The Building Officials and Code Administrators, International (BOCA) membership resolved unanimously at their annual meeting September 16–20 in Cincinnati to set a deadline of February 2003 for merging their membership and business operations—along with the Southern Building Code Council International (SBCCI) and the International Council of Building Officials (ICBO)—into the International Code Council (ICC). The vote at the installation luncheon followed an anxious three days of waiting to see how the BOCA Board would react to the decision by the ICC Board to name the current CEO of SBCCI, William Tangye, to be the first CEO of the ICC. The BOCA decision was formally announced at the same luncheon meeting.

BOCA, SBCCI, and ICBO have been working cooperatively for more than a decade to create the ICC. The cooperation among the three groups led to the publication of the first ICC codes in 1995. The decision for the merger has been anxiously awaited by many in the industry following the development of the international codes. SBCCI and ICBO membership will be meeting in Greensboro, S.C., at the end of October to consider similar resolutions endorsing the merger. The choice of a CEO to take charge of the merger was a key element for creating a focus for the building officials' efforts to respond to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) efforts to develop a competing building code.

The AIA has endorsed the ICC family of codes as being the only codes that meet its policy calling for a single set of comprehensive, coordinated, and contemporary codes in the U.S. The NFPA 5000 building code will be finalized at the NFPA annual meeting in May 2002. At that time, the AIA will determine how the process and technical features conform to its policies.

Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.