Society of Concrete Petrographers

Marriot - Tampa, FL

The meeting was called to order Laura Powers (President) 6:15pm
Welcome and introductions (11 members, 3 visitor). Everyone shared what was the most exotic or far away specimens examined. Laura Power won, having examined a lunar sample from NASA.
Minute from June 14, 2011 meeting approved – Mark Lukkarila moved the minutes be approved, Gerard seconded, minutes were approved unanimously.
Old Business
1. By-Laws Committee - The last update to the By-laws was 2006. Bob O’Neill, Mauro Scali, Mark Lukkarila and Mengesha Beyene volunteered to form the new By-Laws subcommittee (4 members required). The President requested that it look at any changes needed such as changing term limits from 2 to 3 years.
2. Nominating Committee - A new Nominating Committee was formed to prepare a slate for next election: Derek Cong, Patrick Miller, Ted Sabbick, Mark Lukkarila and Mauro Scali (4 members plus past President required).
3. Upcoming elections – The term of the existing officers expires the end of 2011, or when new officers are successfully elected. Existing officers were asked if they wish to continue to serve and run for the next office up. All agreed and the slate proposed by the nominating committee are: Bob O’Neil for Treasurer, Gerard Moulzolf for Secretary, Nancy Whiting for Vice President, Nick Scaglione for President.
4. A simple majority of voting members is needed to elect new officers. There was a problem with getting a simple majority of ballots returned during the last election. In an attempt to avoid this problem next election Nancy to send out an email to all voting members asking if they are still interested in maintaining their membership as voting members.
5. Nick will update the webpage and will send out instructions on how to enable automatic notification when News and/or new discussions are posted.
Secretary’s Report (Nancy Whiting)
1. New Members – 8 new member applications have been approved this past year, 5 Voting Members and 3 Associate Members.
2. The members list on the website will distinguish the members’ status, Voting, Associate or Honorary. A list of the new associate members will be sent to Nick
3. Honorary Members: Bryant Mather and Richard Mielenz have been Honorary Members since 2007. This will be identified on the members list posted. New Honorary members to consider include: David Stark and James Ray.
4. Membership Committee - A new Membership Committee needs to be established (2 members + Secretary). Ann Daugherty volunteered. One more volunteer member will be recruited to join the Secretary and Ann as the new Membership Committee.
5. Mauro will send all the past minutes to Nancy which will be added to the more recent SCP Meeting Minutes. It is proposed that the Secretary will maintain a repository of all past and current meeting minutes.
News (Laura Powers)
1. Laura read a Tribute to David Stark that Bernie Erlin had written and had been posted on the SCP website on October after his deat
2. Bernie Erlin has proposed to write up a summary of some of the works of the ‘greats’ or Fathers of Concrete Petrography.
3. Employment opportunities for Concrete Petrographers can be posted on the website. Posting will be kept simple to include Job Title and a link or phone number. RJ Lee Group has a current posting.
4. A recnt article is available by Bernie Erlin titled: “Footprints in the Sand” in the November 2011 internet issue of ConcreteConstruction. The article can be found at http://www.concreteconstruction.net/concrete/footprints-in-the-sands-of-time.aspx
5. The necessary training and academic background that is important to being a Concrete Petrographer was discussed, as was the need to promote this.
6. The next ICMA meeting (International Society of Cement Microscopy) will be in Halle, Germany, April 1-4, 2012. More information can be found through the ICMA link found on the SCP website.
7. An invitation was received to collaborate with the Applied Petrography Group, an affiliate of the Engineering Group of the Geological Society of London (per Derek Brown). Ideas included sharing published links, working on a Glossary of Terms, joint efforts to publishing the usefulness and value of petrography to a wider global audience, joint meetings, joint/associated memberships, authentication/accreditation of ‘competence’ in applied petrography. Laura will continue to foster a working relationship with this group and a link will be added to the SCP website.
8. Mauro showed the proposed certificate for Concrete Petrographers that will be awarded to all members
9. Motion to adjourn by Mauro Scali and seconded by Mark Lukkarila 8:30pm.

ATTENDEES: Members - Mengnesha Beyene, Derek Cong, Mark Lukkarila, Patrick Miller, Gerard Moulzolf, Laura Powers, Nick Scaglione, Mauro Scali, Bob O’Neill, Ted Sibbick, Nancy Whiting. Visitors - Rachael Barbari, Frank Gay, Bob Jenkins