The Standards Alumni Association began on September 13, 1985 when the first membership meeting took place. NBS Director Ernest Ambler addressed an assembly of some 150 members under the chairmanship of Churchill Eisenhart, who was elected as president of the new association. Some of the original officers are still with us today: Reeves Tilley (then Program Chair), Helen Korin Zonszajn (VP, Membership), John Beers (Secretary), and Jim Wyckoff (NBS Liaison). A program of quarterly meetings was started then which continues through today. The founders of the SAA agreed on activities that remain hallmarks of the SAA program, (1) quarterly meetings, held on Thursdays, which feature a guest speaker followed by a laboratory tour, and (2) a quarterly newsletter.