The U.S. Institute of Building Documentation (USIBD) is in the final stages of organizing and will formally launch at SPAR International 2012, which is being held April 15-18 in Houston. The USIBD is a non-profit organization with a mission that is dedicated to furthering the excellence of building documentation by promoting, educating, guiding and supporting stakeholders with an interest in the built environment.

"The USIBD has a strength that few other organizations have harnessed: to engage ALL stakeholders, from the owner/operators, architects and engineers to the surveyors, scanning providers and contractors," said John Russo, president and CEO of Architectural Resource Consultants (ARC), the founder of USIBD. "These times have technology forcing dramatic changes in workflows and processes. We hope to provide stakeholder groups with better, more comprehensive standards, guidelines and best practices to foster the productivity, quality and safety of the documentation process."

A subcommittee has begun developing standards for specific areas of building documentation, such as quality assurance and historical documentation. This will continue to expand to the development of the certification process to help professionals establish credibility in the building documentation field and to provide assurance that service providers are qualified to perform the requested work.

Education is another key aspect to the USIBD. "We want to help building owners and others who are procuring building documentation services gain a better understanding of what it is they require so they can properly specify their needs," Russo said. "The core of the USIBD is to be an educational resource dedicated to the pioneering technology of the building documentation industry."

The USIBD will be offering both individual and corporate memberships, and it is also seeking to develop alliances with other organizations to foster a broader understanding of shared issues.

The USIBD will have a booth at the conference and will also be hosting a round table discussion at 9:00am, Wednesday April 19th. For more details about USIBD, visit www.usibd.org.