News Detail

ACI’s Chapters - Forty Years of Grassroots Service

9/1/1998

This is a significant year for the chapters of the American Concrete Institute in that it marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the first chapter.

During the past four decades, ACI chapters throughout the world have represented the Institute at the grassroots level, often spurring solutions to problems and identifying new developments in concrete technology. Over these many years, the chapters have greatly added to the Institute’s stature as a premier disseminator of concrete knowledge.

A group of ACI members in the Greater Los Angeles area began meeting in 1955 to discuss matters related to concrete and its uses during this post-war period. Sam Hobbs, a Portland Cement Association regional engineer with offices in Los Angeles, spearheaded the meetings aimed at trying to resolve problems caused by a booming construction industry, by critical shortages in labor and materials, and by suggested Building Code revisions necessitated by new methods and techniques such as precast and prestressing. (The upcoming Los Angeles convention in late October will provide us with a good opportunity to thank those members of the Southern California chapter and other chapters for their contributions.)

After a few meetings in the mid-1950s, the group agreed to reorganize under the mantle of a national, nonprofit organization -- like ACI. The Institute was readily agreeable and, after some discussions and bylaws changes approved by the ACI membership, the Southern California chapter was formed officially in 1958 as ACI’s first. A second chapter, in Oklahoma, was established later that year and the Institute’s chapter program was off and running.

At the spring convention in Houston, Tex., earlier this year, the Board of Direction, acting on the recommendation of the Chapter Activities Committee, approved the creation of an 88th chapter -- this one in the Brownsville-San Benito, Tex., area to be known as the South Texas chapter. (An updated listing of all chapters with the top officers of each and contact information appears elsewhere in this issue.)

Twenty years ago, ACI had only 45 chapters, all but four of them located in North America. Today there are chapters in such diverse places as Egypt and Argentina, Copenhagen and Malaysia. One international chapter, the Maharashtra, India, has more than 800 members.

Also earlier this year, I attended the Chapter Roundtable held in Charleston, S.C., and came away very impressed with the diligence and work ethic of those involved in chapter activities, both on a local and a headquarters level. Particularly interesting were discussions by representatives of the local chapters. Some of the attendees were "old hands" while others were just newly elected to office.

Not all of the talk was focused on local conditions. The policies of ACI International -- especially as such policies relate to chapters -- were discussed in detail. There is no question in my mind that ACI’s chapter program has been a great success -- good for the Institute and its members, for the industry, and the general public.

I recently happened across a letter about chapters written in 1979 by a good friend of mine, past president Arthur C. Anderson, now deceased. Art Anderson was an extremely personable guy as well as a very fine engineer, a man who loved the Institute and what it stands for. In his letter, Art called upon chapters and its members to serve as "missionaries" to try and erase the public’s image of a "concrete jungle."

Art concluded: "It is now time for our ACI members to do more than talk amongst themselves and to start leaving the lump, so to speak, by disseminating our expertise to the total construction community."

What better way to sum it up?

James R. Libby
President
American Concrete Institute

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