The Pulse of the Association

By Scott Hutter, ACC President and Martin Engineering President & CEO

The complex and dynamic nature of our industry insured that the American Coal Council (ACC) stayed very busy in 2010. Looking forward, 2011 promises to be every bit as busy and productive.

We have worked through our publications, conferences, and committee activities to keep members, attendees, readers, and the public up to date on important issues. Our magazines and conferences have kept the broad, longer-term focus covered, while our social media outlets and webinars have focused in on detailed information-sharing.

Throughout the political and policy upheavals our industry has experienced recently, the ACC’s primary focus has stayed fixed on two key concepts. First, we advance the development and utilization of coal as an economic, abundant and environmentally sound energy fuel source. Second, we provide educational programs, advocacy support, peer-to-peer networking forums and market intelligence that allow members to advance their marketing and management capabilities. To meet our mission statement, we continue to offer a strong mix of our traditional publications, events, and conferences. Plus, we have added several new offerings to our lists as well.

A review of our many offerings includes:

ACC Conferences

Our two primary marketplace and policy-oriented conferences, Spring Coal Forum and Coal Market Strategies, remain strong draws for senior level energy industry and government executives. In 2011, we will use these conferences to focus on critical industry issues, relying on guidance and input from our member companies to guide conference content. Our successful Spring Coal Forum was held in Clearwater, FL from March 8-10, and the Coal Market Strategies will be in Colorado Springs, CO from August 22 – 24.

Our Fuel Flexibility Conference has been revised and renamed. Now called the Utility Coal Conference, this event will feature information and solutions on fuel compliance and will be held June 28-29 in Minneapolis, MN.

Our Coal Trading Conference continues to provide energy traders with essential information on marketplace trends and will be held December 5-6 in New York, NY.

American Coal magazine

Edited and administered by our Communications Director, American Coal magazine continues to provide our 15,000+ readership with accurate and balanced information and editorial on the coal industry, clean coal technologies, and energy policy. In 2010 we released an online version of American Coal (hosted at www.americancoalonline.com). This new website also hosts the online versions of our Buyers’ Guide and Membership Directory, both serving as essential information resources on the businesses that keep our industry running – see www.americancoalonline.com/accdirectory.

As part of our year end work in 2010, we signed a multi-year contract with our magazine publisher, Lester Publications. Lester will continue to publish the print and online editions of American Coal magazine. They will also be responsible for publishing our online newsletters, our annual calendar, our newly formatted Membership Directory, as well as our print and online Buyers’ Guide. They will also be responsible for managing the suite of advertising opportunities associated with our various publications. We are confident that having a single advertising team will help our advertisers in managing and focusing their advertising dollars.