Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kim Swanson (00:03):
Welcome to AASHTO
Resource Q&A.
We're taking time to discussconstruction materials, testing
and inspection with people inthe know.
From exploring testing problemsand solutions to laboratory
best practices and qualitymanagement, we're covering
topics important to you.
Brian Johnson (00:18):
Welcome to AASHTO
Resource Q&A.
I'm Brian Johnson.
Kim Swanson (00:22):
And I'm Kim Swanson
and we're back Finally, right?
Brian Johnson (00:28):
Yeah, it has
seemed like forever since we
actually sat down to record oneof these.
Kim Swanson (00:35):
It almost has been
forever.
We took a break at the end ofFebruary and now it's almost the
end of July, so this is a verylong hiatus for us, but we're
back for everyone who missed us.
Brian Johnson (00:48):
Yeah, this has
been a bit like when you have a
task that you need to take on athome and you just delay, delay,
delay.
And the reason for that isbecause once we get rolling, we
don't stop until we end theseason.
So it's been a little uhdifficult getting going this
(01:10):
time, because we want to makesure that we do it a little
better than we did in theprevious years yeah, and it's
one of those.
Kim Swanson (01:19):
We need to make
sure we were getting everything
done that we needed to get donebefore we could start right with
, like our you know day jobs, soto speak.
So you will notice, this season, season five it's going to be
instead of every tuesday we'rereleasing an episode.
It's going to be every othertuesday, so that is something
different, and that is again tohelp with our workload and
(01:40):
managing as much as the podcastas we can at the time.
Brian Johnson (01:44):
Yeah, and you may
have noticed from previous
episodes, if you've heard any,that we talk a lot about
continual improvement at AASHTOResource, and that extends to
the podcast itself.
And the reason why we'rethinking about the two weeks
instead of every week it's notjust the time consuming nature
(02:05):
of it for editing uh and andgetting all of the information
together to make the uhpackaging I guess you'd call it
nice, as kim does uh but it'salso just to make sure that we
have better content.
So there have been some timesthat we have been guilty of uh
repurposing stuff or not thatthere's anything wrong with that
(02:28):
uh, or or just having kind offill-in episodes because we just
need to get content out everyweek.
I think, just thinking the waywe were discussing it, preparing
for season five, we were like,okay, what can we do to make
sure that every episode is agood one?
And and that was really uh, itreally pushed us in the
(02:53):
direction of splitting it to uhevery other week, uh.
Kim Swanson (02:58):
So that is a little
bit of background information
on that change yeah, I'm notloving the fact that you have
not loved every single episodewe've done, brian, I mean, come
on I have, I'm just teasing.
Some have not true true, notthat I got a lot of negative
feedback.
Brian Johnson (03:17):
I mean really no
feedback, uh from most people,
as we have talked and I did wantto talk about that too by the
way.
So there was something uh, Iguess it was.
It was last week, as we'rerecording this uh, I was in
Hawaii on vacation and I because, uh, I don't like my family Uh,
(03:41):
I scheduled a meeting with theasphalt pavement industry Happy
and John Young, who was on ourpodcast last season, and I set
up an appointment to be a guestat one of their monthly meetings
(04:02):
and he invited people.
We had a great turnout.
A guest at one of their monthlymeetings and he invited people
and we had a great turnout.
But I had mentioned somethingabout the podcast and somebody
asked me is it true that younever get any emails at the
podcast, at ashtoresourceorgemail address?
And I was enunciating that justnow on purpose, for a reason.
(04:23):
And I said, well, yeah, that istrue, we don't ever get any
emails to that email account.
And that person was surprised.
They thought we would get someand somebody.
So John Young from Happy wasthinking about it and he emailed
us and he said oh, by the way,in the transcript the email
(04:49):
address shows up in differentways and one of them was Astro,
astro, it was Astro resource,yeah, yeah, or at Astro resource
, and there was one that waswhat was it?
Pod case email at.
Whatever the email address was,so I was like okay, well, maybe
if people were pulling from thetranscript they would get that
(05:11):
wrong.
I still don't know if we'regoing to get any action on that
email account, but if you're outthere and you just want to say
hello, we'd be happy to hearfrom you.
At podcast P-O-D-C-A-S-T.
At A-A-S-H-T-O-R-E-S-O-U-R-C-E,dot O-R-G.
See if I spelled that correctly.
Kim Swanson (05:33):
Yeah, that's I mean
, I'm the spot that I would
definitely not have spelled thatcorrectly.
So thank you for that, Brian.
I will say we do autotranscribe our episodes, so and
I do try to do it once over tomake sure I catch any glaring
mistakes like that andmisspellings, but obviously not
perfect.
So, and we do want people toemail us, and especially about
(05:57):
the changes we're making thisseason.
If you love it, let us know.
If you hate it, you're like Iwant content every week, Let us
know that too, and then we cansee what we can do.
But again, it's all aboutcontinual improvement and we do
need to get feedback to know ifwe're doing what you need us to
do for this and getting out ofthe episodes what you want to
(06:19):
get out of it.
So any who and what else?
Brian Johnson (06:23):
What else were we
?
You were also talking aboutpossibly using video, right?
Kim Swanson (06:29):
Yeah, we might be
actually that is a change.
So if you go over to YouTube,you'll see at least this episode
we're using the video for we'regoing to see how we do that,
moving forward, and if you likeit, let us know.
If you don't like it, also letus know.
So, yeah, that's going to be alittle bit different that you
can get actually see our faceson the YouTube version of this.
(06:52):
So that's exciting, maybe not.
Maybe it's not exciting.
Brian Johnson (06:57):
Maybe it's worse.
Kim Swanson (06:58):
Maybe it's worse,
it could be, let us know.
Yeah, it definitely could beworse, that is for sure.
So at the end of last season,season four, we stopped because
of TechX AASHTO ResourceTechnical Exchange was coming up
that month and we needed toprep for it.
So, brian, since you attendedTechX this year, do you want to
(07:18):
give like a brief recap ofwhat's what happened there, and
all the exciting things, or notso much?
Brian Johnson (07:56):
Sure, you know,
the technical exchange is always
a great opportunity for peopleto get together and talk about
what's.
All sorts of interested partiesin the ass I almost said
asphalt, because it's just anasphalt meeting in the materials
testing industry that areinvolved with our program in
some way, either directly orindirectly, but they all get
together and we have usuallyabout 250 or so people attend
(08:18):
the technical exchange.
We have panel discussions, wehave presentations, we have
round table discussions for theattendees, different workshop
type activities and really justa ton of opportunities for
collaboration and talking aboutsolving problems that people are
(08:42):
facing.
And like like any conferenceand this is something that I
often try to tell people is alot of the value comes in
between those sessions and afterthose sessions.
So don't base the valuestrictly on the agenda.
I don't want to go too into it,but we often have a lot of
tracks of interests for peopleand they can pick and choose
(09:08):
which sessions they want toattend and usually we do get
feedback in the end.
I wish I could have attendedmore which is good, because that
means we had a lot of goodcontent.
Kim Swanson (09:19):
Yeah, no, we often
get that, I think at least every
year we get a few people sayingI wish I could have attended
everything and in that vein,this season on the podcast we're
hopefully going to have some ofthe speakers or panelists that
participated in TechX as guestson our episodes here.
So we're hoping to do that moreoften and just share that
(09:42):
knowledge and that content morewidespread, so you can look
forward to that coming up inseason five.
What else can people lookforward to in season five?
Brian?
Brian Johnson (09:53):
well, we're going
to talk about another reason
why we kind of were delayed, andsee, in starting season five,
and that was, uh, reevaluatingour priorities.
So one thing we were doing isworking on a strategic plan,
which is called a roadmap nowfor ashto resource, and we're
going to talk about that inseason one, uh, with the
(10:13):
director of ashto on a strategicplan which is called a roadmap
now for.
Kim Swanson (10:16):
AASHTO Resource and
we're going to talk about that
in season one with the directorof AASHTO Resource, robert Lutz,
episode.
What did I say?
He said season one, it's seasonfive, episode two most likely
is what's going to be happeningthere.
We're going to be talking withAASHTO Resource resource
director, uh, bob lutz, and thatis actually recording that in
the next few minutes here, soyou will see probably our same
(10:36):
outfits in the same thing in thenext episode that's right.
Brian Johnson (10:40):
So we're going to
talk about some of those
priorities.
Uh, I I actually wasn't sure ifwe were going to continue to
have the AASHTO Resource Q&Apodcast as part of the review of
our priorities, because Iwasn't sure how it fit in
Because, as Cam mentioned, ourday jobs are quite different
than this.
So mine is director of theAASHTO Accreditation Program.
(11:00):
Other non-specific duties I'minvolved in like standards
development, uh attendingdifferent meetings and
representing our organization,as well as managing a team of
quality analysts and andinvolvement with other staff
(11:22):
members on uh tasks related toashto accreditation
(11:46):
no-transcript.
Kim Swanson (11:47):
Yep, I'm very
excited about that because I do
love doing the podcast.
It is just, you know, and it ismore my job than your job, so I
will say it takes away fromyour job more than it does mine,
because this is definitely inthe communications wheelhouse
(12:13):
common findings and commonnonconformities from some of
your favorite standards.
I think for sure we're going tohave R18.
We're going to do some commonfindings for that.
But if anyone has suggestionson what to do next or what
standards you want to know aboutor what common findings are,
let us know.
At podcast, at ashtoresourceorg, we're going to talk about some
of the new proficiency sampleprograms that were launched
recently, so that's exciting.
We're going to talk about someof the new proficiency sample
programs that were launchedrecently, so that's exciting.
(12:35):
We're going to have someepisodes on that, episodes on
equipment maintenance.
What else, brian?
Brian Johnson (12:42):
We're going to
talk about quality.
Kim Swanson (12:44):
Yeah, we are.
Brian Johnson (12:45):
As we always do,
and we're also going to talk
about things that are hot topicsor issues that have come up in
the accreditation program that Ithink are useful to other
people in the program.
So we have always done that,and I find that those are
probably some of the more usefulones.
(13:08):
The only hard part about it isthose usually get buried in the
FAQ episodes or mailbag episodes, but if you're, if you're ever
curious about what type ofthings are going on currently,
those are good ones to check out.
If you want to look back at ourarchives, of which there are
plenty of episodes, do you knowwhat our total number is right
(13:29):
now?
Kim Swanson (13:29):
I think it was 160,
I want to say I don't know
exactly.
I just was putting thattogether for our status report
and so I want to say it's 160,but don't quote me on that.
Brian Johnson (13:41):
It could be that
it was somewhere around there.
Kim Swanson (13:42):
It's over 150.
Brian Johnson (13:44):
It was a lot more
than I expected.
Kim Swanson (13:46):
Yes.
Brian Johnson (13:47):
When I looked at
the number, I had to double
check my math it's like this issimple math, but I don't believe
it.
I don't believe the result.
Yeah, but you know these things, add up.
Kim Swanson (13:56):
Exactly, but I
think that's giving everybody a
good taste of what to expectthis season.
Right, is there anything elseyou want to let us know?
Let them know, let our audienceknow, because it's been, it's
been a while.
Brian Johnson (14:16):
Anything else?
I don't think so, but I willagain stress the importance of
giving us feedback about whatyou want to hear, because when
you ask people who are in itevery day and don't have a lot
of questions about what we'redoing, you may not get the same
answer.
You may not get the same answer.
So, like, what I think you wantto hear might not be what you
want to hear, because I don'tknow what you're confused about
or what you maybe you're noteven confused with, just what
(14:38):
you want to hear more about.
So it's important to let usknow, and even it's kind of
funny, because we were talkingto our boss, bob, about episodes
that we think are useful andeven he had different ideas
about what he thought was goingto be useful compared to what we
thought would be useful.
So it's best to hear from theaudience.
(15:03):
Yes so please, please, reach outand let us know, so we're on
the right track.
Kim Swanson (15:08):
Exactly.
If you want more of somethingor less of something, definitely
reach out to us at podcast atashtoresourceorg or our
individual email addresses,which you can find on the
Contact Us page, and that isgenerally where we get the most
feedback.
People send it personally to us, but we would love the inbox to
be full at podcast atashtoresourceorg.
(15:29):
Ooh, brain fart there.
But thanks everybody forjoining us on season five and I
think I'm pretty excited aboutseason five.
Brian Johnson (15:39):
Yeah, I am too.
I think it should be a goodtime and we'll get some more
useful information for people.
Kim Swanson (15:45):
Thanks for
listening to AASHTO re:source
Q&A.
If you'd like to be a guest orjust submit a question, send us
an email at podcast@aashtoresource.
org, or call Brian at240-436-4820.
For other news and relatedcontent, check out AASHTO
re:sources social media accountsor go to aashtoresource.
(16:06):
org.