News Detail

Technical Activities Committee-ACI's Technical Overseer

10/1/1999

In July, I was privileged to attend part of the traditional summer work week of the Technical Activities Committee (TAC). Twelve members and a chairman (all volunteers; a listing is on p. 4 of this issue of Concrete International) devote a tremendous amount of their time, experience, and intelligence to all aspects of the technical activities of ACI. (I was amazed to learn that every member of TAC reads almost every technical committee document ACI publishes!)

TAC is, obviously, a vital part of ACI but one that may not be completely understood. I have asked Terry Holland, chairman, and Rich Klingner, senior member of TAC, to write an overview of TAC’s functions for this month’s President’s Memo.

Jo Coke
President
American Concrete Institute

President Coke:

We welcome the opportunity to use this month’s President’s Memo to describe briefly what TAC is and what we do for the Institute.

The mission and membership of TAC are established by the ACI Board of Direction. In essence, TAC serves as the technical overseer for the Institute. How TAC carries out this responsibility is discussed below.

First, let’s mention who makes up TAC. As President Coke noted, all TAC members are volunteers who have demonstrated a sound technical knowledge of some aspect of concrete technology and who have successfully completed one or more terms as a technical committee chairman or other officer. TAC represents a wide range of interests within the Institute; current membership includes five academics, two representatives from federal agencies, four consulting engineers, one contractor, and one representative from a public utility. Most TAC members serve for six years.

What are the current TAC concerns?

• The first and highest responsibility of TAC is the appointment and training of ACI technical committee chairmen who are essential elements in accomplishing ACI’s goal of advancing concrete knowledge. ACI’s consensus process for document development must follow rules intended to protect the interests of all parties in the Institute. TAC works actively to ensure that committee chairmen and members understand and operate within these rules. This is done in several ways. For several years now, TAC has conducted special training sessions at ACI conventions and has invited all committee officers to attend. In addition, TAC has just finished comprehensive updates of the Technical Committee Manual and a new Style Manual, which are intended to be used as resources by committees in adhering to ACI consensus procedures, operating effectively, and producing high-quality documents.
• Probably the most time consuming aspect of TAC’s duties is the review of all technical committee documents. Not every document is read by every TAC member, but most members read most documents. A complete review is made based on review comments from TAC members, outside reviewers, and related technical committees. During the review, TAC looks at three areas: technical accuracy, readability, and consistency across committee boundaries.
• TAC is also working with other Board committees to improve the content of technical sessions presented at conventions. It is disappointing to attend a session and see a poor presentation or a mediocre one that could have been good if its visual aids had been better.
• TAC is challenging committee chairs to hold meetings that will attract and educate members. Nothing will kill interest in a committee faster than a meeting spent reviewing editorial comments on a document! Committee meeting time is extremely valuable and must not be wasted.
• Finally, TAC is looking at the specifications produced by our technical committees. We are doing a disservice to the industry by preparing specifications with conflicting requirements. We are preparing a master plan that is intended to ensure coordination of ACI specifications.

This short memo cannot do justice to all TAC does. All ACI members are invited to observe a TAC meeting or a document review—Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday preceding a convention. We look forward to seeing you there.

Terence C. Holland and Richard E. Klingner

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