Minutes of Recent Board Meetings

First Draft of Minutes, NAAChE Board meeting, Mar. 10, 2002
Warwick Room, 3rd floor, Hilton New Orleans Riverside, 10 am to 11:35 

Attendance: CSChE: Murray Gray, Jules Thibault (by phone), John Hazlett (by phone), IMIQ: Roberto Andradre Cruz; AIChE: Bruce Finlayson, Bill Doumas, Earl Beaver

1. The agenda was approved.

2. Election of Officers for 2002 (postponed until April 1, 2002, will be done by e-mail)

3. The minutes of the Board Meeting, Oct. 14, 2001, Halifax, Canada, were approved, with the note that Andrew Hart is the CSChE nominee to be Vice-President of NAAChE. This correction has been made in the final version of the minutes attached to these minutes

4. Financial Report (Murray Gray): The financial report is enclosed as Attachment B. The bank account was set up. The account balance as of Jan. 2002 was $3519.04, with liabilities of $82.97 and receivables of $4299.77. AIChE had already paid for the start-up costs of $15,157.34. Their dues for 2000 and 2001 total $12,338.52. Thus, AIChE should be reimbursed $2,818.82 when the receivables clear. No dues have been assessed for 2002.

5. President's Report for 2001 (Finlayson)

   Programming in sustainability: this has been an active area, and some of it would continue with or without NAAChE. Earl Beaver reported that contacts with groups in Mexico, including the Decision Science Institute, would not have been possible without NAAChE. An advocacy group on energy has been formed, but no action has taken place yet (see below). The mobility information has been put on the web, describing professional registration in the U.S. and Canada.  The sustainability Award was discussed with AIChE (and SIOC); AIChE believes sustainability is central to its mission and wants to have its own Sustainability Award. Murray Gray pointed out that this did not preclude a NAAChE Sustainability Award, which could have the specific requirement of multi-country involvement. Contact with government officials was made, as outlined in the Board Minutes, Oct. 14, 2001. NAAChE supported the Mobility Grant to permit exchange of students between the three countries. Application for funding was made to other agencies, and supported by a letter from NAAChE. The Mobility Grant was approved by the funding agencies. Develop Sustainability Metrics in all three countries (information exchange): Murray Gray reported that when he received the information from Earl, it was apparent that the metric projects were really research projects and required a faculty member at a University interested in that topic. It wasn’t possible to do that in Canadian Universities, given the current curriculum. Bruce Finlayson said it usually wasn’t possible within the U.S., either, since ABET required a capstone design course. However, at his University, specific projects can be approved by the faculty to replace the capstone design course, and this has been done a number of times, under the direction of several different faculty members. Unfortunately, there aren’t many chemical plants around the Seattle area. Organizational improvements: During the year we set up the bank account, regularized membership numbers (we will use figures for voting members, as of July 1, 2002, for the NAAChE dues for the next year, 2003). The numbers are: 1999 2000 2001 AIChE 40,299 38,285 37,943 CSChE 718 695  629 Organizational improvements still needed: Currently the check-off on the AIChE dues statement is for $47, with $7 retained by AIChE as a processing fee. If CSChE or IMIQ wants a different amount, they need to notify AIChE by May 1st so that it can be included on the dues statements, which have to be printed early for that fall. (The responsibility for this notification lies with each society; please notify your administrator.) We should hold elections at the October Board Meeting, or by e-mail in December, so that the officers are in place by January 1st; The dues statements can now go out after the October Board Meeting, or in December; these should be sent by the current Treasurer before the change of officers January 1st. Both of the last two items were approved by vote of the Board.

6. Alliance Membership Report (Finlayson): See attachment C. A total of 143 members of our societies have joined another society as an Alliance member. Check-offs are provided on the dues statements of all three societies, as reported to the Board. Roberto Andradre reported that the IMIQ membership dues are paid throughout the year, and that currently about 20 members of IMIQ have joined as Alliance members of AIChE or CSChE. It was suggested that the addresses of those people be provided, with the check, to AIChE or CSChE, as soon as possible, so that the people would have a full years worth of benefits.

7. Web improvements needed:

   Announce the membership privileges for Alliance Membership in each society: the benefits are that the alliance member receives the publication of the society they have joined, plus half the member discount for registration at short courses and meetings. Update the courses listed and meetings: it was suggested by John Hazlett that the links on the NAAChE page be to the respective web site for the courses and meetings of the three societies. Then as those web sites are updated, anyone approaching them through the NAAChE web site would have the most current information. The address for CSChE is http://www.cheminst.ca/events.html Add deliverables for 2002, as decided at this meeting. Update the Board members listed on the web: this is in progress

8. Board Discussion of the viability of NAAChE - mainly for Alliance memberships, or something more?

   Bruce Finlayson began with a discussion on problems NAAChE has had. In one model, NAAChE is simply a way for members of one society to have partial membership in another society, with reduced member benefits. There has been dramatic growth in those Alliance memberships, as we have made the process easier and more visible. In that model, it isn’t necessary to have as much Board activity as we do. The second model is the one we have been operating under: in addition to the Alliance memberships, NAAChE should take action on issues it considers important. To date, those actions have been mainly programming in sustainability. We have formed task forces on sustainability, and sustainable energy, but we have had difficulty getting programs started. Possibly we should consider more a model where NAAChE brings together the people in our organizations already dealing with the same topic, rather than asking Board members to be on the Task Forces. Another reason for difficulty is the difficulty of communication and the desire on the part of all of us to include all three countries. Murray Gray pointed out that it is difficult to get commitment, and this is perhaps due to the fact that we have a virtual organization, and our reliance on e-mail may be ahead of human nature. All agreed. Energy Task Force. Murray Gray asked where do we go with energy. The task force had been set up with him, Calvin Cobb, and Carlos Mena. He sent a proposal for the task force to work on, but only got a response from Finlayson. Thus, it was difficult to continue. Bill Doumas asked what would be a deliverable for the Energy Task Force. Position statements and input to governments were identified. John Hazlett then asked: NAAChE is an organization of organizations. Who approves the position statements? The NAAChE Board approves them. Finlayson said it was his opinion that NAAChE position statements didn’t have to get the approval of each organization, since we were an independent body, and would be speaking for NAAChE. On the other hand, we might be un-nominated to the NAAChE Board! However, communication (and involvement) with the groups in our organizations that deal with the same topic are essential. Jules Thibault suggested that to begin a project, we should name a champion, whose job would be to recruit people in the other countries. John Hazlett agreed that we have to find people in the respective societies and not do it all ourselves. There are only 10 Departments of Chemical Engineering in Canada, and it was hard to find one that was willing to contribute in the metrics project. Roberto Andradre Cruz pointed out that there have been seminars and courses under the NAAChE auspices, but that most members do not perceive NAAChE as an organization. We discussed the problems communicating. In particular, the phone system in Mexico has changed. Whereas the number used to be 011-52-5-xxx-xxx, it is now 011-52-55-5xxx-xxx. Thus, there are now 12 digits, since the Mexico City code has been changed from 5 to 55 and the phone numbers in Mexico City have changed from 7 to 8 digits by adding a 5 in front of the old number.

9. New Project. A new project was suggested by Earl Beaver. The project would involve translating abstracts on sustainability into Spanish and French and put them on the NAAChE web site. The result would be a comprehensive reading list. Jules Thibault indicated that someone (Board member?) would have to check the quality of the translation. Earl Beaver suggested that the money for translation be spent in the country of the translation, and that perhaps students could do the translation. Action item: IMIQ and CSChE representatives will find out how much it would cost to translate 10 abstracts of 250-300 words; ditto for 100 abstracts. Then we can decide how/if to proceed.

10. Summary of Possible Activities for 2002. The three activities would be to continue and make viable the Sustainability Task Force, the Sustainable Energy Task Force, and possibly the Translation Project. The CSChE representative to the Sustainability Task Force is Dilip Odedra. Dilip has recently retired from Bayer in Sarnia, Ontario. He has worked internationally, in industry and academia. Dilip can be contacted at 519-542-2142 or by email at dilip.odedra@sympatico.ca. AIChE’s representative is Earl Beaver (erbeav@aol.com).

11. Next meetings. There will be a mail election ballot April 2nd, possibly a teleconference in the Spring, and the next in-person Board meeting will be at the InterAmerican Conference, Oct. 9-11, 2002, in Cancun, Mexico.

12. Meeting closed at 11:43 am.