Commerce Launches Wisconsin Building Safety Network Managers Conference

On June 14 & 15, 2007, the Department of Commerce Safety and Buildings Division held the first Wisconsin Building Safety Network Managers (WBSN) conference. The conference was attended by municipal representatives, industry representatives, Safety and Building division managers and organizations vital to today's building contractors.

Henry Kosarczyki and Bob Du Pont of the Safety & Buildings division compare notes at the Wisconsin Building Safety Network Managers Conference

The focus of the conference was not only to introduce the WBSN but to bring all agent municipalities in Wisconsin together and acquaint them with resources that enable building and regulatory departments to provide the highest level of service in their communities.

The first and most important tool to be launched at the conference was the WBSN webpage. This single-source tool is the portal for not only agent municipalities, but also for owners, designers and any other parties involved with Wisconsin's building industry.

One of the opening speakers at the conference was Dominic Sims, COO of the International Code Council. Sims addressed the fact that local government officials must support their building departments. Code Council surveys show that dwindling budgets, along with increasing workloads, are the biggest concerns of building departments across the nation. State and local governments across the country are facing financial difficulties at the same time that the construction sector is booming. Building officials must find ways to keep up with the work, often with reductions in their resources. But like police and fire personnel, building safety and code officials protect the public. If buildings aren't built to code or there aren't ample resources to conduct inspections, public safety is at risk.

Ralph Dorio of the Insurance Services Office spoke to the attendees from the perspective of the impact a robust building department can have on a community's property owners. Insurance ratings are closely related not only to construction type, fire protection systems and emergency response personnel, but also to the tools that a municipality may have in place to promote safer structures at the time of construction. That point was further emphasized by Keith Lessner on the following day. Lessner further explained the role and impact building codes and the administration of those codes has on a community.

The keynote address and follow-up presentation on Friday were delivered by Robert Wible, who brought to Wisconsin real-life case studies where communities have been successful in streamlining their regulatory process. Wible explained that the moment of crisis is too late to evaluate process, network and recovery.

The conference concluded with testimonial presentations of two successful building department programs in Grand Chute and Janesville as well as a listening session by Commerce where the attendees were able to tell the department what tools they need to make their operations at the local level more effective and efficient.

All of the presentations and links to valuable resources can be found on the (WBSN website). The specific date for the 2008 WBSN Managers Conference has not been set, but please keep in touch with the web page for continued information.

-- Henry Kosarzycki, AIA