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Christian Pipkin
Mrs. Grant
UWRT 1101
Draft Due: 11/17/14

Discourse Community Ethnography Paper

ACI
The American Concrete Institute (ACI) is a non-profit technical society founded in
1904. ACI's mission is developing and teaching knowledge on concrete and its many uses. This
group consists of educators, engineers, and many colleges have student chapters. I am a part of
the student chapter here at UNC Charlotte. At first I joined this club because it was the least
boring of the engineering clubs that we could join for extra credit. After joining this club I began
to like it and I became more involved. I am kind of new to the community as I am one of just a
hand full of freshman whereas most members are juniors and seniors. I learned about this
community from an extra credit opportunity but another professor of mine also oversees the
group. To me as a freshman there is little knowledge about the purposes of this group and
throughout this ethnography these misconceptions will be clarified through research,
observations, and an interview given to the student president of this organization.
As a member of the ACI Student chapter I am required to attend meetings usually once a
week. These meetings consist of other members of the group, Dr. Cavalline who is the
supervisor, and often we have guest speakers. Guest speakers are usually employees from
construction and engineering companies that come to inform us of what they are looking for in

employees and often invite us to tour the company and visit during on site projects. Dr. Cavalline
is a professor here at UNC Charlotte but also works as a construction manager for the North
Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). She oversees this group and is usually our
first source of help. The members of the group are comprised of around 80 members, most of
them being juniors, and seniors. In these meetings we usually discuss upcoming events
sponsored by the ACI, fundraising, and upcoming competitions. I am actually leader of a
national completion next fall. I have to choose members for my team of 5 to compete for next
year. There are other competitions this year but I am not a part of those particular ones. ACI is a
fairly new student chapter at UNC Charlotte but we are growing quickly. Last year a group of
students went to a national competition and won. As far as writing goes, members of this group
usually communicate via text message and email.
As a freshman in this group I am quite new to this community. As a reference I
interviewed Seth Spear, the ACI student chapter president. I asked Seth a series of questions
including, how long have you been a member of this group, why did you get involved, what are
some methods of communication used to communicate with other members of the group, and
what have you most enjoyed throughout your experiences with this group? Seth responded I
have been involved with ACI since the fall of 2013, but I have been a member of the student
chapter on campus for three years now. I got involved because I was on a team that won one of
ACI's competitions last fall. After winning the competition, we went to Reno, Nevada to the
Spring Convention to present our solution to the problem statement. From there, I started the
student chapter that is currently active on campus. The methods of communication are email,
texting, and word of mouth. The thing I have enjoyed the most throughout my experiences with
this group is the leadership experience I am gaining from it. I never viewed myself as an

outstanding leader growing up, so the experience is completely new to me. One of the aspects I
like most about it is the fact that there is no precedence for me to fall back on. This makes things
a little more stressful, but it gives me freedom to do different things and it means that I have to
put more thought into the happenings of the group (Seth Spear).
In my experiences with the ACI group I am definitely a new timer. The old-timers or
experts are the seniors and juniors who have been involved with the group in the past. Also those
who were a part of that national championship team a year ago. For me and the other newcomers
it is important that we attend all of the meetings and get involved in the trips and competitions
that the group is a part of.
Within the community there arent very many conflicts within the community. One that I
can think of would be getting teams together for these competitions. It is difficult because of the
time constraints on members schedules. To prepare for the competitions there is about a two
week period of heavy research and work. Not everyone is able to fit this into their college
schedules. Throughout the time that I have been involved in the group there hasnt really been
any issues involving members of this group mostly because of great leadership and
communication from the leaders of the group. As previously mentioned Seth Spear is our
president but much credit must be given to Dr. Cavalline, as without her help this student chapter
wouldnt be possible.
In conclusion, the UNC Charlotte ACI student chapter represents a small portion of a
national organization with the common goal of enhancing and teaching knowledge of concrete
and its uses. ACI uses this knowledge to create new concrete that is safer, cheaper, stronger, and

more efficient. From our research we can gain further knowledge and create new concrete
materials.

Works Cited:
Spear, Seth. Personal interview. 10 November 2014.