News Detail

Quo Vadis?

5/1/1999

"...if a given organism always reproduces itself perfectly, its descendants never change, and without change, evolution is impossible." —The New York Times

"Never let go of what you’ve got until you’ve got hold of something else."
—The First Law of Wing Walking

ACI is meeting the 21st Century as a more vibrant, streamlined organization. Since December 1996, we have had ourselves under a microscope, evaluating our processes and their results. We’re going to evolve!

And we’ve definitely "got hold of something else." The Membership Committee, under the superb leadership of George Barney, has completed an in-depth study of what both members and ex-members think...what you want from us, why you belong (or dropped out), what ACI can do to improve our services. We began the study, you may recall, searching for reasons for an alarming membership decline. Following on the heels of the new Strategic Plan, it immediately assumed a broader scope; as you would suspect, there were no pat, easy answers.

Rewind to the six major initiatives as identified by the Strategic Plan (see Concrete International, January 1999 issue, pp. 7-9):

1. Develop electronic communications,
2. Publish more practice-oriented material,
3. Improve the attractiveness of ACI membership,
4. Improve our position as leaders in standards and codes,
5. Expand certification, and
6. Accelerate technology transfer.

The results of the study strongly support these initiatives. The recommendations were:

1. Develop electronic communications — There are at least two committees working on our positioning with regard to the Internet: utilizing e-mail for committee work and membership activity, and reestablishing our website with more interactive features. As you may know, the Aberdeen Group (developer of the ACI website) was sold to Hanley-Wood Publishers, and will no longer offer this service. Staff, and a new Internet Advisory Committee, assure us of a virtually seamless conversion and subsequent maintenance.

2. Publish more practice-oriented material — This one requires input from those in practice. Our challenge here is to motivate potential authors to spend the time necessary to write articles, give papers, and generally give us the benefit of their expertise and experience in the field. There are various suggestions on the table to accomplish this, and you can expect to see more practice-oriented articles in Concrete International.

3. Improve the attractiveness of ACI membership — This ultimately boils down to a question of what members want from ACI, and what value they put on it. If we can provide timely, more practice-oriented information, in addition to maintaining our role as a forum for scholarly reports and research papers, and make both available in the form desired (e.g., hard copy, electronic), we will have come a long way towards making ACI very attractive to current and future members. One major step we have recently taken in this regard is the formation of a Marketing Committee. The committee’s mission is "to increase awareness of ACI’s benefits, products and services." Much of what we heard in the study indicated that often we do an inadequate job of marketing ourselves. Many of those interviewed did not understand the mission of ACI or how we operate; some didn’t realize that technical committees are open to everyone, or that we are not a government organization!

4. Improve our position as leaders in standards and codes — This refers to the "brand image" of ACI. We are perceived as the leader in concrete standards, and respondents were strong in their belief that we must take all steps necessary to remain so. In the words of the report: "The underlying goal of all ACI actions must be to protect and burnish its strong position."

5. Expand certification — Efforts in this area are part of that goal, and directly reflect our overall mission, which reads in part: "To organize the efforts of its members...in gathering, correlating and disseminating information for the improvement of the design, construction, manufacture, use and maintenance of concrete products and structures...This corporation...shall be operated exclusively for educational and scientific purposes." Certainly, certification embodies all of the above.

6. Accelerate technology transfer — Refers to the timeliness of information we provide. A special committee has been effective in reducing the backlog of journal papers submitted for publication. Innovative Task Groups have already been formed under the Technical Activities Committee. The Strategic Development Council, under the Concrete Research and Educational Foundation, provides a venue for bringing new technology to the marketplace, and for its appraisal in a more timely fashion.

I come from the marketing part of this industry. It is my sincere wish to continue the excellent work started by previous ACI presidents Jim Pierce and Dick White, and continued by Jim Libby. We have current data from the new membership study; an excellent staff, headed by a new Executive Vice President, Jim Toscas; and the will of an energetic, enthusiastic Board of Direction. Obviously, we need and will welcome any of your thoughts and ideas. This is for and about you.

Jo Coke
President
American Concrete Institute

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