Minutes of Recent Board Meetings

Attachment A to Minutes, New Orleans Meeting, Mar. 10, 2002
Final Minutes of the NAAChE Board meeting, Oct. 14, 2001, 3-5 pm
Mackay Room, Delta Halifax Hotel, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
(Approved at Board meeting, March 10, 2002)

The meeting was called to order at 3:10 pm. Present in Halifax were NAAChE treasurer and CSChE Past President Murray Gray, CSChE President John Hazlett, CSChE President-elect Jules Thibault, NAAChE President and AIChE Past President Bruce Finlayson. Joining by means of teleconference were AIChE President Calvin Cobb, and AIChE representative Earl Beaver. Joining the teleconference part way through the meeting were NAAChE Vice-President and IMIQ representative Roberto Andrade Cruz, and Carlos Mena Brito. Also present in Halifax were guests Roland Andersson, Executive Director of The Chemical Institute of Canada, and Josee Pilon of CIC. 

1. The agenda for the meeting was approved.
2. The minutes of the Apr. 22, 2001, NAAChE Board meeting in Houston, TX were approved.
3. Murray Gray, NAAChE Treasurer, gave the Financial Report. The bank account for NAAChE has been set up, and the last signatures on the bank card were obtained. He also presented NAAChE with a check for its 2000 and 2001 dues. This will be deposited into the NAAChE bank account. Once each society has paid their dues (see below) it will be possible to balance the account with AIChE, which has been paying all bills up to now.
4. Report on Progress towards 2001 Deliverables (from item 8 of minutes of 4/22/2001 Board meeting.)

   A working group will be formed to guide the sustainability effort. Calvin Cobb has appointed Earl Beaver, John Hazlett will appoint a person once they have accepted, and Carlos Mena and Roberto Andrade will appoint the IMIQ representative after getting their permission. A general discussion ensued about the objectives of this group. Earl Beaver would like to extend the Bridges to Sustainability effort to other countries. A report to the U.S. Department of Energy will be published November, 2001. This report will give information about how metrics are measured and their effect in the business environment. Earl Beaver will send this information to Murray Gray, Carlos Mena, and Roberto Andrade. The hope is that companies in Canada and Mexico will volunteer to have measurements made on their plants. What is needed is a plant relatively near a University so that students can be involved in obtaining the information. Earl Beaver also outlined his vision for a one and one-half day continuing education course on sustainability. The course could be translated into Spanish and French, and eventually it could be put on a CD for Distance Learning. An advocacy group will be formed on energy issues, with the emphasis on sustainable energy usage. The group consists of Mena, Gray, and Cobb. Murray Gray is in charge of the group. Technical efforts should be developed to permit sustainable energy. The focus should be on the near term, including gas to liquid transformation and fuel cells. Most of the growth in demand is in Asia, and most of the growth in supply is in the Middle East. The charge to the working group is to provide analysis and information on alternative energy to government officials and the public, in order to enhance the position of chemical engineers in all our countries. How energy flows between the countries is also of interest. Invited talks and technical presentations at meetings are also of interest. AIChE is developing a questionaire that will include questions that help identify employment trends. This has not been finished. Material on Professional Development and Mobility from AIChE has been placed on the web site. Information from IMIQ can be added to the web site. Also mentioned was the fact that in the United States, professional registration is done by the states, many of whom have different qualifications for registration. The same is true in Canada: the national government establishes standards, and the provinces uphold the standards and do the registration.  The Societal Impact Operating Council (SIOC) of AIChE is interested in establishing an award on Sustainability. Bruce Finlayson talked with SIOC in Houston, and they are interested in an award of this type. The NAAChE Board was interested in having this be a NAAChE award on sustainability so that it encompassed all three countries rather than mainly AIChE. We would have to raise money from companies, with the best prospects being companies that have plants in all three countries. Companies mentioned include DuPont, Dow, Smith-Kline-Glaxo. Bruce Finlayson will contact SIOC before the November meeting to get this on their agenda and followup the Houston meeting.

5. Publicity for NAAChE
   

   Bruce Finlayson reported on a letter he sent on behalf of NAAChE to Dr. Norman P. Neureiter, Scientific Advisor to the Secretary of State, U.S. State Department. Finlayson had met Neureiter at a meeting of the Chemical Sciences Roundtable, and Neureiter indicated interest in learning how NAAChE functioned. Neureiter feels that he is best able to do his job by encouraging these cross-border collaborations, since he has neither the staff nor money to do them through the State Department. Finlayson will send the letter to the Board by e-mail. Finlayson also reported that a writeup on NAAChE was made for ChapterOne, the web publication for student members of AIChE. The web address for this article is: http://www.aiche.org/chapterone/article.asp?AID=137 You can also find it by going to www.aiche.org, then choosing Students and Young Engineers, then ChapterOne, and then either September or search on NAAChE. It is a nice article. Jules Thibault indicated that the Mobility Grant has been approved in all three countries. Students can take courses in other countries and develop software. Most of the emphasis is now on pulp and paper since that is the interest of Paul Stewart, who is heading the Canadian effort.NAAChE supported an application to the Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education. The purpose of this program is to promote student-centered North American dimension to education and training. The program seeks to foster student exchange within the context of multilateral curricular development. There is a minimum of seven student exchanges required per institution over the four years. The application has now been approved by the governments of Canada, Mexico and United States. It involves a minimum of two institutions in each country. The lead persons in each institution are: Canada: Paul Stuart, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal Jules Thibault, University of Ottawa Diane Bouchard, Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada Mexico: Martin Picon-Nunez, Universidad de Guanajuato Edgar Moctezuma, University of San Luis Potosi Miguel Angel Rodriguez Toral, Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo United States: John Heitmann, North Carolina State University Mahmoud El-Halwagi, Auburn University A brief report was made of Alliance membership. There are 2 or 3 AIChE members who are Alliance members of CSChE, and about 50 Canadian members who are Alliance members of AIChE. This year the AIChE dues statement has an option for becoming an Alliance member in CSChE, IMIQ, or both.

6. It was decided that all societies could use July 1, 2001 as the date to count membership for purposes of the dues that would be due for the following year. Then, on January 2nd, 2002 a dues statement could be sent, following the formulas in the bylaws.
7. It was emphasized that we need to collect the dues so that we don’t ask a society to pay multiple years dues, which would be a burden. Dues statements have been sent to all societies, and the exact amounts will be adjusted once all membership numbers are in.
8. Coordination of meetings, 2002 +. These are the meetings that are scheduled:
   AIChE, March 10-14, 2002, New Orleans
   IMIQ, International Congress, Mar. 18-20, 2002, Mexico City
   AIChE Management Conference, May 19-21, 2002
   CSChE Annual Meeting, Oct. 20-23, 2002, Vancouver, Canada (contact Roland Andersson,
   randersson@cheminst.ca for information)
   AIChE Annual Meeting, Nov. 3-8, 2002, Indianapolis, Ind.
   IMIQ, 2nd week in October, Cancun, Mexico
9. Remember that we need to identify new Board members for the 2002 year, in accordance with the By-laws.
10. The next Board meeting will be at the AIChE meeting in New Orleans, where there will be Megasessions on Sustainable Development, Alternate Fuels, and Climate Change.
11. The meeting adjourned at 4:55 pm, Halifax time.