Articles Association News Community
Fenestration Manitoba hosts holiday meeting

Dec. 9, 2015 – December is always a pretty busy month for everyone, but Fenestration Manitoba president Ryan Dudeck was pretty pleased with the turnout at the organization’s 2015 AGM on December 3rd. It was held at the Clay Oven restaurant in downtown Winnipeg, just down the block and within view of the interestingly fenestrated Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

“It’s really great to have all this support that we have from everybody out here, the manufacturers, the suppliers,” said Dudeck, who, in another life, works for Paramount Windows and Doors. “Mostly, this is just about everybody getting together, having a drink and a bite to eat and having a nice discussion about our industry.”

“You know, in the past year, we’ve actually had a very good year of growth; our growth has been there as an industry, our growth has been there as an organization. We’ve really tried to dive into how to grow the organization and that’s what we’ve focused on this year.”

Dudeck listed some recent events, like the annual golf tournament and an autumn industry round table meeting, where manufacturers came out and “told us what they were looking for in the industry, the needs of training, communications, installation, you name it,” said Dudeck.

Another focus of the evening was the promotion of almost monthly professional education opportunities in the upcoming year, like their February session on window simulation.

“Coming up, some of the big focus is on training and education,” said Dudeck. “We’ve got a pretty jam-packed first six months. And we hope that all of you guys attend these things. It’s important. It’s great to see everybody out, but it’s better that you guys can learn and take it back to everybody in your companies… That’s what we’re here for as an organization.”

Dudeck also broached the subject of the CSA asking like-minded organizations for donations to cover recent shortfalls.

“They’re short on their codes and writing regulations,” he said. “They’re asking us for money… The reality is the CSA writes the codes for Canada and if we don’t fund them… then we won’t have any say in the matter in the years ahead.”

Afterwards, Dudeck estimated that attendance at the AGM was up 25 % from last year.

“All of our companies seem to be able to get together,” he said. “It feels like it’s good growth, like we have a lot of traction and a lot of good buzz.

Also top of mind at the Clay Oven was the future of the industry, especially growing it from within.

Once the official AGM wrapped, the association’s past-president Al Dueck (Duxton Windows and Doors) said, “we’re having to, in our industry, wave the flag a bit and say, wait a minute, there are good career opportunities in our business. And so that’s part of our process; we’re working on some training stuff.”

Added Al Babiuk, of Loewen Windows, “…and developing programs and profile for the industry and bringing people in with more of a focus that it can be a career. There are great opportunities to learn skills and we all need people.”

FM was established in 2012 and its membership still growing. And, better yet, according to the documents filed at the AGM, the organization is currently in the black.