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Continuing to Grow and Evolve

5/1/2012

I want to express my thanks for the honor and privilege to serve as ACI President. It's truly humbling as I look back at the list of distinguished ACI Presidents who have preceded me. With your help, I hope to maintain the level of commitment and dedicated service they have established for this office. To introduce myself, I will tell you about my own growth and evolution within ACI and then make a few statements regarding my objectives for the growth and evolution of ACI.

My involvement with ACI started as a Graduate Student at the University of Illinois. I took concrete design classes from Chet Siess and did earthquake-resistant design research with Mete Sozen. At their urging, I became an ACI member and soon observed their passion and commitment to ACI through their contributions as leaders within several technical committees. After I graduated and started my academic career at the University of Michigan, I didn't attend the ACI Fall 1973 Convention in Quebec City. Mete Sozen did attend, and when he returned home, he called me with a simple question, "Where were you?" Needless to say, I've missed very few meetings in the intervening 39 years.

When I started regularly attending ACI conventions, I sat in on a variety of technical committee meetings and found myself across the table from the giants of the concrete industry. I was shocked at how quickly they welcomed me into their group with friendship and respect for my opinions. I was further surprised by the depth of research and professionalism they brought with them as they passionately engaged in technical arguments. As I worked with these volunteer professionals, I went through a great period of personal growth and evolution as we strived together to write committee reports that reflected the current technical consensus and also had the editorial quality to pass the scrutiny of the ACI Technical Activities Committee (TAC).

After 6 successful years as a technical committee Chair, I was asked to join TAC, where I experienced further education and growth because the TAC membership represents a broad range of concrete professionals who look at technical issues from a variety of perspectives. While I was on TAC, I also had a chance to serve with five future ACI Presidents (Dean Stephen, Dick White, Jim Pierce, Bob Mast, and Terry Holland), and I could add a sixth for the one meeting I overlapped with Dave Darwin. I later became the Chair of TAC and served on the Board of Direction, where I was introduced to the full breadth of ACI activities, including all of the business operations, education activities, and our growing international presence. After leaving TAC, I served on the 318 Building Code Committee and eventually chaired that committee for the 2005 and 2008 editions of the Code. During my service on TAC, Committee 318, and the Board, I became very aware of the depth and range of support provided by the ACI staff that complements and enhances the work of the volunteer members.

As my growth and evolution continue through my Presidential year, I will attempt to make sure that all of you are aware of the many opportunities ACI provides its members and to highlight some of the key activities ACI is involved in globally. One of my major objectives will be highlighting many of the educational products and benefits that are available to you as ACI members. There is a rapidly expanding set of offerings available, thanks to the hard work of the Educational Activities Committee and various members of the ACI staff.

Sustainability is a major theme on every continent, and ACI strives to create partnerships and cooperative agreements with concrete organizations around the world to share concrete technology that will make the concrete construction industry as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible. To achieve this objective, a properly trained and certified workforce is necessary. Thus, a related objective of ACI is to work with concrete organizations of all sizes to deliver high-quality technician certification programs that will train the key personnel required to construct a sustainable and resilient concrete infrastructure.

A final ACI objective is to communicate all of this information to the membership in an efficient and unobtrusive manner. I look forward to my continued personal growth this year, as well as the services I can provide to you as your ACI President.

James K. Wight
American Concrete Institute

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