ASHRAE will offer six online professional development seminars this spring. ASHRAE Learning Institute's professional development seminars provide in-depth information that is timely, practical, and advanced beyond a fundamental level. Seminar participants will earn professional development hours, continuing education units, or American Institute of Architects learning units for each seminar completed. For more information about the seminars, visitwww.ashrae.org/onlinepdsor call 800-527-4723.

Five addenda to ASHRAE's BACnet standard were recommended for public review at the society's 2006 Winter Meeting held January 21-25, in Chicago. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-2004, BACnet® - A Data Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks, allows building equipment and systems manufactured by different companies to work together. The proposed addenda, c, d, e, f, and g, are expected to be released for public comment in March. Additionally, BACnet committee chair Bill Swan announced the forma-tion of the wireless BACnet working group. "There is considerable interest in wireless applications for building automation," he said, "This group will work out the details of BACnet wireless communications."

As part of a continuing partnership, ASHRAE and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) will work together to advance and promote the mutual interests of engineers and health care facility professionals. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two groups was signed at ASHRAE's 2006 Winter Meeting held in Chicago, January 21-25. The two organizations are working together in a number of areas, including jointly developing proposed standard 170P, Ventilation for Healthcare Facilities. The proposed standard will define requirements for ventilation system design intended to provide environmental control for comfort, as well as infection and odor control.