ISSA Board Reviews Association Activities and Strategic Plan Progress

The ISSA Board of Directors gathered this June 6 in Chicago, Illinois, to review this year’s accomplishments and continued progress toward meeting strategic plan goals.  One highlight of the meeting was a presentation on the progress made in the Pavement Preservation Research Project at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) by Tim Harrawood, Vance Brothers.  Harrawood brought the Board up to speed on the results to date of this study, reported on at the recent NCAT Test Track Conference.  This study is partially funded by FP², with support provided by ISSA through annual financial contributions.

A significant part of the meeting was spent in reviewing the status and progress toward meeting the goals in the strategic plan developed by the ISSA Board last June. ISSA had identified a number of goals to work towards the strategy to be the industry leader in technical and educational support.  Making progress in this goal, Technical Director Bob Jerman, Ingevity, noted that two technical bulletins have been updated, with TB109 now available and TB147 coming soon.  Jerman and other member industry experts have been working diligently to complete revisions to the ISSA’s Inspector Manual which are anticipated to be completed by year end.

To produce videos providing best practice information, both the chip seal and crack fill presentation at the 2018 Slurry Systems Workshop were filmed and edits are being completed in anticipation of adding these to the resources offered via slurry.org this summer.  Other projects in the works to meet educational goals include development of a resident education program on ISSA technologies; adding combination treatments to ISSA web-based training; and producing a high-performance guideline specification for both slurry surfacing and micro surfacing. In addition, plans for the first Latin American Workshop are being finalized.  This workshop will take place in Cancun, Mexico, on the Friday immediately following the 2019 AEMA-ARRA-ISSA Annual Meeting.

Discussing one of the most significant projects of the past year, RoadResource.org, the Board learned that the revisions based on member feedback had been identified and based on this the planned public launch of the site is anticipated in mid-July. With the introduction of this resource, the association is providing a resource that will offer agencies and owners comprehensive information and calculators related to all ISSA pavement preservation treatments.

ISSA’s Board is committed to growing membership within the association. With an emphasis on increasing Government membership in the past year, ISSA has successfully been able to grow this category by more than 52% in one year.

In addition to discussions of the strategic plan, the Board reviewed the 2017 audit and current association finances, discussed the success of the 2018 Slurry Systems Workshop and plans for next year, heard reports from the committees, and discussed plans for sessions at next year’s Annual Meeting.

The Board will next meet this fall in Auburn, Alabama, where they will see first-hand the pavement preservation group study results at NCAT via tours of the test track, US-280 and Lee Road 159 test sections.