The ASHRAE India Chapter was approved by Society in the Atlanta, Georgia Meeting on Feb 15, 1990. Mr. David S. Butler, ASHRAE President, inaugurated the Chapter on March 29, 1990.
The Saudi Chapter is one of the earliest Chapters of ASHRAE, formed in 1993. The chapter was supported by Saudi Aramco Management led by the Chief Engineer in Engineering Services.
The Cairo chapter was established in 1995 with the collective efforts of elite group of HVAC consultants, contractors and suppliers. The first inauguration was held at Dar ElHandasa office in Mohandseen, Cairo.
The Official Chartering ceremony of the Lebanese ASHRAE Chapter was held in Cairo, Egypt, on October 9, 1995, going down in ASHRAE’s history as the first Chapter after the Centennial of ASHRAE. The Ceremony was held in Cairo due to the unsafe travelling conditions in Lebanon.
The Kuwait Chapter was one of the earlier Chapters to be established within the Region, on th 13th April 1996. The people who were instrumental in the formation of this Chapter were Prof. Walid Chakorun, Prof Moustafa Elsayed, Dr. Nawaf Al Mutawa, Dr. Asad Al Ebrahim and Dr. Sorous Alotaibi.
The Installation of the ASHRAE Western India Chapter was done by Mr Richard Hayter, ASHRAE President, on the 17th April, 1996.
The ASHRAE Bangalore Chapter (ABC), which started off as ASHRAE South India Chapter (ASIC) was chartered in the year 1999 with membership strength of 53.
The Hellenic Chapter’s charter was approved in 1999 by the Board of Directors of ASHRAE during the Annual Conference in Seattle, U.S.A. On April 16, 2000 the inaugural event of the Hellenic Chapter was held at a Central Hotel in Athens.
with the communication initiated by Pandukabhaya Amarasinghe in April 2001, with Sameer Traboulsi, the Chairman Sub Region A of RAL, the proposal to establish a Chapter was successful.
The ASHRAE Pakistan Chapter was petitioned at the 1st RAL CRC in Reading UK. Mr. Farooq Mehboob travelled to the UK and handed the petition to President Don Colliver. The Chartering Ceremony was held at the Avari Towers, Karachi, in September, 2003.
with the communication initiated by Pandukabhaya Amarasinghe in April 2001, with Sameer Traboulsi, the Chairman Sub Region A of RAL, the proposal to establish a Chapter was successful.
The second ASHRAE RAL ARC was inaugurated on the 7th September, 2003, with a Welcome Party at the Hilton Pyramids. It was the first CRC held in a 5-Star hotel. An outing was arranged at the Sphinx Sound and Light show which was brilliant, and greatly enjoyed by all. There were a large number of attendees who were ordinary members as well as families. A cruise on the night with a belly dancers’ performance was one of the highlights of the CRC. The Cairo Chapter arranged sightseeing tours to the historical places and all arrangements were extremely well done.
As the region was still in the early developing stage, this chapter was formed to provide technical and professional support to Mechanical Engineers in UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
The Founding members of the chapter are Mr. Basam Al Elassad, Mr. Vijay Kumar, Mr. Bassel Anbari, Mr. Girish Hira and Mr. Mohsen Abu Naga. The chapter was inaugurated on December
7th, 2003 by Mr. Samir Traboulsi, the then RAL DRC who supported the whole idea.
From 25th to 27th September, 2004 The 3rd Annual Regional Conference of ASHRAE Region-At-Large was held from Sept. 25 to 27, 2004 at hotel The Grand, New Delhi.
The Danube Chapter held its chartering ceremony on April 8, 2005 and was the second ASHRAE chapter in Sub Region B. ASHRAE President Ron Vallort and Sub Region B Chair, Costas Balaras, were present at the event.
The Portugal Chapter was chartered on the 14th June, 2005, in Lisbon, by the President of ASHRAE, Ron Vallort, and President of ADR-AR(B), Costas Balaras. The constitution of Portugal as Chapter Society Nonprofit took place later, in the first half of 2006
From 26th to 27th September, 2005 The 4th RAL ARC was held in the lovely historical city of Athens. RAL had grown to 14 Chapters, all of whom were in attendance.
From 1st to 3rd November, 2006, the fifth ASHRAE RAL CRC was inaugurated on the 1st November, 2006. It was hosted by the Emirates Falcon chapter after being shifted from Beirut and co-chaired with the Lebanese Chapter.
The ASHRAE Spain Chapter was founded in 2007 with the efforts of Mr. Francisco Mari-Pino Garcia, Enrique Yotti and Adolfo Sanz to name a few. President Kent Peterson and RAL DRC Samir Traboulsi were at the Chartering Ceremony held in Madrid.
From 2nd to 5th September, 2007 The sixth ASHRAE RAL CRC was inaugurated on the 2nd September, 2007, at the luxurious Park Hyatt Resort. This was a huge property with gardens, villas and a private beach in Goa, the ‘Paradise of India’, tropical and lush green.
The Qatar Oryx Chapter saw the light in late 2007. It is soon to celebrate a decade of its existence. The Chapter received its name and first BOG on December 10, 2007 after the initiative of Mr. Imad Mobayed and Mr. David Brown, Mr. Hassan Sultan, Mr. Hani Hawamdeh, Mr. Kamal Taj, and Mr. Subrata Kar.
From 13th to 14th October, 2008 The 7th RAL CRC hosted in Lisbon was RAL’s first exposure to the beautiful city of Lisbon, with its unique culture, a mix of Spanish, Portuguese and Moorish.
The ASHRAE Chennai Chapter was officially born on the 22nd of June 2009 after being approved at the Members Council Meeting at Louisville KY. Some instrumental people in the formation of the Chapter were SR Valluri, RV Simha, Deepa Sathiaram, Kamalendra Singh, Sayani Haribabu.
The 8th CRC had an atmosphere of its own. The Movenpick Hotel was a resort by the sea with a private beach. The Welcome party was held in a specially constructed pavilion in the style of an Arabian Tent.
On the 23rd of March, 2010, history was made as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Airconditioning Engineers, ASHRAE, Nigeria Chapter was officially inaugurated. ASHRAE Nigeria, with 124 professionals, had the singular honour of being chartered by Dr. Walid Chakrun via Skype and this remains a major signpost in the annals of the Society.
The Pune chapter was chartered on 25th October 2009. ASHRAE President, late Lynn Bellenger installed the first BOG on 6th January 2010.
In 1997, the ASHRAE Western India Chapter saw a considerable increase in its membership number after the success of its first major event, a One Day Seminar on Air-Conditioning for Health Care Facilities. Considering the vast geographical spread of the Chapter, and, the fact that Membership was equally divided between the three major Cities, the BOG used to meet at the three Cities, by rotation, every month. Conducting programs at the three locations on a regular basis was also proving to be a challenge.
The ASHRAE Central Pakistan chapter was chartered on the 28th June 2010, by Presidential Member, Mr. Richard H. Rooley. The event took place at the 18th Annual Pakistan HVACR Expo in City of Gardens, Lahore, Pakistan. Members of the Central Pakistan chapter were earlier part of ASHRAE Northern Pakistan Chapter, that was operating primarily in Islamabad city, the Capital of Pakistan. It was due to the untiring efforts of senior members that the petition for the formation of Central Pakistan Chapter was formally sent to ASHRAE & was subsequently approved.
The 9th CRC was held at the Movenpick in Cairo. Because Cairo and Egypt are huge tourist attractions lots of Chapter Member and their families travelled to Egypt. The Movenpick could therefore not provide accomodation for everyone and many stayed at another hotel close by. The Welcome reception was at the historical Azhar Park. Dinner on the second day was on a floating restaurant on the Rover Nile whilst the closing dinner was arranged at a countryside resort in Saqqara, close to Cairo, allowing the members to experience the Egyptian village feel, with bread made on site and a lot of enjoyable local entertainment. Many RAL members joined the belly dancers to make it a lasting memory. Special trips were organized to the pyramids, Egyptian museum and the city of Alexandria. Souvenirs were carefully selected and distributed to each participant of each of the social events.
This CRC was also the first RAL CRC with a two day Technical Seminar, jointly held with UNEP. This attracted between 186 people and several renowned speakers. Three parallel technical sessions took place simultaneously.
It truly was a very successful and memorable CRC for everyone.
ASHRAE Deccan Chapter was part of ASHRAE South India Chapter from 1995, and formed the ASHRAE Hyderabad section in the year 2010. Later in the same year, the ASHRAE Hyderabad section was chartered as ASHRAE Deccan Chapter and inaugurated by Ms. Lynn Bellenger.
The 10th CRC in Abu Dhabi was held courtesy of the Falcon Chapter who graciously agreed to host it in a short notcie as the CRC in Beirut which everyone was looking forward to was cancelled due to security concerns. Nevertheless the Falcon Chapter and Dr. Alaa rose to the challenge and arranged a wonderful CRC which included a joint ASHRAE/UNEP Engineering Conference, CRC and Student Gathering.
rom 29th to 30th September, 2012 The 11th CRC with 20 Chapters attending, attracted lots of ordinary chapter members and families to the Emerald Isle. On the 28th September 2012, a Technical Session was held, with the Key Theme, “Way Forward for Sustainable HVACR Solutions”.
Foundation of Cyprus Section
Foundation of Oman Section sponsored by Falcon Chapter
Foundation of Jaipur Section sponsored by India Chapter
Foundation of East India Section sponsored by India Chapter
The 12th CRC in Doha was immaculately planned and organized by Hasan Sultan and his team. The Social Events were outstanding, including a dinner at a huge Arabian restaurant with exquisite food, where the courses never ended. People enjoyed and danced to the local music. The harbour cruise on the dhow was a memorable one with spectacular views of the harbour and the magnificent buildings.
Beside the Society officers, the CRC visitors included Presidential Members Ron Jarnagin, Tom Phoenix and Society Treasurer, 2016-2017, Sheila Hayter.
Enrique Yotti and his team were the ideal hosts of the 13th CRC in Madrid, Spain. They were warm and caring, ready to help always, and with lots of patience. The CRC saw over one hundred delegates from all over the word attend.
The Chartering of the ASHRAE Bangladesh Chapter was done on the 1st of March 2016 at the Le Meridian Hotel in Dhaka. The ASHRAE Bangladesh Chapter became the latest addition to the ASHRAE RAL family making the total number of chapters within the RAL to become 25.
The 14th CRC was awarded to he Turkish Chapter with some trepidation as the Chapter was a little over a year old. RAL’s faith in the Turkish Chapter was fully vindicated. Dr. Baris and his team put up a CRC, the likes of which will be hard to replicate. The arrangements were outstanding. Turkish Hospitality is legendary and RAL saw it at first hand.
The 15th RAL CRC will not only be the first Joint CRC of Region At Large with Region 13, but will be the first Joint CRC in ASHRAE. Also set to take place during the Joint CRC and unprecedented in ASHRAE will be the first ever Board of Directors Meeting outside the United States. This was decided keeping in line with ASHRAE’s move towards globalization. It was felt that a Board meeting at this CRC, which will bring together the only two regions not in the United States at one place, would be ideal for the Society Executives to interact and understand the ASHRAE members outside the United States and Canada.
All 25 Chapters are expected to attend the CRC. A one day Technical Seminar shall kick off the Conference on the 30th Sepember 2016. Eight speakers will cover topics under the theme “Innovation for a Sustainable Future”. Notable among them are ASHRAE speakers, President, Tim Wentz; President Elect, Bjarne Oleson; Society Treasurer, Sheila Hayter; Jim Vallort, Charles Gulledge and Thomas Lawrence.
Sub Region-II Meeting on 19th-21st July at Ahmadabad, India
Sub Region-I Meeting on 23 - 25 July at Beirut, Lebanon
Sub Region-II Meeting on 15th-16th July at Chandigarh
Sub Region-I Meeting on 28th-30th July at Manama, Bahrain
9-14 OCTOBER 2022
9-14 OCTOBER 2022
On 5th January, ASHRAE BOD approved restructuring ASHRAE Region-at-Large by creating Region XV emerged from RAL Sub-Region II Chapters (from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh).
Chapters from Sub-Region I (Africa, Middle East and Pakistan) became the new ASHRAE RAL.
RAL restructuring took place on the beginning of the Society year (1st July 2024)