March 2026 Committee Updates

At the start of 2026, Trey Wurst stepped into his new role as Chair of the Advisory Committee. The role of Vice Chair is currently vacant. The Roofing Subcommittee met and began discussion on the next needs statement, which will then be finalized and sent to the Technical Committee for review, questions, feedback, and execution. The Paving Subcommittee is rounding out the next Technical Brief (Issue 4), which highlights a project that has emphasis in resilience and sustainability. The Agency Subcommittee recently met and is working on finalizing their needs statement and priorities for 2026. 

At the start of 2026, Julie Anne Geyer stepped into her new role as Chair of the Communications Committee. The role of Vice Chair is currently vacant. The Communications Committee has recently focused on securing high-impact industry sponsorships for 2026, including AAPT in Boston (March 23-26) and PARC in Laramie, Wyoming (July 14-16). The committee successfully voted on key marketing investments to expand AMAP’s reach across academia, industry, and the roofing sector. The Communications Committee played an important role in the promotional strategy and schedule for the 2026 AMAP March Workshop. Other priorities for 2026 include: creating content, promotions, and massaging for the 2026 AMAP Annual Conference & Workshop in Boston from October 19-21, 2026; continued improvements to the AMAP website, including building out committee and educational resource pages; and analyzing results from a recent "Why AMAP" questionnaire to refine the value proposition for new member acquisition.

The Education Committee, led by Chair BJ Blackwell and Vice Chair Ramil Mercado, worked the last few months to finalize the agenda and speakers for the March Workshop, which was held from March 9-11, 2026, in Baton Rouge. The committee experienced some challenges procuring local and regional speakers due to speaker availability and spring break in the region, but were able to put together a robust agenda that had something for all of our attendees. There was concern about less overall agency participation, which will be addressed for future workshops. In a recent committee meeting at the end of February, the committee also reviewed committee membership, including new Friends of the Committee, and outlined who the voting members of the current committee structure are. At its next meeting, the Education Committee will review survey results from the March Educational Workshop attendees, in consideration of planning for the fall Workshop in October. 

At the start of 2026, Jhony Habbouche stepped into the role of Events Committee Chair, with Katrina Mangiaracina stepping into the role of Vice Chair. Beginning in November 2025, the Events Committee met multiple times to initiate planning for 2026, with particular focus on the 2026 AMAP Workshop and Annual Meeting. The committee worked to create and release the 2026 AMAP Annual Conference & Workshop theme and Call for Abstracts, which was issued earlier in March. The committee is aware that the NEAUPG meeting (October 21–22, 2026) is scheduled during the same week as the AMAP 2026 Annual Meeting (October 19–21, 2026), and attendees and presenters may need to choose between the two events, but discussed possible mitigation or collaboration strategies to ensure people could attend both. The Events Committee will focus heavily on the annual meeting over the next two quarters, but is discussing other projects as well. 

The Membership Committee is actively seeking additional volunteers! Please contact committee Chair Jason Cox with your interest, or reach out to info@modifiedasphalt.org. 

At the start of 2026, Codrin Daranga stepped into his new role as Chair of the Technical Committee, with Andrew Hanz starting as Vice Chair. The Technical Committee has identified its priorities for 2026, which include subcommittees for: TxDOT Modified Binders Project, RAS in Paving, Literature and Links Categorization, Roofing/IBHS/Wind Certification, HPG or "HMA" Why and Where. A document from the TxDOT Modified Binders Project will be available and promoted soon. The Literature & Links Categorization subcommittee will conduct a pilot project on modifiers. Bob Kluttz recently shared that there were no comments on the PCR open comment section as part of the EPD Task Force. There are some opportunities for individuals to join various subcommittee initiatives. If you are interested, please reach out to Codrin Daranga or email info@modifiedasphalt.org.

Committee involvement is open to current AMAP members.Are you interested in getting involved with AMAP? Fill out our volunteer form!