Strategic Plan: Update and Progress Toward Four Goals

Three years ago, the APA Board of Trustees completed a review and update of the Association’s Strategic Plan and re-affirmed four strategic goals. In the 2016 program year, APA staff and members worked together to execute these goals:

Goal 1: Provide an independent certification program that assures member compliance with standards, and provide a leading role in setting standards.

Completed 592 member-requested product qualification, research, and other technical projects for 100 member plants. Issued and maintained 85 Product Reports for 26 member companies, which provides a means to introduce members’ products to the marketplace as soon as qualification is complete. In 2016, 112,051 Product Reports were downloaded from the APA website, representing a 29 percent increase over 2015.

Participated in the activities of 20 code, standards, material testing, and engineering design committees in the U.S. and Canada, and served as chair of several CSA and ASTM committees and CSA Technical Committees.

Participated in the International Code Council (ICC) code development Group B hearings for the 2018 International Building Code (IBC) and 2018 International Residential Code (IRC).

Participated in the development of the 2018 National Design Specification for Wood Construction (NDS), Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (SDP-WS), and Wood Frame Construction Manual (WFCM).

Maintained the accreditation as a standards developer by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), allowing APA to develop American national consensus standards for recognition of APA members’ products by the codes. Maintained 7 American National Standards on behalf of the industry. In 2016, APA completed an update of ANSI A190.1-2012, American National Standard for Glued Laminated Timber and activated the standards committee to review and update ANSI/APA PRG 320-2012, American National Standard for Cross-Laminated Timber.

Responded to approximately 5,300 inquiries regarding members’ products through the Product Support Help Desk.

Maintained a test hut on the APA campus to conduct hygrothermal research on walls constructed with wood structural panels and continuous insulation for moisture management in the building envelope. Tests, initiated in 2015, were ongoing throughout 2016 in a collaborative program with the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory.

Conducted in-grade full-scale glulam beam tests in response to the demand by regulatory and engineering communities for periodic evaluation of commodity structural wood products.

Initiated a collaborative research with the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, on fire-retardant treated glulam and LVL in response to market demand for FRT wood in Type III construction in the International Building Code.

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