News Detail

ACI Has A New Mission ... A Bold One

12/1/2017

In last month's Memo, I shared a few of my observations regarding the impact of the Strategic Development Council (SDC) of the ACI Foundation. The recent SDC technology forum event, held last September in Reston, VA, was truly inspiring. The SDC Board usually meets the evening before the 2-day meeting starts and I had the privilege to attend.

During the Board meeting, many members expressed their concerns that ACI was not doing "enough" to improve the quality of concrete construction. They stressed that many concrete contractors in the United States (and worldwide) may not even know what ACI is and, as one SDC Board member mentioned, "these mid-size and small contractors did not appreciate, or even care, what the building code says." I totally agree!

In the Middle East and Asia, I have seen first-hand that concrete contractors faced all types of problems because of their lack of knowledge in handling concrete and because of their misconstrued understanding of concrete fundamentals. It is disappointing to realize that the immense knowledge and education tools developed by ACI are not always finding their way to the industry.

ACI Executive Vice President Ron Burg was also in attendance and immediately picked up the issue. He emphasized to the attendees that ACI's current mission is to develop and disseminate consensus-based knowledge. Therefore, the Institute does not routinely address the adoption, acceptance, or use of the many codes, specifications, and guides that ACI develops. For ACI to have a proactive role in influencing concrete construction, the mission of the Institute should clearly change to reflect its commitment to not only develop and disseminate information but also to having that information used productively.

This is not the first time that the industry has come to ACI for direct assistance. In the early 1980s, ACI volunteers realized that ACI must have a role in ensuring that the competency of field testing and inspection personnel is duly verified so that concrete quality in the field is reliably assessed. This led to developing ACI Certification, which was not directly related to ACI's mission of "the development and dissemination of consensus-based knowledge."

Certification is the Institute's response to the industry's need for adequate testing, installation, finishing, handling, and inspection. It is not about developing and publishing documents but about certifying people and evaluating their competence in the different concrete functions they are assuming. Still, even with such a massive undertaking like Certification, ACI did not change its mission.

Lately—and more specifically—since the current Strategic Plan was developed in 2013, ACI has launched several initiatives that go beyond its current mission statement.

In 2014, the ACI Board established a new committee for Codes and Standards Advocacy and Outreach, with a mission to "advise the Board on strategic opportunities and procedures required for the adoption of ACI Codes and Standards in the U.S. and around the world, as well as identifying threats to the adoption of key ACI documents." Also, two new staff outreach positions were created: Bernard Pekor became the International Business Development Director in 2015, and Stephen Szoke joined ACI in 2016 as a dedicated engineer for codes advocacy. In addition, the ACI marketing team developed a global outreach strategy targeting specific regions and product lines to better promote the adoption of ACI codes, standards, and education modules.

All these actions, while inspired by the Strategic Plan, were not directly related to the mission. In actuality, ACI's activities do represent a gradual change from a passive role to becoming a more active influence in the industry.

Ron Burg was definitely right. A change in ACI's Mission Statement was overdue. At the last Board meeting in Anaheim, CA, the ACI Board of Direction approved a new mission for ACI, reading as follows, with the change underlined: "ACI develops, disseminates, and advances the adoption of its consensus-based knowledge on concrete and its uses."

This was another bold action by the ACI Board, as this change in the ACI mission is not merely semantic. ACI staff and volunteers will become more engaged in driving the adoption, acceptance, and use of its codes and standards to ultimately improve concrete quality. This is different from the passive role that ACI has been historically taking. It is now ACI's formal duty.

Khaled W. Awad