thank you for your support

Members Celebrate Milestone Anniversaries

The American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) is recognizing members who are celebrating milestone membership anniversaries. The member companies featured here have belonged to AFSA for 15 or more years of continuous membership.

“During a time where the world is chaotic and filled with uncertainties, one thing that is certain is AFSA would not exist without our dedicated members,” comments AFSA Manager of Membership & Chapter Relations Meda Merritt. “Thank you for your support and making AFSA the organization that it is today.”   

Several members are celebrating milestone anniversaries with AFSA in January and February 2022, including EBL Engineers, LLC, Baltimore, Maryland. Jeff McBride, P.E., principal with EBL, shared some of his favorite AFSA memories and things he’s learned. 

How did you get involved in the fire sprinkler industry and AFSA?

McBride: “I graduated as a fire protection engineer from the University of Maryland in 1987. My first employer was an early pioneer in the fire protection engineering field and immediately brought me on to fire sprinkler projects doing design, consulting, and reviews from day one. The AFSA Chesapeake Bay Chapter was forming around the early part of my career, and I started attending local chapter meetings on a regular basis.” 

What is your favorite or most used AFSA benefit?

McBride: “I like the Tech Updates, ITM Connection, and Sprinkler Age magazine that are shared around the office. As the prevalence of webinars and virtual training has expanded, I have attended several in the last year alone.”

What is your favorite AFSA or AFSA Convention memory?

McBride: “When I was more active with the local chapter, we did a couple of charity installations of fire sprinkler systems for deserving facilities. I always enjoyed these.”

What is the most significant change you’ve seen in the industry?

McBride: “When I first entered the industry in the late 1980s, fire sprinkler systems were not as universally applied as they are in the building codes over the last three decades. Residential fire sprinklers were just gaining an accepted foothold, and single-family residential fire sprinkler systems were just beginning to appear on the market. I have also seen so many of the local fire sprinkler contracting companies that I worked with early in my career retire or get acquired over the years, and that is somewhat bittersweet.”

What’s the key ingredient to your success?

McBride: “My success has been a result of being in a great industry that continues to grow and evolve.”

If I weren’t working in fire protection, I would be… (fill in the blank).

McBride: “It has been so long since I did anything else, I am not sure. I did work as a project cost estimator for a non-fire protection contractor before college, so that is possibly where I may have ended up if I had not entered this field.”

Celebrating AFSA Members

Recognition for milestone membership anniversaries in Sprinkler Age will be done in five-year anniversary increments and is available to all membership types. Congratulations to these members! AFSA looks forward to celebrating with more members and is excited to continue offering a trial membership program for contractors and Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs). 

Contractors have numerous resources at their fingertips as an AFSA member, including access to free Technical Reviews, which are written interpretations available from the Engineering & Technical Services Department, on any subject related to automatic fire sprinklers. Members have reported covering the cost of their dues with savings from just one job, based on a Technical Review!

AFSA membership offers substantial discounts on training for sprinkler fitter apprentices, system layout designers, ITM inspectors, supervisors, and project managers. AFSA contractor members are entitled to a free, initial legal consultation, over the phone, with a nationally known attorney who specializes in labor litigation. Members gain industry information and legislative updates through networking at chapter meetings, local and regional events, and during AFSA’s national convention.

Some of the benefits for Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) who join AFSA include access to AFSA’s technical resources such as webinars, Technical Review library, and Tech Update newsletter. Each year AHJs receive a complimentary day of seminars, including “Fire Sprinkler Plan Review” and a seminar specifically catered to AHJs, as well as a free exhibit hall pass for AFSA’s convention.

“From the time that an owner is told they must have a sprinkler system installed through the final inspection, it’s a team process among the owner, contractor, and AHJ,” comments AFSA’s Senior Director of Membership & Chapter Support Bruce Lecair. “The more each of us knows about the codes and regulations, the better the system is installed, and the safer the occupants are in the building. We welcome AHJs to partner with us to protect the public the best way possible.”  

For more details on AFSA membership, visit firesprinkler.org/join or contact AFSA’s membership team:
• Western U.S.: Bruce Lecair at blecair@firesprinkler.org;
• Eastern U.S.: Dominick Kasmauskas, CFPS, regional director of membership and chapter support, at dkasmauskas@firesprinkler.org; or
• Meda Merritt, director of membership and chapter relations, at mmerritt@firesprinkler.org.

Did you enjoy this article?
Subscribe for FREE!