SCP Meeting Minutes - New Orleans, December 9, 2014

Attendees: Ted Sibbick, Laura Powers, Adam Brewer, Gerard Moulzolf, Ron Sturm, Jeff Varga, Ray Henderson, Kristen Freeman, Bob Jenkins, Nick Scaglione, Victoria Jennings, Frank Gay, Derek Cong and Fred Shrimer

Call to Order (6:35pm)

Introductions

Review of Membership: 96 members - 72 voting, 24 associate

Business Items
a. It’s time to elect new officers. Laura Powers, as past president, will be heading up the task of putting together the new slate of officers for election.

b. Website – Several items were discussed regarding the website:
- Someone who posted an item on the discussion board wanted to attach photos, although this is currently not an option. It was decided that if possible we will provide the option of attaching photos.
- This brought up additional discussion regarding adding a page to the website, where photos of various petrographic features can be shown. It was determined that this should be a priority to get done.
- In the past we have posted job openings for members. There was a request from a non-member to post their job opening for a petrographer on our website. Discussion was favorable for SCP to provide that service for potential employers. c. Webinars – Prior to the meeting Nancy Whiting brought up the idea of providing webinars to the SCP membership. She states that by having our the SCP meetings in conjunction with the ASTM meetings we only reach a small percentage of our membership and that webinars have the potential to reach the members that don’t attend the ASTM meetings or can’t attend on a regular basis. SCP can use this format to share ideas, recent research and perhaps training. Nick Scaglione suggested that this can be done under the direction of the Programs Committee, although Laura Powers thought it would be better to form a new Educational Committee. Several of the members shared their positive experiences with webinars that they have been involved with. There was also some discussion on a way to make our SCP meetings at ASTM available to members not able to make it to the meeting. d. Petrographic Symposium – ASTM will be holding a Petrographic Symposium at a future meeting. Keep an eye out for the Call for Papers and consider submitting a paper for the symposium.

Presentations
Gerard Moulzolf presented on two petrographic analyses:
- A case study of sodium chloride scaling of a slab-on-grade
- An interesting moisture vapor issue in a terrazzo floor

Nick Scaglione presented on two petrographic analyses:
- Low strength grout cubes, which involved an admixture incompatibility issue and lack of cement hydration
- ASR/Freeze thaw distress of a 1920’s bridge structure in Philadelphia, PA, with a look at the different types of cracking distress dependent on the level of moisture exposure

Bob Jenkins presented some imagery from the Giant Crystal Cave in Mexico for discussion

Discussion
The meeting was finished up with a brief discussion of an advertisement in ACI International of a silicate based “troweling aid” product that is mixed with 4 parts water and how this may adversely affect the surface quality. The trend of using silicate-based ‘cure and seal’ products was also discussed.

Meeting Adjourned (8:15pm)