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Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1962-11-01
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1961 ASTM officers conference
Legget, R. F.
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.--DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH
No.
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA
385
NOTlE
'fE
C
1HIN II
CAlL
PREPARED BY R. F. Legget CHECKED BY APPROVED BY
DATE November 1962
PREPARED FOR ASTM Committee Officers of DBR/NRC
SUBJECT
1961 AST M Officers Conference
The first Conference of Officers of ASTM COIIunittees was convened
in Philadelphia on 20 and 21 November 1961. The Board of Directors had
decided that this was a meeting that should be tried as an experiment in order
to increase still further the efficient operation of ASTM Committees. A
letter regarding the meeting was circulated under date of 9 November 1961. This listed 15 questions which it was hoped the Conference would review.
A record of the meeting was circulated from ASTM Headquarters in the form of a seven-page memorandum which was accompanied by six
rages of more detailed notes. This information was circulated with Circular
Letter No. 307 from Mr. Hess under date of 3 January 1962. These papers
give a very good coverage of the proceedings of the meeting.
This additional note has been prepared to give apersonal view of
the proceedings and to supplement the official record. This has been done
since the first conference was so successful that it has been decided to hold
similar conferences at two-year intervals, i.e. immediately after the election
of Committee officers in each even-numbered year. The second conference
is, therefore, to be held on 19 and 20 November 1962. This note may be of
assistance to some of those who are to attend.
1. As always with ASTM meetings, the physical arrangements for
the Conference were excellent. Accommodation in the Sheraton Hotel was
most suitable. About 125 Committee officers attended and the number stayed
reasonably constant throughout the sessions. One Vice-President and at least
ｦｩｾ･ members of the Board of Directors were present.
2. Generally, the Conference was most useful but discus sion bogged
2
-affecting their own Committees, instead of the more general matters under
review. This was surprising, but its most serious aspect was that it placed
our good friends, the senior members of ASTM staff, who were acting as
presiding officers, in a particularly difficult position. There were one or
two occasions when speakers really were in need of parliamentary restraint from the Chair and yet it was clearly inlpossible for a staff member to
exercise this control. It has already been suggested that elected officers
of the Society, rather than members of staff, should preside at all sessions in order to avoid similar future embarrassment.
3. Somewhat naturally there was a good deal of discussion about the
handling of ASTM Standards but much of this discussion has now been
answered by the adoption by the Society of a modified new system for dealing with Standards, details of which are presently under review by a specially
appointed Committee. There is, therefore, no point in recording any details
of this part of the discussion.
4. A major topic for discussion was the character of the Annual
Meetings of the Society. One well-known member of the Society asked at
least three times what was wrong with the present Annual Meetings but never got a satisfactory answer. The matter was raised because the Long Range Planning Committee had suggested that the matter should be reviewed. Statistics which accompanied the most useful charts prepared for the meeting
show clearly that the recent increase in attendance at Committee Meetings at the Annual Meetings is so rapid that the Society will shortly be faced with
real problems. The discussion showed that few Committees were dissatisfied
with existing arrangements.
5. The meeting agreed in principle with the idea that all Committees
hold their meetings whenever possible in association with general Society
meetings, i. e. either Annual Meetings or Spring Committee meetings. The
few opponents of this view were asked to explain their position but none had
any real argument, their concern being merely about matter s of detail. This
vote was probably the most significant conclusion from the meeting even though everyone present realised that some of the larger Committees necessarily
must have meetings on their own. There was, however, very general
agree-ment as to the virtue of having as many Committee meetings as possible at
regular Society meetings provided that physical facilities are adequate. (It
may here be noted that there was such complaint about arrangements in New York last June that it has been decided that New York will not again be used for an Annual Society Meeting in the foreseeable future.)
6. There was an interlude in the discussion of Society business when
3
-Planning, with reference to the problem of the increasing amount of information. Although this was an interesting talk, it detracted from the succes s of the
meeting since it broke the chain of thought and discussion that had been so well
developed in the morning. Since the talk has been mentioned, this note may
itself be further interrupted by recording that the fir st question after the
speaker stopped was "What is EJC?" This practically stopped the show.
Another question to which no answer could be given was "What is information
retrieval?", i.e. at what point is information "retrieved?".
SO ME DETAILED IDEAS
The following detailed ideas were recorded during the discussion and are typical of the good thinking that the meeting generated and the most useful exchange of information that took place.
(a) It was stressed that Committees should circulate detailed agenda
well in advance of their meeting (D-2 send them out eight weeks in advance) since many Committee members need such a paper in order to obtain authority for travel.
(b) It was suggested that the Officer s' Manual should be brought up to
date and that this should show what Chtl.irmen of Subcommittees can do and
what they cannot. The Manual should contain information about the presence
of visitors and the press at Committee meetings. It was stressed that
Chair-men of Committees can call Executive sessions when necessary but that this is rarely done.
(c) Committees can raise their own funds with the approval of the Board,
but no member can be excluded from Committee activity because of non-payment
of Committee dues. Committee D-9 does not charge dues to Government
employees.
(d) The necessity of good liaison with the U. S. Government was stressed.
Committees C-l and D-l have governmental liaison groups. Committees D-2
and D-il have members on the Federal Specification Board (?).
(e) The desirability of having informal research reports at meetings of
main Committees was suggested. Committee E-6 is already doing this with
success.
(f) The matter of publicity was stressed and all Committees were urged
to do everything possible in this direction. Some Committees have a special
...
,...
4
-(g) It was pointed out that ASTM staff could assist Committees with
arrangements for their individual meetings and can often arrange to get
meeting rooms at hotels free of. charge. If this is done, registrations at the
hotel must be made on proper ASTM Registration Cards. This seemd to be
an important detail not always appreciated.
(h) It was suggested that visits to laboratories in which ASTM Standards
are in use should always be arranged when possible when Committees are having meetings on their own.
(i) The metric system naturally came in for discussion. Committees
D-9 and D-20 use metric units for all their Standards with British units in
parentheses. Committee F-I follows the reverse procedure.
(j) Matters mentioned but not ､ｾｳ｣ｵｳｳ･､ because of lack of time were the
relations between ASTM and ISO and the desirable contents for the ASTM Year Book.
It is hoped that these very brief notes show the value of the meeting
and indicate the type of discussion that took place. It is good to know that
the conferences are to be continued on a regular basis. They should prove
particularly valuable for newly elected Chairmen, Vice Chairmen and
