GP Russ Chaney, Executive Director of IAPMO, has been selected as the "project coordinator" of this endeavor and has requested that Ms. Gabriella Davis, IAPMO Operations Manager, and I provide the administrative support for this project.

After "Option 1" of the proposal was approved by the members of the World Plumbing Council, numerous efforts were made by Russ Chaney and Andy Watts, Secretary of the WPC, to secure approval from the WHO. Finally, on Thursday, March 9, 2000, they attended a meeting at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and were advised that the proposal to revise and/or rewrite the publication was approved.

Please note that some minor changes have been made to the "work procedures" recited in the July memorandum but every effort will be made to abide by the time constraints set forth therein.

We must initially identify which of our members are interested in participating in this project. It is our intention to not only revise the enclosed publication to reflect technological changes which have transpired over the last twenty years but to rewrite this document so that it can serve as an authoritative reference throughout the world. We are committed to retaining the original format (chapter subjects) of the publication. Beyond that, we will rely upon the author of each chapter to determine the extent to which such chapter is to be revised and/or rewritten.

At the outset, we are requesting that members of WPC Organizations who are interested in participating in this process notify the undersigned of their interest by April 15, 2000. In the event you desire to work on a particular chapter or on more than one chapter, please identify your preference at the time you communicate with me. As soon as we are able to identify all of the members who wish to participate, we will be able to determine how best to allocate the chapters. In some cases, we may ask multiple members to coordinate their efforts when revising a particular section.

As you will see, we are proposing an aggressive schedule and we are already starting three months later than originally anticipated. For that reason, we are requesting that you respond to us as soon as reasonably possible. We hope to be in a position to have this document published by the WHO at the time of the next WPC Conference in Berlin, Germany, 22 - 25 May 2002. To make that a reality, we must provide the WHO with a "final draft" no later than September 2001. That leaves us with 14 months to produce what we hope becomes the "bible" on the health aspects of plumbing.

I look forward to working closely with each and every one of you in the months to come. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. As you know, it is "the mission of the World Plumbing Council to unite the world plumbing industry to safeguard and protect the environment and the health of nations, for the benefit of all." This endeavor will go a long way to illustrating to the world our ability to accomplish such mission.

Sincerely,

Neil Bogatz
Administrator to WPC rewrite of WHO's GoHAP

ENDS
MARCH 2000