[p2tech] So long, and thanks for all the fish!

(my apologies to Douglas Adams for appropriating his line).
 
My good friends in the P2TECH community:
 
As many of you know, one of the threads that keeps me connected to the
P2 world, is my role as director of ChemAlliance (www.chemalliance.org),
the EPA-OECA funded Compliance Assistance Center I've operated for the
past 10 years (holy cow! THAT'll make a guy feel old!).  Our mission has
been to help the chemical manufacturing and allied industries improve
their environmental performance, both through better understanding of
the environmental regulations, and helping them to think "beyond the
regs" to P2 and sustainability issues.
 
In the past 10 years, we've had something like 1.5 million visits to our
web site; I've delivered training courses all across the country, and
had a chance to collaborate with several state agencies on everything
from training to outreach efforts.  
 
I've had an opportunity to post lots of silly questions to P2TECH, and
you folks have been wonderfully generous in your responses.  I can't
begin to tell you how much enjoyment this community brings to my life.
 
But like all good things, this one is coming to, if not an end, at least
a different phase.   Sometime in the next couple of weeks, visitors to
ChemAlliance will find a completely different "look and feel" to the
site, and if they dig deep enough, will find that the site is no longer
operated by Pacific NW National Laboratory/Battelle (my employer) but by
the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Associates (SOCMA).
 
This is a good thing.  
 
EPA funding for the Compliance Assistance Centers has been lagging in
recent years, victim of a broader disturbing trend of reduced budgets
for much of the agency.  Seeing the writing on the wall, ChemAlliance
began discussions with SOCMA more than two years ago, working out a plan
to have SOCMA maintain the operation of the site even after EPA funding 
had ceased.   I am quite proud of this accomplishment, as it allows
ChemAlliance to continue for the foreseeable future, and under the
direction of an organization and individuals (more specifically, Bill
Allmond, SOCMA's VP for Government Affairs, and his very capable staff)
that I have a great respect for.  Bill and SOCMA have been partners in
the site since its inception -- now they'll be at the helm.
 
I think it will be a great opportunity for the site to continue to serve
this important industry sector, and to continue to promote P2 and
sustainable practices in the sector that is usually the first link in
any supply chain.
 
I will continue at PNNL, as I have for the past 25 years, working on the
confluence of things that interest me, and things that our agency
sponsors are willing to fund.  Currently, that includes a lot of work
related to knowledge capture and preservation, the semantic web, and
computer modeling of social behavior.  Alas, while much of this has
environmental applications or implications, those aren't the main foci
of this work -- but I've got another 5-10 years before retirement so who
knows where my curiosity will lead me?  There's still interesting
research to be done in the P2 world -- I'm sure of that.   Eventually
I'll connect something I'm interested in with something somebody cares
about.  I always do.
 
But I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the P2TECH community as a
whole, for their very gracious tolerance of my sometimes quirky, often
rambling missives to this list; and for your friendship and
contributions to the mission of ChemAlliance over the years. Of all the
many benefits of running ChemAlliance, the opportunity to look to this
group as peers has been among the best.

Scott
__________________________________________________ 
Scott Butner 
Senior Research Scientist 
Knowledge Systems Group 
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 
902 Battelle Boulevard 
P.O. Box 999, MSIN K7-28 
Richland, WA  99352 USA 
Tel:  509-372-4946 
Fax: 509-375-2443 
scott.butner at pnl.gov 
www.pnl.gov 


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