Building a Stronger ASHRAE Community in Ireland – Lessons from Membership Promotion Centralized Training in Austin
By Dr John McKeon, President, ASHRAE Ireland
One of the great strengths of ASHRAE is that while it is a truly global organisation, much of its energy comes from the work taking place locally within its chapters.
That was very evident when I had the opportunity to attend the 2026–2027 ASHRAE Membership Promotion Centralized Training in Austin, Texas, on 28 June 2026, immediately before the ASHRAE Annual Conference.
The training brought together Membership Promotion leaders from across ASHRAE’s 16 regions for a full day of learning, collaboration and, importantly, sharing ideas about how we can continue to build a strong and engaged ASHRAE community.
For me, attending on behalf of ASHRAE Ireland was also an opportunity to step back and think about a bigger question:
What does membership of ASHRAE really mean – and how can we make that membership even more valuable here in Ireland?
Membership is much more than a number
It can be tempting to view membership promotion simply in terms of recruitment targets: attracting new members, retaining existing members and increasing chapter numbers.
The discussions in Austin reinforced something much more important.
Membership is ultimately about community, connection and professional development.
Through ASHRAE, members gain access to an extraordinary international network of engineers, researchers, academics, building scientists, manufacturers, designers and other professionals working across the built environment.
They also gain access to technical knowledge, standards, research, conferences, professional development and, perhaps most importantly, opportunities to become actively involved in shaping the future of our industry.
The volunteer structure of ASHRAE provides another remarkable dimension. Members can move from attending a local chapter meeting to joining technical committees, participating in standards development, contributing to research, speaking at conferences and taking on leadership roles at Chapter, Regional and Society level.
That pathway is one of the things I would particularly like us to highlight in Ireland.
From Austin to Region XIV – and back to Ireland
The Austin training is also an important first step in a wider programme of learning and collaboration as we begin the new ASHRAE year.
I am particularly looking forward to further online regional training led by our incoming Region XIV Chair, Professor Eduardo Maldonado. This will give us an opportunity to take the Society-level learning from Austin and place it within the context of the opportunities and challenges facing our own Region.
That process will then continue when the Chapters of ASHRAE Region XIV come together for the Chapters Regional Conference (CRC) in Timișoara, Romania.
There is a useful progression here: learning from best practice across ASHRAE internationally, sharing and adapting that knowledge at Regional level, and then bringing practical ideas back into our individual Chapters.
For ASHRAE Ireland, my focus will be on turning that learning into action.
Bringing the learning back to ASHRAE Ireland
The Austin programme was extremely practical, covering how Chapters can run membership campaigns more effectively, use the resources available from ASHRAE, improve communications, automate some of the regular membership activities and better engage both existing and prospective members.
But perhaps the most valuable part was the opportunity to learn from other ASHRAE volunteers and hear what is working across different Chapters and Regions.
As we begin the 2026–2027 ASHRAE Ireland year, I would like us to bring some of that thinking home.
My ambition is not simply that we increase the number of ASHRAE members in Ireland.
I want us to build an increasingly active, visible and connected ASHRAE community.
That means welcoming established HVAC&R professionals, but also reaching further.
We should be engaging young engineers and students at the beginning of their careers; researchers and academics; consulting engineers and contractors; manufacturers and technology companies; architects and building professionals; and the rapidly expanding communities working in areas such as indoor environmental quality, healthy buildings, data centres, decarbonisation and building performance.
The challenges facing buildings today increasingly sit at the intersection of disciplines. Energy, ventilation, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, infection risk, sustainability, resilience and human health cannot always be considered in isolation.
ASHRAE is uniquely positioned to bring many of those communities together.
Creating reasons to belong – and participate
One of the lessons I took from Austin is that successful membership promotion cannot simply be about asking somebody to join an organisation.
We have to continually demonstrate why participation is worthwhile.
That means creating excellent technical events. It means providing opportunities to learn and network. It means connecting our members with the enormous body of knowledge that exists within ASHRAE internationally.
It also means creating opportunities for Irish members to participate beyond Ireland.
I would like to see more members of our Chapter joining ASHRAE Technical Committees, Standards Project Committees and Society initiatives, presenting their work internationally and developing relationships with colleagues throughout Europe and across the wider ASHRAE community.
Ireland has an extraordinary concentration of engineering, construction, technology, pharmaceutical, life-science and data-centre expertise. There is a great opportunity for us not only to learn from the international ASHRAE community, but also to contribute Irish expertise back into it.
The power of the ASHRAE volunteer community
The other striking aspect of the Membership Promotion training was seeing again just how much of ASHRAE is powered by volunteers.
Across more than 200 Chapters around the world, people give their time and expertise to organise technical programmes, mentor younger members, develop standards, support research, create professional development opportunities and strengthen their local engineering communities.
That commitment deserves recognition.
A particular thank you to Rob Druga and Lisa Nichols for their support and for the considerable work that goes into developing and delivering the Membership Promotion programme.
I returned from Austin with plenty of practical ideas, but also with renewed enthusiasm for what we can achieve within the Ireland Chapter.
And with further Region XIV training and the CRC in Timișoara still ahead of us, there will be plenty more opportunities to learn, share ideas and build on that momentum.
An invitation to get involved
Over the coming year, we want ASHRAE Ireland to become increasingly visible, relevant and connected – both here in Ireland and within the wider international Society.
If you are already an ASHRAE member, I would encourage you to become involved. Attend an event, bring a colleague, join a committee, contribute an idea or simply introduce yourself to the Chapter team.
And if your work touches heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, energy, building performance, indoor environmental quality, healthy buildings or the wider built environment and you are not yet involved with ASHRAE, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Because ultimately, growing ASHRAE membership is not about collecting membership numbers.
It is about building a stronger professional community – connecting people, sharing knowledge and creating opportunities to help shape the future of the built environment.
That is something I am very keen to continue building here in Ireland.
About the Author
Dr John McKeon is President of ASHRAE Ireland for 2026–27 and contributes to the Chapter’s thought leadership on indoor environmental quality, healthy buildings and the relationship between the built environment and human health.
A medical doctor by training, John graduated from Trinity College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. After completing his United States Medical Licensing Examinations, he moved from clinical medicine into entrepreneurship and innovation, founding the iAIR Group and Airmid Healthgroup, a contract biomedical research organisation specialising in the science of indoor air, allergens, microbiology and healthy indoor environments. He is Principal of the iAIR Institute and Medical Director of Airmid Healthgroup.
John is a member of the ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee and contributes to the ASHRAE Indoor Environmental Quality Center of Excellence, bringing a clinical and public-health perspective to discussions traditionally led by the engineering and building-science communities.
His wider industry involvement includes the International WELL Building Institute, the World Filtration Institute, the National Association of Home Builders’ Healthy Home Subcommittee, and the ISIAQ Innovation Task Force.
Across these roles, his work focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration and people-centred approaches to indoor environmental quality, bringing together medicine, engineering, building science and innovation to help create healthier indoor environments.