The American Institute of Mining,
Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers
The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. Report of the 1995 President Frank V. NolfiLast year, 1994 AIME President Noel D. Rietman reported on the accomplishments in several important areas. Among these were the establishment of a "member direct" policy and updating the AIME Long Range Plan. I am pleased to report to the AIME member Societies and their members on the significant progress in these areas and on other developments.1995
AIME ANNUAL MEETING A
highly successful AIME Annual Meeting was held in Denver, Colorado in March
hosted by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.
The AIME Keynote Session, chaired by 1996 President Donald W. Gentry
featured three distinguished speakers and was very well received.
The annual banquet served to recognize the recipients of Honorary
Membership as well as the other prestigious AIME Awards.
An account of the 124th Annual Meeting may be found on page 8,
followed by the names of the award winners.
TRADITION As
part of the AIME Long Range Plan, the Board approved the recommendation that
the housing of AIME Annual Meetings will rotate among the Member Societies
to coincide with the president rotation, e.g., TMS in 1996, SME in 1997, ISS
in 1998 and SPE in 1999.
I thank all Member Societies who have so graciously hosted AIME and
acknowledge their cooperation in planning for the future.
EDUCATION With
the generous support of both time and funds from many organizations and
individuals, the Transformations Project continues to successfully support
the partnerships which have been established between middle school teachers
and practicing technologists and engineers.
It has become increasingly apparent that AIME has launched a program
that will continue to make important contributions to educational excellence
for years to come.
We are all indebted to the IAME Board of Trustees for their foresight
in developing first the Video Series and then continuing to support the
Project with matching funds over the years. During 1995 we took steps to safeguard the investment that AIME and the co-sponsors have made in the program by separately incorporating the project and launching a fund drive to make it self-sustaining. GOVERNMENT
AFFAIRS THROUGH AAES AIME
government affairs activities continued during 1995 through the American
Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) located in Washington, DC.
These efforts involved a total of ten volunteers, each representing a
Member Society, serving on the various AAES Councils, Commissions and Task
Forces.
As in previous years, AAES held its annual meeting during November
1995.
I wish to thank Robert Reynik and his committee for their continued
efforts and express AIME's gratitude to all Washington-based volunteers for
their active participation in AAES.
OVERARCHING
and MEMBER-DIRECT PROGRAMS At
the August 1994 Board meeting, the Trustees agreed to a policy that would
provide funding to AIME overarching and member-direct programs.
Overarching programs are defined as those which carry out the
purposes of the Institute and may include participation by one or more of
the Member Societies; whereas member-direct programs are those that are
carried out by the Member Societies.
Approval of specific programs will be limited to those which clearly
carry out the purpose of AIME as described in its bylaws.
This selection of specific projects and the balancing of programs
will be the responsibility of the Board of Trustees.Inter-Society Affairs
ESL
TRANSFER to LINDA HALL LIBRARY The
transfer of the Engineering Societies Library (ESL) Collection to Linda Hall
Library of Kansas City was completed during August and the engineering
Societies Information Center, located at the United Engineering Center,
reached operational status.
Member Societies were given the opportunity to retrieve their own
volumes or others of interest to them from the duplicates and other
materials not taken by LHL.
Users may research the collection directly with LHL at Kansas City or
via the Engineering Societies Information Center.
I am also pleased to report that AIME continues its effective involvement in the governing of the UET with members of AIME Members Societies serving as AIME representatives on the Board of the United Engineering Trustees. ABET The
Institute also retained its relationship with the Accreditation Board for
Engineering and Technology (ABET), as an Affiliate Body, and is represented
by its Executive Director who serves as an official observer at ABET Board
meetings.
FOUNDER
SOCIETIES I
am pleased to report our continued interaction with the Founder Society
officers and Executive Directors in matter of common interest.
I've found this interaction has provided the President-Elect, the
Executive Director and myself with an important opportunity to become aware
of the broad spectrum of issues affecting the engineering profession.
This continuous dialogue is becoming increasingly important in light
of ASCE's announcement to relocate the majority of its staff to the
Washington, DC area and vacate the bulk of the space it now occupies in the
United Engineering Center (UEC) in New York City.
In addition, with ASCE, IEEE and AIME having moved the majority of
their staffs out of the UEC, disparate interests in the UEC have emerged at
the UET Board level, requiring good communications among the Founder
Societies.
AUSTRALIAN
INTERCHANGE AIME
and AusIMM (Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy) have had a long
standing exchange program of distinguished lecturers from both countries
taking turns each year visiting each other's country.
During September AIME and its Member Societies had the pleasure of
hosting James R. May and his spouse when the 1995 Distinguished Lecturer
visited Tuscon, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, Washington, DC and Denver.
I was pleased to have had the opportunity to welcome the Mays and on
behalf of AIME present Dr. May with the 1995 Distinguished Lecturer plaque.
LONG-RANGE
PLAN The
AIME ad hoc Long Range Plan Committee commenced its task on May 1, 1995 and
submitted its recommendations in the areas of (1) maintaining and enhancing
the traditions of AIME, (2) facilitating the sale of the United Engineering
Center, (3) developing policies to use income from AIME endowment and
formalizing the implementation strategy for the overarching and
member-direct program initiatives, and (4) strengthening the interactive
working relationship among AIME Member Societies.
The AIME Board of Trustees at its November meeting approved these
recommendations together with a plan to implement them.
FINANCES You
are invited to review the audited financial statement for the AIME
Corporation for the fiscal year 1995 (ending November 30, 1995) contained on
pages 16-24 of this report.
Due to favorable market conditions, AIME assets increased from
$11,481,857 at the end of the previous fiscal year to $14,750,196 at the end
of fiscal year 1995.
Therefore we continue to build the financial resources required to
undertake programs in support of the Member Societies and their members, and
to protect against the effects of inflation.
IN
APPRECIATION It
has been an honor for me to serve as your AIME President, to have had the
opportunity to associate with and be assisted by many fine people who
comprise the AIME family, and to have had the privilege to represent AIME at
many occasions.
I reflect with great affection on my visits to the local sections and
on the opportunity to firm up AIME's ties with its Member Societies.Respectfully Submitted, Frank
V. Nolfi
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