I question the chair of a sub-committee picking the members. This results in "old boys syndrome" and the excluse of differing views. This is not in the interest of the profession. Lets face it there are numerous issues in structural engineering that are dominated by opinion, not facts; some chairs will intentionally, or not, stack the sub-committee with like minded individuals.

A couple of suggestions:

1. Limit the number of committee members from a firm to 1 or at most 2.
2. Encourage publication of dissenting opinions.

Ralph

Both good suggestions, I actually think we don't have more than 2 members from one firm and we certainly should avoid that. I particularly like you idea of publishing dissenting opinions.

Cheers

Jim Mutrie