Several members of the ASCE 7 Committee (five by e-mail and others over the phone) have told me that they agree that ASCE is wrong, for various reasons: unilateral action by a sponsor to dissolve a standards committee is unprofessional, destroys the required independence of the committee, is a...
Dave:
The Darwin letter was sent to me and the other ASCE 7 Committee members as a PDF file attachment to an e-mail. The PDF did have the letterhead of ASCE/SEI.
If this were not a serious matter, I would give Prof. David Darwin the Donald Trump award for single-handedly "firing" the entire ASCE...
Dave:
Per your request, the text of the Darwin memo follows. Please note that this was done unilaterally by Darwin and SEI/ASCE without prior notice to the Committee. The problem of abstentions he mentions was never discussed with the Committee and should have been solved with a dialogue between...
Dave:
Officially, the entire Committee was "dissolved." However, an ASCE 7 Steering Committee was named, consisting of the following members (who will be retained): Bachman, Dusenberry, Ellingwood, Griffis, Hamburger, Harris, Jones, O'Rourke, Peabody, Rossberg, and Soules. Their stated intent is...
UPDATE: ASCE refuses to reconsider its unilateral decision to terminate the ASCE 7 Committee and replace it with a new Committee. It also refuses to meet with the old Committee for a discussion.
Any suggestions on how to stop this gross interference with the independence and integrity of a...
Response:
I have not seen a news article on this either.
On November 6, 2006, most members of the ASCE 7 Committee -- including me -- received an e-mail from James A. Rossberg, Director of SEI (the Structural Engineering Institute of ASCE). Attached to it was a PDF of a letter (on ASCE/SEI...
The recent mass termination of the ASCE 7 Committee (by letter from Prof. David Darwin) was shocking and disturbing because:
* It was a dictatorial decision made without consulting with the Committee.
* It is in violation of the letter and spirit of the rules of ANSI which require consensus and...