News Detail

It's About Working Together

11/1/2007

One of the tasks of every incoming ACI President is to develop a set of objectives for the year in office. Like those of my immediate predecessors, literally half of my objectives involve strengthening the communication and working relationships with other industry groups and technical societies both within the U.S. and around the globe. Our emphasis is on developing personal and organizational relationships to improve the quality of concrete.

I have been told on more than one occasion about the great respect accorded ACI internationally. Since assuming the presidency, I have had the opportunity to experience exactly that. In May, during a trip to Warsaw, Poland to attend an international symposium honoring ACI Past President Terry Holland, ACI Executive Vice President Bill Tolley and I visited the Board of Direction of the Committee on Civil Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences. During that meeting, we discussed areas of mutual interest and signed an International Partner Agreement to facilitate the exchange of literature between the two organizations. On the same trip, Bill and I joined the Chair of the Saudi Building Code National Committee to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that allows the committee to translate the ACI 318 Building Code and Commentary into Arabic to serve as the basis for their design code.

In September, Bill and I made another international trip, this time to Belgium and the Netherlands. In Belgium, we met with the President, Vice President, and Secretary General of RILEM (the International Union of Laboratories and Experts on Construction Materials) at a meeting in Ghent and the Board of Direction of the Belgium Concrete Association near Brussels. In both cases, our goal was to explore potential areas of cooperation, and in each case, we were warmly received and discussed specific areas of technical cooperation.

This month, Bill and I are literally on an around-the-world trip. The first stop is Athens for an International Chapter Roundtable, bringing together chapters from Europe, Africa, and the Middle and Far East. After Athens, we proceed to Taipei, Seoul, and Tokyo to meet with our friends from, respectively, the Taiwan Concrete Institute, the Korea Concrete Institute, and the Japan Concrete Institute. We have International Partner Agreements in place with all three organizations.

When discussing international partnerships, it is especially important to acknowledge our connections with organizations in Latin America, which have been developed over many years and resulted in strong two-way relationships with principal benefits that include the active participation of engineers from many Latin American countries in ACI and the development of Spanish translations of a number of ACI documents, most notably ACI 318S. Next year, we can look forward to even stronger connections with our friends in Latin America when Luis García from Colombia becomes the first ACI President from outside North America.

Closer to home, my goals include expanding ACI's working relationships with other technical societies and organizations. As incoming President, I had the opportunity to visit with representatives of the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC), the International Concrete Repair Institute, and the American Shotcrete Association. In June, I attended ASCC's CEO Forum in Asheville, NC, where I was able to get an improved perspective on the challenges facing the construction industry.

Finally, on the domestic front, in early October, ACI Managing Director of Marketing, Sales, and Industrial Relations Doug Sordyl; Bill Tolley; and I visited several organizations in the Washington, D.C. area, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the American Institute of Architects, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Design-Build Institute of America, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Green Building Council, all with positive results.

The strong relationships that ACI currently enjoys with its partners, both domestic and international, result from efforts that go back decades. My predecessors as President have played a key role, as has Executive Vice President Bill Tolley, who has been making connections worldwide since he joined ACI in 1975. As we go forward, Bill continues to provide a steady hand and often begins the conversion with potential partners by explaining that ACI's approach to building ties with our partners "is all about working together for better concrete." And it is!

David Darwin
American Concrete Institute
daved@ku.edu

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