The ASTM Board of Directors last met April 23-25. The following is a summary of the actions taken by the Board at those meetings.

Executive Committee Report

The Nominating Committee is charged with selecting the slate of candidates for the 2002 ASTM directors and officers. The committee is composed of the three past chairmen of the ASTM Board and six other individuals. The following people have been named to the 2001 Nominating Committee:

• Dawn Abele, DuPont Spruance AFS, Richmond, Va.;

• Joseph Barsoom, City and County of Denver, Colo.;

• Ronald M. Epstein, Halocarbon Products Corporation, River Edge, N.J.

• Jim Goddard, Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., Columbus, Ohio;

• Allen Iske, Bayer Corporation, Kansas City, Mo.;

• Thomas Yager, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.;

• William M. Edmunds, Canal Winchester, Ohio, past chairman of the Board;

• Harvey P. Hack, Northrop Grumman Corp., Annapolis, Md., past chairman of the Board; and

• James S. Pierce, Littleton, Colo., past chairman of the Board.

Chairman Don Marlowe reported on his interactions with the executive subcommittees of various ASTM technical committees regarding his January letter informing them of a recent Board action. The action requires that all committees inform ASTM when a U.S. Technical Advisory Group plans to submit a published or draft ASTM standard as a new work item to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). He explained that initiating this dialogue between the Board and the technical committees would provide the Board with the feedback necessary to properly service membership expectations related to global standardization.

Committee on Publications Report

A pilot project of Committee E08 on Fatigue and Fracture has been launched, in which electronic versions of individual technical papers are to be published on the ASTM Web site once they are peer reviewed and edited. The committee held its symposium in November 2000 and the first online paper was published in March 2001.

COP also reported that there is now online capability to search current and past issues of the ASTM journals.

The Board approved STP 169C, Significance of Test and Properties of Concrete and Concrete-Making Materials, as the recipient of the 2001 Charles B. Dudley Award. The editors of this publication are Paul Klieger and Joseph F. Lamond.

The Board voted unanimously to approve changes to COP’s bylaws, which were recommended as housekeeping changes to bring the bylaws inline with changes that have occurred since the last bylaws revision in 1988. The changes are in regard to COP functioning in areas of scope and responsibility, organization and meetings, and issues of ownership of publications. For a copy of the changes, contact Margie Lawlor, COP Secretary, ASTM (phone: 610/832-9616).

Corporate Communications Report

ASTM has contracted with the Gallup Organization for an extensive survey to determine if ASTM is meeting the needs of its members and customers. The survey will be completed later this year.

A new biannual newsletter for ASTM’s customers, Access ASTM, has been developed and the first will be distributed this summer to over 100,000 non-member customers and all individuals who have attended ASTM Technical and Professional Training courses.

ASTM Business Link, another new biannual publication, was launched as an eight-page glossy insert in the May issue of SN. Business Link provides information on topics connecting the technical and business communities with articles that will appeal to members and non-members alike.

Other Corporate Communications projects highlighted were: the eighth annual issue of the Chinese-language issue of SN, which is in production; the publication of the ASTM 2000 Annual Report; and a new brochure that serves as a guide to publishing in ASTM’s New Publication Series.

Report from ASTM Name Change Task Group

The Board of Directors voted unanimously to adopt the recommendation of the Name Change Task Group to keep ASTM’s formal name and begin using “ASTM International” with an appropriate tag line. The Board instructed staff to proceed with developing a tag line that describes ASTM, and begin putting together a coordinated promotional campaign to launch the name “ASTM International,” the new tag line, and an updated design of the ASTM logo. The launch and promotional activity will occur later this year.

Membership

The ASTM membership department has developed a resume and job match service with a company called Brass Ring for ASTM members and organizations via the ASTM Web site. This service, which launched in May, is free to ASTM members and completely confidential.

A membership technology survey has been conducted by the Information Technology department, designed to ascertain the technical savvy and hardware available to the respondents. See the August issue of SN for a feature article on the results of this survey.

A membership benefits brochure is available for free. Contact Lisa Wellington (phone: 610/832-9691).

Technical Committee Business

COTCO Bylaws Change—The board unanimously approved the Standing Committee on Technical Committee Operations (COTCO) proposal to amend its bylaws on termination of committee or subcommittee membership (Section 5). Section 5.3 of COTCO’s bylaws now reads (new text within brackets, deleted text within asterisks):

[Subcommittee membership shall be terminated for failure to return subcommittee letter ballots. An ongoing review of the voting membership shall be conducted and a warning letter of pending termination sent to those voting members who have failed to return the last two subcommittee letter ballots. Failure to return the next subcommittee letter ballot shall result in termination of subcommittee membership in the absence of circumstances acceptable to the subcommittee chairman.] *Each committee shall provide in its bylaws detailed criteria for termination of subcommittee membership based on failure to return subcommittee letter ballots.*

Committee Scope Change—The Board unanimously approved a revision to the scope of Committee F23 on Protective Clothing to clarify the fact that the committee’s focus is to develop performance specifications.

New Activity Development—Staff reported on the development of new standards development activities. Planning meetings have been held to organize new main committees on livestock evaluations and machine tool components compatibility. In addition, an organizational meeting was held to form a new activity addressing safety performance standards for gunlocks.

The Digital Path—Staff reported on the status of the “Digital Path” initiative, the objective of which is to develop a totally electronic workflow for standards from the first draft through publication. Key members of the Committee on Standards (COS) and COTCO were asked to be part of a focus group to critique the initial efforts of the staff task group. The feedback from these members was very positive and provided constructive suggestions on ways to improve the process.

Committee Award—The Board voted unanimously to grant Society recognition to the Committee C01 Bryant Mather Award.

Report of the ASTM Washington Representative

Washington Representative Kitty Kono reported that an Algerian delegation visited ASTM earlier this year as part of a Department of Commerce Standards Study Tour of the United States. The group’s emphasis was on oil metrology. Twelve standards specialists toured facilities to evaluate government and private-sector standards in the United States. ASTM provided them with an overview of ASTM petroleum standards, proficiency testing programs, and technical training courses.

Kono has also launched a project with NIST to identify ASTM standards that are used as the basis of national standards or are embedded in government regulations of countries beyond the United States. To date the following countries have supplied lists of such ASTM standards: Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Germany, Israel, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Finland, and New Zealand. The standards used in these countries come from a very broad cross section of ASTM technical committees.

William T. Cavanaugh Memorial Award

The Board voted unanimously to present the 2001 William T. Cavanaugh Memorial Award to Dr. Patrick G. Laing of Pittsburgh, Pa. (member, Committee F04 on Medical and Surgical Materials and Devices) and Dr. Steven M. Spivak of Stantex Consultants, Falls Church, Va. (member, Committees D13 on Textiles and E05 on Fire Standards). Biographical information on the recipients can be found here.

Welcome to the following new members of the Board, whose terms began this year:

Anthony E. Fiorato, Construction Technology Laboratories, Skokie, Ill.;

Laura E. Hitchcock, The Boeing Company, Seattle, Wash.;

Luis F. Ordonez, Aislantes Minerales, Mexico City, Mexico;

Jack E. Parr, Wright Medical Technology, Inc., Arlington, Tenn.;

Gregory E. Saunders, Department of Defense, Fort Belvoir, Va.; and

Fabio Tobon, ICONTEC, the National Standards Body of Colombia, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia.

Biographical material on Board members and information on upcoming Board meetings is published in the Board of Directors book, available by contacting Josephine Felizzi (fax: 610/832-9623). //