A Message from AEMA President, Dan Koeninger

Dear Members,

A few weeks ago, we held our Annual Meeting along with our partners in PPRA, ARRA and ISSA. It was inspiring to see so many people committed to our industry and making the world a better place in which to travel. The big news is that we set a record on the number of attendees at just over 400. I hope that you took advantage of the schedule, allowing you to attend every technical session. The Exhibit Hall provided plenty of opportunity to gain experience about modern technologies and equipment, as well as catching up with old friends. We featured Sponsor Spotlights throughout the program to provide another opportunity to see what our members and those to whom support us are up. As usual, the presentations and other meeting details are available in the Members Only section on www.aema.org.

Highlights of the General Session:

• Our keynote speaker, Dr Ivan Johnson talked with us about teams and individual performance. His story on his “Rudy” was quite compelling. Arduous work is a key to performance.
• We heard about supply chain and the trucking industry from Brent Hutto of Truckstop.com.
• We learned about Polk County Florida’ attitude and results from their Preservation focused road programs from Austin Potts.
• Antonio Nieves kept our attention during his presentation on FHWA initiatives and progress by inviting the audience to publish their words on the topics for use by us all as we move through 2024.
• We heard from Pete Grass on the Asphalt Institute activities.
• We heard from Mark Ishee on the changes made at FP2 and their objectives for 2024 and beyond.
• Adrian Vargus gave us an update on what’s happening at NCAT and the next round of testing at MNRoads.
• And rounding out the opening session was an update on AMAP by Rick Church.

During the AEMA focused session we heard the following:

• The Road Forward presented by LDT members Amy Blaida, Nat Borsch, Aaron Roy, Jamie Wing, and Ernesto Santillan. This look into the future for the emulsion industry was interesting and had just the right amount of humor to keep the audience completely engaged.
• Mike Anderson of the Asphalt Institute helped us understand the progress made on performance related specifications and their expected implementation.
• Andy Cline of Blue Line Transportation reviewed their findings on the relationship between Saybolt and paddle viscometer readings.
• Tony Kucharaek of McAsphalt clued us in the findings they have regarding the testing and characterization of High Float emulsions.
• Thanks to all these presenters for making the session interesting, informative, and fun!

Highlights of the Awards Banquet:

• The LEAP program Class Dean, Charity Cook, introduced the graduating class of “LEAPers.” We then recognized Charity for her leadership of the group over the past year.
• Greg Arntson, Awards Committee Chair, recognized two bronze award winners, Emulsicoat, and VSS Emultech. A total of 16 plants were recognized for achieving the
  Silver level of excellence. One from Albina, four from Ergon, two from McAsphalt, one from Michigan Paving & Materials, two from Midland Asphalt, four from Russell Standard, one from Terry Asphalt, and one from Walker Emulsions. There were 60 locations who renewed their award with better scores, demonstrating their desire to continue improving their locations. Congratulations to all the winners for their dedication to excellence!
• AEMA’s Past Presidents’ Award was awarded to Yamhill County Public Works for their Baker Creek Scrub Seal project. They utilized a double chip seal that saved the County about $125,000/mile over what they would have spent paving with a 2” grind and inlay. The experienced contractor they chose, Sierra Santa Fe Corporation, has done many scrub seals for agencies in Oregon and Washington in the past with PMRE emulsion oil, and chose it as the right oil for this project. On the second lift, the agency and contractor agreed to use PMCRS-2H, an emulsion oil that has proven to have great rock retention and with its harder pen emulsion base manages the hotter summer weather that have become common in the Pacific Northwest. The nominator and supplier was Albina Asphalt.
• AEMA’s Hall of Fame award was awarded for the first time in a while to Bucky Brooks of Asphalt Materials. Bucky has been involved with AEMA for over 20 years. As a distinguished past president and enthusiastic pavement preservation advocate for the industry he exemplifies what the hall of fame award was created for. He has served on the Nation Center of Pavement Preservation advisory board and has been a part of the Michigan Department of Transportation arbitration committee for pavement preservation products. This individual has worked tirelessly to provide agencies with the most cost effective and longest lasting pavement solutions available. He has always been a proponent for AEMA while representing the organization with nothing but class. The emulsion community will miss him, and we wish him nothing but happiness as he spends more time with his family.

At this year’s Business Meeting:

• Dan presented some information on volumes relative to our efforts over the past few years. We’re not moving the needle and we need to change our tactics. Getting face to face with specifiers is what we need, and we must find a way for the association to support this type of initiative.
•  When the crowd was asked for input on what we’re missing, there was a lively discussion on attracting people to the industry as well as the association. Many good ideas were brought up and some detail added to them. In the end, Neil Guiles told us that needing people is a never-ending issue and that we should focus on increasing the volumes as our priority, which aligns with our charter perfectly.

At a special meeting, the Graduating LEAP class presented their success stories and were promptly officially pronounced “Graduated”! Congratulations and keep learning so that you can become the next wave of leaders in the industry.

Our next two annual meetings will be in CA and then TX. I hope to see you at these great locations for an interesting and fun meeting.

I need to thank all those leaders and members of the organization for significantly improving the functioning of our many committees. Without an active membership, we will not last long as an organization. I also want to thank the many Companies that helped make our meeting a tremendous success by sponsoring breaks, events, or the entire meeting. I appreciate your help in making this event one worth the effort to attend. I also thank you for your membership and participation in AEMA.

We now stand at the precipice of the next evolution of our business. We must have a strong and vigorous association if we expect to attain the success that is possible. With the current focus on carbon reduction, we should expect to add 50% to our volumes in the next 5 years. My hope is that you continue your support and make the effort to create the momentum that will lead us to where preservation techniques are more than a passing thought and become mainstream activities. We’re a key component to improving the service levels of the networks throughout North America. Please search your organization for those who can join the effort and make emulsion great.

Stay tuned for messaging on a revised approach to fulfilling our number one objective, increasing the use of emulsion. We need change to our tactics for fulfilling this mission critical item.

When you’re ready, reach out to me, the board, committee members, or CM Services to explore how you might become more actively involved.

Thank you in advance for all that you do to move AEMA forward!

Sincerely,
Dan Koeninger
AEMA President