February 2009
Volume 34, Number 2

ASCE released the grades in its 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, January 28, approximately two months ahead of schedule. Although the overall grade given by the “report card”—a D—is the same as that conferred four years ago, the projected cost of repairing the nation’s infrastructure has grown to a daunting $2.2 trillion over the next five years.

“For the first time since we issued our [first] report card in 1998 . . . the nation discusses the role of infrastructure in stimulating our economy,” said Patrick J. Natale, P.E., F.ASCE, the Society’s executive director. “Recognizing the importance of informing and contributing to this discussion in a timely manner, we made an unprecedented decision to release the report card components of our 2009 report card two months ahead of schedule.” At press time President Obama was calling on Congress to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1, S. 1), a bill that could allocate as much as $98.25 billion toward repairing and revitalizing the nation’s infrastructure.

The Society’s 1998 infrastructure assessment also assigned an overall grade of D, which, according to ASCE’s president, D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, “surprised everyone, including the engineers who conducted the assessment. It served as a wake-up call for the nation. Unfortunately, we hit the snooze button.” Klotz lamented the fact that “in more than a decade, the United States has made no significant progress in improving either the condition or performance of our roads, bridges, water systems, or other vital infrastructure.” ASCE’s last national infrastructure assessment, in 2005, estimated that the country would need to invest approximately $1.6 trillion to raise the grades, a figure that has since grown by approximately $600 billion.

Although the nation’s infrastructure is failing, said Klotz, some communities around the country are “beginning to address some of their most critical infrastructure challenges.” By way of example, he cited California’s efforts to maintain and repair its levees and Atlanta’s work in renewing its sewer system. Despite these efforts, however, he noted that most of the grades have remained the same or have declined. The reason, Klotz explained, is that “we do not invest enough to maintain our infrastructure, let alone improve it on any significant scale.”

The funds from the proposed stimulus legislation and the estimated spending over five years, which is estimated at $903 billion, will certainly help address infrastructure needs. Nevertheless, ASCE’s assessment estimates that, even with the stimulus package, the nation’s infrastructure will face a deficit of approximately $1.1 trillion. “We clearly have a long way to go,” said Klotz.

Edward G. Rendell (D), the governor of Pennsylvania and a cochair of Building America’s Future—a nonprofit organization that is working to address the investment needs of the nation in the area of infrastructure—agreed that while the stimulus is “more than a drop in a bucket,” it is still insufficient. Concerned that the Obama administration, Congress, and the public might perceive that the infrastructure’s shortcomings have been adequately addressed once the economic stimulus bill has been passed, the governor emphasized that that bill “is only a down payment.”

The largest estimated deficits in the assessment’s 15 categories are in the roads and bridges segments, which face a gap totaling $548.5 billion; mass transit, which faces a gap of $189.5 billion; and drinking water and wastewater, which face a shortfall of $107 billion. The smallest estimated deficits among the categories are those for schools ($9.6 billion), rail ($19 billion), and inland waterways ($20.5 billion).

In view of the fact that no clear solution has been proposed for securing proper funding, Klotz stressed that “we must establish reliable, dedicated funding sources to meet the needs of current and future users and to support ongoing system operation and maintenance.” As he put it, “User fees such as the gas tax and utility fees are common approaches to establishing these funding sources.” He also underscored the need to establish more public-private partnerships as a way of obtaining infrastructure funding. For his part, Rendell suggested changing the methods used by the federal government to fund infrastructure: “I am a strong believer that we need a federal capital budget. It makes no sense for the federal government to be the only political subdivision in the country that buys paper clips the same way it invests in bridges that have a forty- or fifty-year life span.” Rendell also emphasized the need to support the authorization of a federal surface transportation policy.

According to the assessment, the categories of infrastructure in the worst condition—those that received a grade of D–—are drinking water, wastewater, inland waterways, roads, and the new category: levees. More than 85 percent of the nation’s levees are privately owned and their conditions are unknown, according to the report. Nevertheless, development behind these levees has grown, thus increasing the risk to safety and public health if they fail. While it is estimated that levees will need approximately $50 billion over the next five years, the actual spending during that period is expected to total only $1.13 billion.

“Raising the grades on our infrastructure will require that we seek and adopt a wide range of solutions in every category, including technical advances, funding, and regulatory changes in public behavior and support,” said Andrew Herrmann, P.E., M.ASCE, the chair of the advisory council that helped ASCE prepare the assessment. Herrmann used the category of solid waste as an example in this regard. Over the years, he noted, this category has consistently received a C+. Although the category “is certainly no overachiever,” a range of solutions have been found to address projections indicating that there was insufficient landfill capacity to meet the nation’s solid waste disposal needs, Herrmann explained. “Consumers changed their behavior through recycling. Engineers developed improved landfill designs and trash-to-energy plants. Regulatory changes promoted acceptance of these changes,” he said.

As part of its assessment ASCE proposed five measures that it believes will help the country achieve higher grades:

•  Increase federal leadership in infrastructure;
•  Promote sustainability and resilience;
•  Develop federal and regional infrastructure plans;
•  Address life-cycle costs and maintenance needs;
•  Increase and improve infrastructure investment from all stakeholders.

“The answer is not just building a road. You need to step back and look at a holistic solution to the problem on a regional basis, on a state basis, and on a federal basis,” Natale stressed.

The full version of the 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, which will describe each category and grade in detail, is to be released in March. The grades meted out this week received the attention of such media outlets as the New York Times, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post. For additional information, visit www.asce.org/reportcard. 

See PDF of Report Card

—Brett Hansen

For decades, ASCE has attempted to turn the attention of the nation’s leaders to the parlous state of the country’s infrastructure. To address the current economic crisis, President Obama has made rebuilding infrastructure part of the economic stimulus package that is being developed by Congress in an effort to combat unemployment and encourage economic growth. In his inaugural speech, the new president declared that “the state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act—not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.” As a strong supporter of the president’s plan, the Society has prepared a document entitled “Principles for Infrastructure Stimulus Investment” and presented it to Obama’s transition team as well as to congressional leaders.

The principles were developed by ASCE staff members and by the roughly 80 participants at the Summit on Guiding Principles for Critical Infrastructure, which was held in Virginia in early December. (See “Conference Seeks to Develop Infrastructure Guidelines,” ASCE News, January 2009). The document “Principles for Infrastructure Stimulus Investment” describes the president’s economic plan as “an important step to bolstering our nation’s economic stability.” It also states that engineering and construction projects carried out as part of the stimulus plan must “create and sustain employment increases”; “provide long-term benefits to the public”; take into account the “long-term maintenance and upkeep needs of all infrastructure projects, both existing and new”; and “ensure accountability and transparency” by means of “an auditing program . . . to review the program and measure desired outcomes.”

The document recommends that the projects be prioritized and selected on the basis of “measurable improvements” to the public’s safety, health, and quality of life. The projects should also provide significant economic benefits and should be designed and constructed “in a sustainable and cost-effective manner.” They should also, according to the document, “have a significant environmental benefit such as area restoration, improved air quality through reduced congestion, and better watershed management through eliminating vulnerabilities in a system.”

In an accompanying letter addressed to Obama, D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, the Society’s president, expressed the Society’s support of the economic stimulus plan but cautioned that any stimulus package should “supplement, rather than replace, long-term solutions such as regular appropriations and scheduled reauthorizations that will ultimately restore America’s world-class infrastructure.” He urged the president as well as members of Congress to adopt the Society’s principles in developing legislation for the stimulus plan.

Recognizing the financial plight of many states, Klotz wrote that “for purposes of the economic stimulus package, ASCE supports temporarily waiving state and local matching fund requirements.” Nevertheless, he urged Congress to include a mechanism in the legislation that “ensures that federal funds are used to supplement, not supplant, already approved state and local infrastructure funding.”

The Obama administration is aware of the potential benefits of measures to revitalize the nation’s infrastructure. A report released on January 10 entitled The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, written by Christina Romer, Ph.D., the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, and Jared Bernstein, Ph.D., the chief economic adviser to Vice President Biden, described how the effort to improve the nation’s infrastructure would create jobs. “Certain industries, such as construction and manufacturing, are likely to experience particularly strong job growth under a recovery package that includes an emphasis on infrastructure, energy, and school repair,” it states. The report projects that by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010 the plan could create 377,000 jobs related to the nation’s infrastructure. (The authors concede that there is a substantial margin of error in the data because the plan is in the early stages of development.)

“By adopting and implementing the ASCE principles, Congress can assure the American people that the funds appropriated for infrastructure investment will produce desirable results such as: reducing congestion and delays on America’s roadways; enhancing public transit systems; updating the nation’s aviation system; and replacing leaking water pipes,” Klotz continued in his letter to Obama. In a blog entry dated January 5, Klotz exhorted ASCE members to seize the opportunity to discuss the economic stimulus plan with their local leaders in conjunction with the release by ASCE of the 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. “Many of us lament the lack of investment in infrastructure over the last 25 years. We should take this opportunity and do everything within our power to make sure that [a bill related to the stimulus plan] passes.”

To read ASCE’s “Principles for Infrastructure Stimulus Investment,” visit http://content.asce.org/files/pdf/ASCEPrinciplesforInfrastructureInvestment-Dec2008.pdf. To visit Klotz’s blog, visit http://blogs.asce.org/president2009/.

—Brett Hansen

ASCE’s 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure (http://www.ASCE.org/reportcard), which was released on January 28, offers important findings for our nation at a time when infrastructure is receiving unprecedented attention from President Obama, the U.S. Congress, and the media. This is a telling moment for ASCE, one that will enable us to spread our message and participate in national and regional dialogues about infrastructure improvements.

The nation’s leaders rely on ASCE to provide expert advice on the condition of our infrastructure. Because our new report is essential in providing this advice, ASCE made the decision to release the grades and the estimates of the investments that will be needed nearly two months earlier than originally planned. The full report, with its fact sheets on all categories and state-by-state information, will be released on March 25.

To keep the focus on infrastructure, ASCE is bringing its infrastructure report to the attention of policy makers and working to shape the economic stimulus package currently being developed by Congress. Stimulus funds will go far in achieving infrastructure solutions, and ensuring that this funding is wisely invested is a key priority for ASCE.

The members and staff of ASCE have been doing an excellent job in interacting with key members of Congress and the Obama transition team and in sharing the findings of our new report. All of us need to join in these efforts and work consistently during the coming months. Contact your senators and representatives to let them know how important dependable infrastructure is to the nation. Point out the job-creating virtues of an infrastructure program in this battered economy. To become more involved in infrastructure advocacy, consider joining ASCE’s Key Contact Program (www.ASCE.org/pressroom/publicpolicy/keycont.cfm).
The findings contained in our newest infrastructure assessment support will, it is hoped, be acted upon in a way that is consistent with our document “Principles for Infrastructure Stimulus investment” (http://content.ASCE.org/files/pdf/ASCEPrinciplesforInfrastructureInvestment-Dec2008.pdf). In our view, all projects must be carried out in such a way that the following are achieved:

• Projects must create and sustain employment increases.
• Investments must provide long-term benefits to the public, such as congestion relief.
• The long-term maintenance and upkeep needs of all infrastructure projects must be considered.
• To ensure accountability and transparency, an auditing program must be established to review programs and determine whether desired outcomes are being attained.

As the investments are made, proper attention must also be paid to prioritization and selection:

• The project should deliver measurable improvements in public health and safety and in the quality of life.
• The project should provide substantial economic benefits that are broadly based.
• The project should be designed and built in a sustainable and cost-effective manner, and proper consideration should be given to life-cycle costs.
• The project should confer a significant environmental benefit, for example, the restoration of a degraded area, better air quality through reduced congestion, or better watershed management through the elimination of vulnerabilities.

Remember that our new report and the discussion of infrastructure’s role in any economic stimulus package give us opportunities that extend beyond Washington, D.C. The 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure is an excellent tool for beginning these discussions at all levels. In your area, and on Capitol Hill, talk about capital spending on infrastructure as a proven means of job creation and economic development. Engage your leaders with the facts. They want to hear from you at this unprecedented time in the history of our profession. The public is crying out for action to fix our failing infrastructure, and we have the tools to respond.

The question is whether you will join us. Many of you know that advocacy is the A of my ABC (advocacy, benefits, change) presidency. Vital information that is not disseminated is of little value. Civil engineers in all locales must speak out about the condition of their communities. Remember, modern civilization does not and cannot exist without adequate infrastructure. We should not stand idly by and watch the continued deterioration of these vital elements of our cities. Better transportation is a key to economic growth. Better water and wastewater systems safeguard public health. Improved infrastructure yields an immediate improvement in the quality of life for everyone. ASCE has prepared all of the tools that you need. Stand up for the value of infrastructure. If you don’t, no one will do it for you. Together, we will build a better future.

—D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE

Colorado Section Celebrates Centennial

The Colorado Section celebrated its 100th anniversary on Thursday, January 8, in the Centennial Room at Denver’s Hyatt Regency Tech Center. Approximately 140 attendees joined in festivities commemorating the founding of the Colorado Section on January 9, 1909, as well as a century of civil engineering in Colorado.

Jeffrey May, P.E., M.ASCE, the section’s president, called the meeting to order using a gavel donated to the section by Herbert S. Crocker, Dist.M.ASCE, who became the Society’s president in 1932. Then John Hickenlooper, Denver’s mayor, spoke about the contributions that civil engineers have made to Denver and to Colorado. He was followed by Blaine D. Leonard, P.E., F.ASCE, the Society’s president-elect, who recounted some of the engineering and infrastructure achievements of the past 100 years and outlined some of the challenges facing engineers today. Leonard also talked about The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (http://content.asce.org/vision2025/index.html) and discussed how civil engineers of the future will be expected to assume more prominent roles as stewards of the infrastructure.

Richard Wiltshire, P.E., F.ASCE, who chairs the Colorado Section’s History and Heritage Committee, briefly surveyed the history of civil engineering in Colorado, noting the achievements in roughly AD 750 at Mesa Verde, and then turned his attention to the history of the section, which was founded as the Colorado Association of Members of ASCE. As Wiltshire explained, ASCE members in Colorado hosted the Society’s annual conference in 1908 and then decided to follow the example of San Francisco, which had established an ASCE section in 1905. ASCE’s records indicate that, if all categories of membership are included, the section had 70 members at the time of its founding. Among them were Crocker; Milo S. Ketchum, Sr., Dist.m.ASCE, a pioneer in engineering education; Raymond F. Walter, m.ASCE, and Sinclair O. Harper, f.ASCE, both of whom rose to become the chief engineer of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; and Lawrence C. Phipps, an associate member (similar to today’s affiliate member) who represented Colorado in the U.S. Senate from 1919 to 1931.

The centennial program concluded with a salute to the 16 presidents who have served the section. In paying tribute to those officers, May was joined by Patrick J. Natale, P.E., F.ASCE, ASCE’s executive director; and Sharon Wilson, P.E., M.ASCE, the chair of the section’s Awards Committee.

ASCE Expands Distance Learning Programs

In response to the desire expressed by members for convenient and economical education opportunities, ASCE has augmented its distance learning programs. This year it will be offering more than 200 live Web seminars (“webinars”) designed to address timely and important engineering topics.

The Society has been offering webinars for more than six years now, and last year more than 175 of them were made available. This year will see webinars on many new topics in a variety of technical specialties. New webinars include the following:

• Going Green: Diverting Materials from Landfills; 
• Design and Rehabilitation of Foundations on Expansive Soils; 
• Wind and Seismic Retrofit of Wood-Framed Buildings; 
• Structural Steel Basics: Specifying Lightweight Wood Trusses; 
• Condition Evaluation of Existing Structures; 
• Designing Streets for Residential Subdivisions; 
• Planning and Street Operations of Light-Rail Systems; 
• Understanding HEC-RAS Errors, Warnings, and Notes; 
• Bridge Scour Computations with HEC-RAS.

Anyone participating in a webinar can earn professional development hours (PDHs). ASCE is also developing new online courses that will be available at any time so that members can remain current and earn the PDHs needed for renewing a professional engineering license.

The popularity of ASCE’s webinars continues to grow. In 2008 the total enrollment exceeded 40,000. The most popular webinars included Preparing and Implementing Construction Site Storm-Water Pollution Prevention Plans (860 participants); Ethics: The Road All Engineers Must Follow (844 participants); and Traffic Impact Studies (776 participants). In response to increasing demand, ASCE will hold more than 200 webinars this year, and more than 48,000 individuals are expected to participate.

Webinars typically run 60 to 90 minutes and are designed to be practice oriented and to address topics of current interest. Participants pay a single site registration fee that permits an unlimited number of engineers to attend at that site. Participants view the instructor’s PowerPoint slides while he or she is lecturing. They can also interact with the instructor and other participants and can receive immediate answers to their questions.

For additional information on ASCE’s webinars and online courses, visit http://www.asce.org/conted.

ASCE Offers New Legal Journal, Article Previews, RSS Feeds

To help engineers gain a better understanding of the legal aspects of their profession, ASCE has announced the debut of the Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. ASCE is also providing engineers with the means to obtain current and reliable information from its online database, which now features really simple syndication (RSS) feeds, and manuscripts posted upon acceptance.

The first issue of the new journal, which begins publication with the February issue, highlights the vital role that legal systems play in construction administration. The journal, which may be viewed online at no charge at http://ascelibrary.aip.org/lao, features thought-provoking papers on a variety of topics related to legal affairs. For example, Kathleen Harmon’s article “A Case Study as to the Effectiveness of Dispute Review Boards on the Central Artery/Tunnel Project” explains an alternative dispute resolution application. The editor of the new journal is Amarjit Singh, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Among his goals is to provide insight into the legal relationships arising from such factors as dispute avoidance and resolution, sustainability concerns, effective project execution, and the changing nature of project delivery systems. To subscribe to the new journal, visit http://pubs.asce.org/journals/legalaffairs/subscribe. For more information about submitting papers to the journal, visit http://www.edmgr.com/jrnlaeng.

Together with ASCE’s other journals, the Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction will soon make articles available at ASCE’s Online Research Library (www.ascelibrary.org) before they have been printed. This new procedure will enable subscribers to view accepted journal articles before they have been copyedited and printed. The purpose of posting articles before they have been printed is to decrease the time between the submission of manuscripts and their publication. The move also enables ASCE to remain competitive in scholarly publishing.

At present only the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering (http://ascelibrary.aip.org/iro) posts articles before they have been printed. Subscribers to that journal can click on the “Manuscript Preview” link, which is on the left side of the Web page, or on “View List of Articles,” which is near the top of the page. Once the list of articles appears, subscribers can click on the “Abstract” link after finding the article they’re after or can download the full article by clicking on the “PDF” icon. For ASCE’s other journals, articles posted prior to printing are expected to be accessible by April.

Only those articles that have been submitted using the Editorial Manager—ASCE’s online peer review and production system—will be posted prior to printing. Authors who do not wish to have their articles read prior to publication may opt out during the submission process. Articles may be posted within 72 hours of acceptance.

In addition to the articles posted prior to printing, ASCE’s Online Research Library is offering RSS feeds for all of the Society’s journals. These feeds enable subscribers to receive summaries of new journal articles on their RSS feed “aggregators”—for example, Google Reader—and thus to create personalized online newspapers that are updated automatically. The journals’ RSS feeds are refreshed twice a day, the latest additions appearing at the top of the RSS feed list. An RSS feed link appears on each page associated with a journal or journal article abstract. To sign up for free RSS feeds for any journal, visit http://ascelibrary.

ASCE has chosen the winners of the 2009 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation and the 2009 Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research. Each winner was chosen by a committee comprising civil engineering leaders from industry, academia, and government, and both committees met in January. The honorees will receive their awards at the 2009 Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala, which will be held on April 23 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport, in Arlington, Virginia.

The Pankow award was established by the now defunct Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF) to recognize organizations working in concert to aid the design and construction industry by bringing innovative ideas into practice. It is named for Charles J. Pankow, the founder of CERF and an innovator and leader in civil engineering for five decades. This year’s winner is the Claremont Tunnel Seismic Upgrade Project, which was developed by a team made up of the East Bay Municipal Utility District, of Oakland, California; Jacobs Associates, a consulting engineering firm headquartered in San Francisco; Geomatrix Consultants, a geotechnical engineering firm headquartered in Oakland; Gregg Korbin, Ph.D., M.ASCE, an independent consultant from Lafayette, California; Alfred M. “Pete” Petrofsky, P.E., F.ASCE, an independent tunnel construction consultant from San Rafael, California; D. Scott Kieffer, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a professor and the chair of the engineering geology department at the Technische Universität Graz, in Austria; and Tor L. Brekke, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a professor emeritus of geotechnical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.

The Claremont Tunnel Seismic Upgrade Project pioneered innovative design features in upgrading a major water supply tunnel in the San Francisco Bay Area that serves more than 800,000 residents and crosses the Hayward Fault Zone. The bypass tunnel system provides a carrier pipe located within a seismically resistant vault section that is designed to resist significant earthquakes. This engineering approach reduced not only the cost and duration of the project but also the interruption of the water service, the amount of environmental waste and pollution, and the disruption of the surface area. The members of the team believe that this approach can help engineers and owners carry out similar installations in areas subject to severe earthquakes.

The Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research, according to the award’s criteria, “recognizes and acknowledges leaders of the design and construction industry whose dedication and aggressive vision for the industry have provided the cornerstones for improving the quality of people’s lives worldwide through research in the design and construction industry.” It is named in honor of Henry L. Michel, a former chairman of CERF’s governing board. This year’s winner is Vice Admiral Michael K. Loose, P.E.., M.ASCE, who led a comprehensive effort to overhaul the way the U.S. Navy invests in construction projects.

As the commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Loose carried out a systematic and comprehensive assessment of the conditions of naval facilities. His efforts led to the development of an investment strategy that continually ensures that facilities are properly sized, configured, and maintained and that they meet the requirements of the navy’s strategic plan. Loose also demonstrated his understanding of the important role that new technology plays in the design and construction industry.

The members of the Pankow jury were Robert K. Tener, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a representative of the Charles Pankow Foundation and the jury chair; Clem Hiel, the president of Composite Support & Solutions, Inc., of Rancho Palos Verdes, California; Linda A. Figg, M.ASCE, the president and chief executive officer of FIGG Engineering Group, of Tallahassee, Florida; Benedict R. Schwegler, Jr., Ph.D., M.ASCE, the vice president and chief scientist of Walt Disney Imagineering, of Glendale, California; and Robert Prieto, the senior vice president of Flour Corporation, of Princeton, New Jersey.

The members of the Michel jury were Preston H. Haskell, P.E., M.ASCE, the chairman of the Haskell Company, of Jacksonville, Florida, and the jury chair; Jane Chmielinski, the group chief executive officer of corporate development for AECOM, based in New York City; Carl A. Strock, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former commander and chief of engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who is now a project director with Bechtel Corporation, of San Francisco; Norbert W. Young, Jr., the president of McGraw-Hill Construction, of New York City; and Christopher E. Reseigh, P.E., F.ASCE, the global director and principal professional associate for Parsons Brinckerhoff, headquartered in New York City.

—Brett Hansen

Do not miss out on your ASCE benefits . Be part of what promises to be an influential year for civil engineers by keeping your ASCE membership current. Your renewal was due December 31. If you have not done so already, visit www.asce.org/renew to ensure that your membership is up to date. Members who have paid will see a message indicating that they are in good standing, and the “2009 Dues” line will no longer appear as part of the renewal. If you have any questions, contact customer service via e-mail at member@asce.org or via phone at (800) 548-2723.

Did you know that ASCE offers the opportunity to work in the United States Congress? The Society’s Congressional Fellows Program places a civil engineer in the middle of important policy debates. The fellow works on Capitol Hill as a staff member for a committee or for a member of the Senate or the House. The program provides engineers with the opportunity to expand their horizons, become involved, and make a difference. For more information, visit www.asce.org/pressroom/publicpolicy/cfprogram.cfm.

ASCE is seeking mentors for its online mentoring program. Engineers like you can share your expertise with protégés and provide guidance that can truly make a difference. You will also gain valuable new perspectives by interacting with peers as well as with the next generation of engineers. Visit ASCE’s
new eMentoring Web site at www.asce.org/mentoring for more information about mentoring opportunities and for tips that will help you build successful relationships.

On the evening of April 23 the stars will definitely be shining as we hold our annual Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) gala. Five individuals will be honored for lifetime achievements in education, government, design, construction, and management. The festivities will also celebrate the winners of the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award, the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research, and the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation. Join us that evening at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport, in Arlington, Virginia, to applaud the extraordinary accomplishments of this year’s honorees. To learn more about the gala, visit www.asce.org/awards.

To help all those who would like to inspire girls to consider careers in engineering, asce and the PBS station WGBH are offering a free webinar entitled Effectively Communicating Engineering Careers to High School Girls. The webinar draws on information that has been gathered in Engineer Your Life (www.engineeryourlife.org), a program developed by the engineering community to acquaint young women with the challenges and opportunities that a career in engineering can offer. The webinar, which will be offered on Wednesday, February 25, at noon, will suggest various ways of effectively reaching out to young people. Patricia D. Galloway, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a president emeritus of ASCE, and Thea Sahr, the associate director of educational outreach for WGBH, are expected to conduct the 45-minute webinar. To register for the webinar, which is free, visit https://wgbh.webex.com/wgbh/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=666038615.

—Patrick J. Natale, P.E., F.ASCE
Executive Director

Canon 7 of ASCE’s Code of Ethics reads as follows: “Engineers shall continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall provide opportunities for the professional development of those engineers under their supervision.” Category (a) in the guidelines to practice for this canon states that “engineers should keep current in their specialty fields by engaging in professional practice, participating in continuing education courses, reading in the technical literature, and attending professional meetings and seminars.” The contrast between these two provisions—the first making professional development an ethical obligation, the second listing particular types of continuing education as recommendations rather than requirements—mirrors the debate over mandatory continuing education for civil engineers, a debate that has persisted in the civil engineering community for more than four decades.

Although state licensure of civil engineers can be traced back to 1907, it was not until the late 1960s that the concept of mandatory continuing education gained popularity in state legislatures. Scandals in the health care and other professions were undermining public confidence in the competence of licensed professionals, and states began to give serious thought to the idea that the public interest might be best served if they supplemented the requirements for initial licensure with requirements for continuing professional development. In 1970 the California State Senate asked its Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors to issue an opinion on the subject of mandatory continuing education, and at least three other states set up groups to reexamine state licensing procedures for engineers and other professionals.

Continuing education has long been a central focus of the civil engineering community as a means through which practition-ers can share information, stay informed of changes and advances in their fields, and advance the science of engineering. In fact ASCE was established in part as a forum for continuing education; the Society’s 1852 constitution listed “professional improvement of its members” as a business objective of the organization and stated its intent to support that goal by, among other measures, providing for “periodical meetings for the reading of professional papers and the discussion of scientific subjects.”

But the concept of regulating continuing education met with strong resistance from the Society and the profession at large. Many argued that, both for ethical reasons and as part of sound business practice, engineers already had ample reason to seek continuing education and that regulations on professional development would do no more than codify what the profession was already undertaking on its own. They observed that state licensing boards were struggling to manage the task of licensing new professional engineers and expressed doubt that these boards could handle the extra administrative burden of certifying that continuing education requirements had been met. Above all, they challenged the idea that a mere statement of hours spent attending a seminar or course could demonstrate an engineer’s competence and questioned whether such regulations would serve any benefit in policing the profession.

In 1975 the Board of Direction approved a formal policy stating that continuing education should not be required for relicensure. At a time when only a third of all civil engineers held a valid professional license, ASCE believed its resources would be better used in promoting registration of engineers and expanding the reach of state laws that set baseline standards of education and experience for practicing engineers. It was feared that continuing education requirements might discourage those who were considering professional registration, and in the eyes of the Society leadership, increasing the number of engineers seeking professional licensure was of greater value to the public than establishing new requirements for those who had already become licensed.

Notwithstanding these objections, continuing education became a requirement for some practicing engineers in 1977, when Iowa became the first state to pass legislation mandating it. On the recommendation of a committee established in that state to study professional and occupational licensing, the Iowa legislature made formal continuing education a requirement for the renewal of all professional and occupational licenses issued by the state. Thus not only architects and engineers but also those in other fields of endeavor—for example, watchmakers and barbers—were affected. Professional engineers were required to spend 15 hours a year attending technical meetings, training seminars, or similar courses.

Although continuing education classes in Iowa saw a significant increase in attendance and supporters of the legislation pointed to this surge as proof that continuing education regulations would strengthen the profession, there was little increase in continuing education regulation for well over a decade. It was not until the early 1990s that a second state, Alabama, imposed mandatory continuing education requirements on licensed engineers. This time, however, other state legislatures were quick to follow suit. By 1993, 2 other states had joined Iowa and Alabama in mandating continuing education, a third had implemented a voluntary compliance program, and as many as 10 other states had given notice of their intent to enact legislation requiring continuing education for licensed professional engineers.

In 1994 ASCE’s Committee on Professional Development approached the Board of Direction with a recommendation for reconsidering its stance on mandatory continuing education, and in April of that year, the Board approved Policy 425 (“Continuing Professional Development”). Citing the engineer’s ethical obligation to continue his or her professional development and the calls both in state legislatures and in the international community for measurable indicators of an engineer’s competence, this policy proclaimed ASCE’s support of “demonstrat[ing] continuing professional development as a condition for relicensure.”

As of January 2009, some 32 states have made continuing education certification a requirement for the relicensing of engineers, and 2 others, Virginia and Wisconsin, have passed legislation requiring continuing education for licensed engineers and are now drafting regulations to implement the laws. ASCE’s Policy 425 (renamed “Uniform Continuing Professional Development for Licensure”), last amended in May 2008, reaffirms ASCE’s support of state-mandated continuing education and recommends “uniformity of continuing professional development requirements among licensing jurisdictions.”

It is worth noting that while many of the states regulating continuing education state that engineers may receive credit for training that is “technical, ethical, or managerial,” only three states—Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana—expressly require some form of ethics training as part of a professional engineer’s continuing education requirements. As a long-time proponent of ethics education for engineers, ASCE supports state-mandated training in this area. Policy 376 (“Ethics Training for Continued Licensure”), adopted by the Board of Direction in 2007, notes that “professional ethics is the cornerstone of engineering practice” and recommends that state boards require professional engineers to take a minimum of one hour of ethics training per year.

Members who have an ethics question or would like to file a complaint with the Committee on Professional Conduct may call ASCE’s hotline at (703) 295-6061 or (800) 548-ASCE (2723), extension 6061. The attorneys staffing this line can provide advice on how to handle an ethics issue or file a complaint. Please note that individual facts and circumstances vary from case to case and that the general summary information contained in these case studies is not to be construed as a precedent binding upon the Society.

Joseph E. Heney, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, a former chairman and chief executive officer of the engineering firm DCM, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, died on January 17 at the age of 81. Heney earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Northeastern University in 1952 and a master’s degree in sanitary engineering from Harvard University in 1954. He joined cdm as a student in 1950 and worked as a draftsman. After completing his education he continued his employment with the firm and eventually became a project manager. In 1975 he completed a management program at Harvard Business School. Heney became cdm’s chief executive officer in 1982 and led the firm’s diversification into hazardous waste management. He also supervised the creation of CDM’s federal subsidiary to address remediation needs in connection with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. In an effort to obtain legislation that would help professional engineers work safely and effectively in cleaning up hazardous waste, he served as the first chairman of the Hazardous Waste Action Coalition. He retired from cdm in 1994. Registered as a professional engineer in 10 states, Heney was also a diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.

Morris M. Thompson, P.E., F.ASCE, died on January 6 at the age of 96. He had been a civil engineer with the U.S. Geological Survey’s topographic division for more than half a century. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Thompson was the son of immigrants from what is today Belarus. Upon graduating from Princeton University, he joined the U.S. Geological Survey in Chattanooga, Tennessee. During World War II he mapped strategically significant areas in Europe and Asia for the U.S. Department of War (now the Department of Defense), although he himself remained in Tennessee. After the war he relocated to Washington, D.C., where he developed new equipment and technologies for photogrammetric mapping. Thompson served as chair of the Society’s Surveying and Mapping Division (now the Geomatics Division), and in 1977 he was honored with ASCE’s Surveying and Mapping Award. He is survived by a son, a sister, and two grandchildren.

Six from ASCE Make ENR’s Elite List

In January the editors of Engineering News-Record (ENR) presented their list of the 25 most newsworthy individuals of 2008, professionals whose innovations and achievements figured prominently in the magazine last year. Of the persons selected, six are members of ASCE or an ASCE institute. Their abilities and achievements have benefited both their communities and the profession.

Bernard Amadei, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a cofounder of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), was recognized for EWB’s growing success in using engineering projects to provide engineers, engineering students, and others with opportunities to apply their expertise in a way that improves the quality of life of people in developing countries. Today EWB boasts more than 300 chapters and 12,000 members worldwide. ASCE established a partnership with the U.S. branch of the organization, EWB–USA, in 2007. Since then EWB–USA has received financial support from asce, and representatives of the Society have served on the organization’s governing board. asce encourages its members to involve themselves in EWB–USA’s projects and activities.

William W. Badger, Ph.D.,  P.E., M.ASCE, a professor of construction management at Arizona State University and the director of the Del E. Webb School of Construction there, was recognized for his innovations in leadership development, education, and research. The unique teaching methods he has developed to foster leadership have benefited both academia and the construction industry, and he is well respected as an industry consultant. Badger spent 26 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and his work with that organization included supervising the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of projects in West Point, New York, at the U.S. Military Academy.

Ron Klemencic, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE, the president of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, headquartered in Seattle, was selected for his 12-year effort to make the performance-based design (pbd) of tall buildings a respected and accepted practice. This type of design enables engineers to design structures taller than 240 ft (73.2 m) with a single framing system. Developed as a way to seismically retrofit structures, pbd was first applied to tall buildings by Klemencic’s firm, and the first tower constructed by the firm on the basis of pbd was in Bellevue, Washington. The firm is now working on the Transbay Tower, which will rise 1,000 ft (304.8 m) in San Francisco and be the tallest building on the West Coast. Klemencic is currently working with others on pbd guidelines that are to be released this summer.

Donald T. Resio, Ph.D., a member of asce’s Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute and a senior technologist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, was selected for his invention of a fabric tube filled mostly with water that can be used to plug levees. Resio was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop a way to plug levee breaches. The fabric tube he invented is placed upstream of the breach. The current then pins the tube against the breach, sealing it off. The apparatus was tested on an 8 ft (2.4 m) gap in a levee in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and it successfully sealed the breach in a mere 12 seconds.

John F. Sumnicht,  P.E., M.ASCE, a senior principal of the structural engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc., headquartered in Boston, was recognized by the magazine for his innovative application of seismic isolation bearings. Sumnicht designed the bearings for a two-story addition to the roof of a building in San Francisco. The isolation bearings made it possible for the addition to offer 150,000 sq ft (13,935 m²) of floor space, three times more than in the original design. Moreover, the unique application of the isolation bearings improved the performance of the original building and spared the developers the need to carry out significant seismic retrofitting. The system was installed without interrupting the activities of the structure’s 400 tenants.

Maysoon Ishtar Tawfik, A.M.ASCE, a civil engineer with the New York City office of Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., was selected for her efforts as a founder and the director of Tree of Life Professional Development, Inc., of New York City, a nonprofit organization that mentors and trains Iraqi engineers. According to its Web site, http://treeoflifepd.org, the goal of the organization is to foster local participation in the design and reconstruction of Iraq’s war-ravaged infrastructure. Tawfik is currently working with the Construction Management Association of America, Columbia University, the City University of New York, and other organizations to create mentoring opportunities for engineers from Iraq. She is also spearheading a program designed to train Iraqi engineers in bridge inspection and management.

Fellows Elected
The following members were elected fellows of the Society in recent months. ASCE fellows are legally registered professional engineers or land surveyors who have made significant technical or professional contributions and have demonstrated notable achievement in responsible charge of engineering activity for at least 10 years following election to the ASCE grade of member. Fellows occupy the Society’s second-highest membership grade, exceeded only by distinguished members.

Syed Mehdi Ashraf, P.E., F.ASCE, obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1984 from a regional engineering college in India and a master’s degree in structural engineering in 1994 from the University of South Carolina. He is the president of Gopman Consulting Engineers, of Miami Beach, Florida. Specializing in high-rise building design, the company is one of the leading structural design firms in southern Florida. Before joining Gopman Consulting Engineers, Ashraf served as assistant building director and chief structural plans examiner for the City of Miami Beach. In that capacity he was responsible for examining complex construction plans; reviewing structural and building drawings and details to ensure compliance with national, state, and local codes; and reviewing structural calculations to ensure that they conformed to engineering standards. Ashraf has been very active within ASCE, serving as the vice president of the Florida Section from 2003 to 2005 and as president of that section’s Miami-Dade Branch in 2001 and 2002. He was the recipient of the Engineer of the Year Award from the Florida Section’s Broward County Branch in 2007 and 2008, the Engineer of the Year Award from the Miami-Dade Branch in 2003, and the Government Engineer of the Year Award from the Florida Section, also in 2003.

Sanjiv B. Gokhale, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1981, a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University in 1984, and a doctorate from Columbia University in 1991, all in civil engineering. He also earned a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Columbia University in 1990. Gokhale is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University and director of the school’s construction management program. After completing his doctoral studies he joined the faculty of Purdue University’s School of Engineering and Technology. The focus of his research and professional interest shifted over the following 15 years from aboveground to underground infrastructure. He has gained national and international renown for the body of work he has produced on the assessment, repair, and renewal of underground water and sewer infrastructure, and he has been invited to lecture and speak at universities around the world. His numerous accolades include the Distinguished Professor Award and the Excellence in Teaching Award from Vanderbilt University and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Institute of Steel Construction. Gokhale is a licensed professional engineer in New York.

Rhaoul A. Guillaume, Sr., P.E., F.ASCE, earned a bachelor of arts in mathematics from Xavier University in 1971 and a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Marquette University, also in 1971. In 1981 Guillaume founded GOTECH, Inc., a consulting civil engineering firm located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and for nearly 30 years he has served as its president. He supervises all activities of the corporation and has responsibility for corporate management of all contract requirements. His experience includes client liaison, contract negotiations and administration, project budgeting, manpower assignments, and overall project quality control. In 2003 his firm received the Louisiana Airport Managers Corporate Award and a national award from the Environmental Protection Agency for its outstanding accomplishments as a small business. It has also been the recipient of the Good Growth Award from the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition. In 1971 Guillaume was one of four engineers selected to represent the owner during the construction of the Louisiana Superdome, and in that capacity he was responsible for monitoring all civil and structural aspects of design, including piling and concrete and steel construction. He is a licensed professional engineer in Louisiana and Mississippi.

John Mahony, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, obtained a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Tufts University in 1969, a master’s degree in civil engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1977, and a doctorate in environmental planning and policy from Boston University in 1991. He also holds a master’s in business administration from Northeastern University, which he earned in 1972. Mahony is currently a regional quality manager with Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., in Boston. He has more than 35 years of experience in planning, designing, and environmentally assessing major projects, as well as in obtaining the necessary permits for such projects. He has worked on highway systems, rail systems, infrastructure systems, major site developments, and remediation projects, his specialties being project scoping and conceptual design, facility location studies, environmental planning and impact assessments, and regulatory strategies and permitting. The major projects he has been involved with include the Superfund site at the Massachusetts Military Reservation, on Cape Cod, a tunnel beneath Boston Harbor linking downtown Boston to Logan International Airport, and the light-rail system being built in Orlando, Florida. He has also designed infrastructure for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland. Mahony is a licensed professional engineer in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Florida.

Charles W. Ng, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, obtained a higher diploma in structural engineering from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1986, a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, in 1987, and a doctorate in geotechnical engineering from the University of Bristol, also in the United Kingdom, in 1992. He then did postdoctoral work in geotechnical engineering in Britain at the University of Cambridge. Ng is a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he chairs the civil engineering department and directs the geotechnical centrifuge facility. Known for developing a novel apparatus to identify and measure state-dependent soil-water characteristic curves in unsaturated soils, he was recently invited by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to participate in a major project to develop and test technology for protecting historically important sites, many of them incorporating unsaturated soil structures, along the Silk Road. In addition to authoring or coauthoring eight books, Ng has contributed to numerous technical journals, publications, and presentations, and his work has appeared in ASCE’s Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. He is a chartered civil engineer in the United Kingdom and a registered professional civil and geotechnical engineer in Hong Kong.

Rafael G. Quimpo, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, obtained a bachelor’s degree from Feati University, in the Philippines, in 1959, a master’s degree from the SEATO Graduate School of Engineering, in Krung Thep (Bangkok), Thailand, in 1962, and a doctorate from Colorado State University in 1966, all in civil engineering. He is currently a professor of civil engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, where he has served as chair of the committee overseeing the undergraduate civil engineering curriculum. Within ASCE Quimpo has chaired national committees dealing with surface water hydrology, education, and research within the Water Resources Engineering Division (later subsumed into the Environmental and Water Resources Institute) and the Technical Council on Computer Practices (now the Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology). In addition to work he has published in ASCE’s Journal of Hydraulic Engineering and Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, he has authored, coauthored, or edited nearly 100 technical articles, presentations, and books. A licensed professional engineer in the Philippines, Quimpo has been a recipient of the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award from ASCE’s Pittsburgh Section.

Fellow applications may be obtained from ASCE’s world headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, by calling (800) 548-2723, extension 6289. From outside the country, the number is (703) 295-6289. The e-mail address is fellows@asce.org. The application may be found on the Web at www.asce.org/pdf/fellowmemapp.pdf. Completed applications may be submitted online at www.asce.org/membership/fellowgrade.cfm (click on “Online ASCE Fellow Application”). Questions concerning fellow guidelines (including guideline waiver inquiries) or the application process may be directed to Patrick Ballou, the applications coordinator, at (703) 295-6169 or pballou@asce.org. Completed applications are reviewed monthly by the Membership Application Review Committee.

2009 Joint ASCE-ASME-SES Conference on Mechanics and Materials
June 24–27, 2009, Blacksburg, Virginia

Sponsors: ASCE, ASME, and the Society of Engineering Science.

Paper Topics: Advanced materials; biodynamics; biomaterials; biomechanics; dynamics; dynamic systems; fluid mechanics; materials engineering; materials science; mechanics of materials; nanomaterials; nanomechanics; solid mechanics; and interdisciplinary topics.

Deadline: March 15, 2009, for abstracts, which are not to exceed 3,000 characters and are to be submitted to http://scholardesk.com/abstracts/VT/welcome.
Contact: The conference Web site is www.cpe.vt.edu/mech09/abstract.html.

Improving the Seismic Performance of Existing Buildings and Other Structures
December 9–11, 2009, San Francisco

Sponsors: Applied Technology Council, ASCE, and ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute.

Paper Topics: Case studies in seismic evaluation and rehabilitation (including evaluation and analysis methods, criteria, problems, construction and project costs, and performance during severe ground shaking); innovative uses of seismic protection systems; analysis methods for seismic evaluation and rehabilitation; new developments in seismic evaluation and rehabilitation; implementation issues and improvements to existing ASCE standards; and engineering contributions to the social and economic aspects of seismic evaluation and rehabilitation.

Deadline: February 27, 2009, for abstracts, which are to be submitted electronically according to the instructions given at www.atc-sei.org/submissions.html.

Contact: The conference Web site is www.atc-sei.org/index.html. Questions regarding submissions may also be directed to Debbie Smith, the Structural Engineering Institute’s program manager, via e-mail at dsmith@asce.org or via phone at (703) 295-6095.

Leadership and Management in Engineering: Special Issue on Leadership for Nation Building through Engineering and Construction

Paper Topics: Building better government through engineering leadership; engineering leadership for nation building; industrial development in developing countries; infrastructure to increase the gross domestic product; 5-year and 10-year plans for national growth; influence of engineering on business and economic growth; regional and national development; application and implementation of technology policies; finance and politics in megaprojects and national planning; contracting for megaprojects; financial emergencies; economics of engineering on a national scale; management problems with megaprojects; life-cycle costs for national electricity and water consumption; estimates of water supply, housing, and electricity; engineering for the future; leadership models for underdeveloped countries; international collaboration in technology; implementation issues of national building codes; motivating engineers to assume leadership positions; ethical aspects of engineering for nation building; educational efforts of the type conducted by Engineers Without Borders–USA; and nation building at home.

Deadline: March 15, 2009, for papers not exceeding 10,000 words. To submit a paper, follow the instructions at www.editorialmanager.com/jrnlmeng/.

Contact: Queries may be directed to the associate editor, Amarjit Singh, Ph.D., by telephone at (808) 956-3933, by fax at (808) 956-5014, or by e-mail at asingh@hawaii.edu. The mailing address is Amarjit Singh, Ph.D., University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Honolulu, HI 96822.

The Board of Direction will be meeting April 23–24 in Arlington, Virginia, and among the items to be considered are amendments to the Society’s bylaws. Pursuant to subsection 11.1.2 of ASCE’s constitution, members are required to be notified at least 60 days prior to board action on bylaw amendments. The amendments to be considered at the April meeting are as follows:

• Article 2.1.6 to clarify that a president emeritus is not eligible to be nominated as a distinguished member.
• Article 9.2.2 to rename the Past Presidents Council the Presidents Emeriti Council.

The complete text of the proposed amendments may be found at www.asce.org/inside/bylaws. For more information, e-mail board@asce.org or call ASCE customer service at (800) 548-2723 or (703) 295-6300.

On January 7 the Board of Governors of the Geo-Institute’s (G-I) approved the formation of the Organizational Member Council and the selection of Kord J. Wissmann, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, the president of Geopier Foundations, LLC, of Mooresville, North Carolina, as its chairman. Wissmann had chaired the Organizational Member Task Force and was successful in helping that group, which included William M. Camp III, P.E., M.ASCE, Alan F.C. Macnab, P.Eng., P.E., M.ASCE, Joseph A. Waxse, P.E., M.ASCE, and Michael F. Majchrzak, P.E., L.S., M.ASCE, craft a number of recommendations that are currently being reviewed by the board. The Organizational Member Council has been created as a mechanism that will enable G-I organizational members to effectively provide input to the institute and the board. In addition to making the G-I more responsive to the needs of its members, the new body will, it is hoped, increase the value of organizational memberships and thereby increase the number of such members. Wissmann is currently helping to establish the council and implement some of the task force’s recommendations.