News Detail

Happiness is...Friends Everywhere

12/1/2005

The last several months, I have had an opportunity to meet with many of ACI's friends around the world. We are all very fortunate that ACI has the reputation as a leader in concrete technology worldwide. Certainly there are others who share some of this knowledge, but ACI is considered the benchmark by which others are judged.

In early September, we visited Recife, Brazil, for the Instituto Brasileiro do Concreto's (IBRACON) 47th conference. The Fourth International ACI/CANMET Conference on High-Performance Concrete was held in conjunction with the IBRACON event. With engineers from many different countries, I was fortunate to tour some buildings in the Recife area that had alkali-silica reactions. It was an opportunity to compare the problems and potential solutions with a group of international experts. For what it's worth, there seems to be a better understanding of the problem than the solution. ACI has many friends among the members of IBRACON as well as the attendees at the ACI/CANMET conference.

During the second half of September, we visited New Zealand and Australia. In Auckland, New Zealand, we participated in the New Zealand Concrete Industry Conference. There were many participants from New Zealand as well as other parts of the world, including the U.S. and Europe. The exchange of concrete technical knowledge is ACI's goal. Through this process, we have developed friendships worldwide. Working together as friends, we will have a better understanding of each others' concerns, allowing us to work toward a united solution to common problems.

In Australia, we met with representatives of the Concrete Institute of Australia (CIA) and the Cement & Concrete Association of Australia (CCAA). The CIA, one of our International Partners, is very similar to ACI. "Friends everywhere"-that's the goal.

We just made our annual ACI President's visit to Washington, DC. Obviously, this was not a travel problem for me as I live in suburban Maryland about 12 miles north of the U.S. Capitol Building. Downtown DC is just a subway ride away. We visited a number of government agencies and other organizations that are headquartered in Washington. At each venue, we were greeted with open arms. All of you should be proud to be members of ACI. We do have "friends everywhere." In virtually every instance, we were able to meet with the CEO of the organization and/or his or her top aides.

By the time this memo reaches you, we will have had our convention in Kansas City, MO. Most of you probably don't understand how amazing it is that we were able to move our convention from New Orleans and not have to change a single meeting time. All of this was done within a time frame of 8 to 9 weeks, which is almost impossible. Our ACI Events Services staff did a perfectly marvelous job of accomplishing this. Let us also not forget all of the planning and preparation that our host committee in New Orleans did for the convention. We also offer our hopes and prayers for their rapid recovery and a return to their normal lives. Finally, we should thank the local hosts in Kansas City for stepping up and helping out.

The day after Thanksgiving, we are leaving for a meeting of ISO/TC 71, the technical committee on Concrete, Reinforced Concrete, and Prestressed Concrete, in Seoul, Korea. This will be followed by an International Chapter Roundtable in Bangkok, Thailand-more about both of these events after they have occurred.

In the October 2005 issue of CI, I talked about certification and my belief that it not only should be required on our projects, but that it will make a tremendous difference in the quality level we can achieve. Elsewhere in this issue, there is an article titled "Concrete Finisher Certification." It describes the process and makes a pitch for the training course and examination that is available in January at the World of Concrete 2006 in Las Vegas, NV. We need to make sure that our field personnel have the opportunity to improve themselves and, ultimately, our product-"friends everywhere."

We are living and practicing our professions in a time of wonderful opportunity. Remember to take advantage of your situation and once again: "Happiness is...friends everywhere."

James R. Cagley, President
American Concrete Institute
jim@cagley.com

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