Exodus 12-13: Passover

“Snow at Argenteuil” | Claude Monet (1875)

“That’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself

then how to come pliantly back to again again.”

— Ali Smith,  Winter (A Seasonal Quartet)

Snow and ice management is a significant enterprise in education communities given that a large part of the United States deals with snow and ice at least six months every year.

One of the accredited consensus standards developer in this space is the Snow and Ice Management Association (SIMA) headquartered in Wisconsin where our colleagues know a little something about snow and ice.  SIMA’s business model — membership conferences, manufacturer sponsorship, training, legislative advocacy etc. — is very familiar to us.  We encourage workpoint experts – likely tens of thousands of facility managers involved in snow and ice management — to participate in its standardization program; the details of which are linked below.

SIMA Standards Development

SIMA has launched a new standardization project — SIMA 10 Standard Practice for Procuring and Planning Snow and Ice Management Services — which can hasten leading practice discovery and promulgation for those units in the education industry charged with getting school buses running in the morning, clearing ice and snow from campus pathways, parking lots, entrances and roofs.  From the announcement in ANSI Standards Action:

SIMA 10-201x, Standard Practice for Procuring and Planning Snow and Ice Management Services

Project Need: Snow and ice management service providers and their customers need to have standardized ways and methods of planning and preparation for snow and ice storms. Current practices are actualizing into inconsistent terms, lack of clarity, and unmet expectations. During snow and ice events (winter storms), standardized methods of procurement and planning are needed to enhance public safety and transportation.

Stakeholders: Snow and ice service providers, property and facility owners and managers, legal, insurance, consumers of snow
and ice management services.

This standard of practice covers essential procuring and planning for snow and ice management services. Standards for procuring and planning are essential for business continuity and to improve safety for patrons, tenants, employees, and others in the general public. Knowing how to describe service requirements in a snow and ice management request for proposal (RFP) is an important component to providing effective services, particularly where winter weather is a variable. This standard practice provides guidance on the snow and ice management procurement and planning process to aid in the creation of RFPs, contracts, agreements, and monitoring procedures. This standard will not be submitted for consideration as an ISO, IEC, or ISO/IEC JTC-1 standard.

An exposure draft has been prepared.  Comments were due December 23rd so it is likely that the SIMA team is responding to comments and preparing the final, consensus product for public use.

Download a free electronic review copy at www.sima.org/standards.  Send comments (with optional copy to psa@ansi.org) to: Follow the instructions for submitting a public review comment at www.sima.org/standards,  You may contact Martin@sima.org or Ellen@sima.org directly.

We will place the emergent SIMA suite on our monthly Grounds & Landscaping teleconference.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [19-155]

Category: Grounds & Landscaping

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

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