holly noted that she had a great group of people on the board who helped and made things operate smoothly. Another reason for the success during her presidential year was the processes that Holly put into place and the leadership she provided. One of which was a monthly meeting with the Regional DRC. This is not a process that all chapter presidents implement. However, Holly noted that these monthly meetings helped her stay on top of chapter operations. Lastly, Holly followed the advice from her Co-worker, Susan. Holly made sure to delegate tasks to Chapter chairs and then to follow back up and double-check that items were being taken care of.
One of her goals as President was to win the Silver Gavel Award at the CRC, which she did. For those unfamiliar, this award is given to the Region VI chapter that scores the highest number of Presidential Award of Excellence (PAOE) points. Also at the CRC, Holly and the Iowa Chapter won the Hornblower Award. The criterion for this award is a closely guarded secret of Region 6, however, in general, it involves the chapter that has the most CRC attendees and travels the furthest. The only other Chapter to win both awards within the same year was the Iowa Chapter in 2002 when Holly’s Boss and Mentor, Susan Oltrogge was the Chapter President. Holly noted receiving these two awards and attending this CRC in Milwaukee as one of her favorite memories.

Some highlights from her presidential year were:
•    3-hour technical session presented by Dan Holohan (an early “influencer” in the HVAC industry with a book and blog – heating help.com)
•    Distinguished Lecturer presentation by William Coad (ASHRAE Society President 2001 – 2002)
•    Held chapter meetings mostly over the lunch hour
•    Increased average meeting attendance compared to the recent past years.
•    Won both the Hornblower and the Silver Gavel awards at the 2011 Chapter Regional Conference (CRC)
 

ASHRAE Impacts on Professional Career
Holly noted that her experience as ASHRAE president has helped her future career. She noted that as the Chapter President, this was one of the first times that others were looking to her for leadership and to make decisions. She noted that this took her some time to get used to as it did not come naturally to her. However, she noted that this experience then helped her as she became a leader at BBS. She noted that her presidential experience helped her to learn to empower others to help you and to trust that when something is delegated to others it would be completed, but that as a leader, you need to follow up.
Holly also noted that her experience helped her further develop her organizational and time management skills. As the Chapter president, she needed to focus on the entire year and not just one week in advance. An example of this came before she even took over as Chapter President. As incoming chapter president, Holly had to think through and recruit members to fill chapter chair positions. She then also had to work through leading effective monthly BOG meetings. To accomplish this, Holly created a new agenda each month and focused on distilling down the important items to the base ideas. This helped keep the meetings effective and within time constraints. She also learned how to lead the discussions during these BOG meetings. This involved knowing when to set items aside for a future discussion when more information was available or when there was more time to discuss.
Along with her Chapter President experience, Holly noted that several ASHRAE Iowa Chapter members have influenced her and been a mentor both professionally and in ASHRAE. She noted that Her bosses, Susan Oltrogge and Don Swanson (ASHRAE Iowa Chapter president 1999-2000) in particular were mentors for her. She noted that she still talks to Don on a fairly regular basis. She also noted that along with Matt Jesson and Benjamin Skelton, Holly became good friends with Matt Gumm (ASHRAE Iowa Chapter President 2015 – 2016) and Corey Metzger (ASHRAE Society Director-At-Large 2023-2024).
 
Holly accepts a Chapter Service Award from Andrew Pospisal
ASHRAE Membership Reflection
Reflecting on her 20 years of active involvement with the ASRHAE Iowa chapter, Holly recalled many great relationships that she has developed and even more fond memories. When asked for her advice for any people who are new to the HVAC industry or ASHRAE, she noted that they should get involved. She suggested doing more than just joining ASHRAE. She recommended that they go to the meetings, join the board or become a chair. Holly indicated that the ASRHAE community is a great opportunity to learn and connect with others. New members should use the ASRHAE chapter to network with others. Not only can this help develop relationships, but being an active ASHRAE member can open up doors to new opportunities.