Midway through the 2008 Major League Baseball (MLB) season, MLB assembled a team of technical experts that included TECO and the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, both located in the Madison, WI, area.  The team was charged with a goal of reducing the likelihood that wooden bats used during games would break into multiple pieces, and that work continues into the current 2013 season that is now more than half completed.

In a Lab Note Press Release issued by the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, the project and its progress is explained.     

A collaboration between the Georgia Research Institute, The Donnell Group, Panel World magazine, and Hatton-Brown Publishers has resulted in a one-time, one-of-a-kind special publication that highlights many of the amazing accomplishments of the past 50 years in the panel and engineered wood industries.  Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief of Panel World magazine, admits that PANEL AGE 50 was never meant "to be an encyclopedia" but rather a look back on the industry and its happenings, all from the perspective of a trade media entity that has covered the industry for the past five decades.  

For more information about PANEL AGE 50 or to order copies, contact Rhonda Thomas at Hatton-Brown Publishers. 

The American Wood Council (AWC) has a staff of engineers and code experts that, together with input and participation from its wood industry members like TECO, "ensures the continued regulatory acceptance of wood products in the marketplace."  AWC is the only organization that advocates for all segments of the wood products industry before building code-writing bodies in the United States, and is also the authoritative ANSI-accredited standards developer of wood construction standards and design tools referenced in the codes.  The documents overseen and maintained by the AWC include the National Design Specification® (NDS®) for Wood Construction, the Wood Frame Construction Manual (WFCM) for One- and Two-Family Dwellings, and the Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (SDPWS) Standard. These documents and others are referenced in the 2012 family of I-codes, which includes the International Building Code and International Residential Code.  

A portion of the discussion during the meetings dealt with the need to complete revisions to the NDS, WFCM, and SDPWS standard before December 1, 2014.  This is the cutoff date set by the International Code Council's policy on updates to referenced standards.  In order for revisions to the NDS, WFCM, and SDPWS standard to be eligible for consideration in the 2015 I-codes, they must be completed by December 1, 2014.  The AWC and its technical committees will be working on a number of issues so that changes can be included in the next round of code revisions.