So, how much do you know about this committee? Well, as a Director of the Section through October 2000, I didn’t know much either. But one of my duties was to act as a liaison between the "Standing" Committees and the Seattle Section Board. So, I got to find out. And I discovered that the UAC is perhaps the most active, far-reaching and probably important committee within the Seattle Section. The role of the Committee is simply to help and serve the next generation of civil engineers. The committee’s activities are generally divided into three main parts: (1) mentoring, (2) guest lecturing, and (3) student recruitment.

The Section’s Mentoring Program was started to help students at Seattle University (SU) and the University of Washington (UW) with their academic programs. We have recruited a pool of prospective mentors, and each University holds an open house to match up prospective mentors and students. So far we have about 37 volunteer mentors to meet the needs of about 30 students. But we could always use more!

The faculties at SU and UW are polled periodically to learn the topics of interest for which guest lecturers are needed. The Guest Lecturer Program then recruits local experts, develops a list of volunteers with their areas of expertise and experience, and shares that list with SU and UW. Each University can contact individuals from the list to set up guest lectures in disciplines perhaps not covered in the general curriculum or of a more "practical" nature. During the 1999-2000 school year, more than a dozen invited lectures were given. Currently, we have a list of 25 volunteers, and your President, Ron Leimkuler, has offered to share his experiences as a Peace Corps’ engineer – a truly interesting perspective!

The current goal of the Student Recruitment Program is to visit one high school each quarter to discuss the engineering profession, and how to get started, with the upper classes. A "canned" presentation has been developed for each recruiter to take along with them to the school. In the future, we will try a "team" approach to recruiting, combining an experienced engineer with a younger professional, or perhaps someone still in university. We would also like to make these visits more frequent.

The committee is also involved in many other activities. We help judge the SU/UW student paper competition; we serve on UW and SU Advisory Boards; we lead field trips to interesting local project sites. A pretty exciting list of activities!

So, by now, I hope you’re asking, "How can I help? How can I get involved?" Well, we need mentors — you may choose the school. We need guest lecturers. We need people to visit local high schools to present engineering – did you go to school locally? We need offers of Student Internships to post online. We need your energy and your help! If you are interested in working with the University Advisory Committee in any of these areas or would like to serve on the advisory committee, please contact me either by phone at 425-646-8806 or by email at RWalton@WESTConsultants.com.

—Submitted by Ray Walton

Attendees: David Schwegel, Don Northey, Susan Gardner, Ron Leimkuhler, and Arthur Fleming, Ann Epler, Linda DeBoldt, Ron Borowski, Bob Boudinot.

Section President Ron Leimkuhler called the meeting to order at 4:08 p.m.at the Yankee Grill in Ballard.

CORRECTIONS TO OCTOBER MEETING MINUTES: Fifth Paragraph of the Treasurer’s Report should read: The Board passed a motion approving a stipend for Mrs. Carlson’s services, for a maximum of $120/month and $1,200 per year.

Sixth Paragraph of the Treasurer’s Report should read: The 2001 Budget was not approved.

Eighth Paragraph of the Committee and Branch Reports should read: David Schwegel reported on activities of the Public Relations Committee.

Second Paragraph of the PSEC Update should read: Please contact Don Northey if you would like to help out.

Second Paragraph of Old Business should read: A Technical Committee would select the top 5 projects in each category.

Second Paragraph of New Business should read: Implementation considerations and how to set up and maintain the tree were discussed. Because the discussion conclusion was that current email avenues through committee chairs could be enhanced to serve this function, the proposal was tabled without discussion.

The October minutes were approved as amended.

Treasurer’s Report: Arthur Fleming reported. The R.H. Thomson Line Item 77 needs clarification in our record keeping. Arthur will look into how to clarify this issue. The money paid to students for supplementing their attendance at the national conference will be changed from category 63 to 70A. The Treasurer’s Report for October was approved.

Phil Cohen has made the changes to the 2001 budget as requested at the October meeting. Arthur Fleming will delete the Host Committee line item from the 2000-2001 budget. The 2000-2001 budget was approved and Arthur Fleming will send the approved budget out to the nine Board members.

COMMITTEE AND BRANCH REPORTS: Ron Leimkuhler spoke for Shannon Kinsella on the Technical Committees Report. The Water Resources & Infrastructure Committees have set their meeting schedules for the year.

Linda DeBolt presented the Standing Committee Report.

Tom Tobin of the Professional Practices Committee reported that the committee is currently dormant because of two main reasons. First, few if any issues were brought up last year for the committee to deal with. Second, participation has been low. Tom Tobin remains prepared to initiate meetings, if and when issues warrant getting the committee members together Tom is also willing to pass the chair to another if anyone is interested in assuming the position.

Cindy Hirsch of the History & Heritage Committee reported that the committee spent a busy month in October preparing for and executing a History Program track at the ASCE National Conference. This committee also arranged for the National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark presentation at the National Conference for the Cedar Falls Hydroelectric Project. The presentation was made to Mayor Paul Schell at the Opening Plenary session, for the Seattle City Light facility. The committee will be taking a little break and will resume regular meetings in December.

Ray Walton, Chair of the University Advisory Committee, held their last meeting November 3, 2000, the next meeting will be Friday, December 1st.

The Mentoring Program consists of 13 Seattle University and 17 UW students who have shown an interest in finding mentors. Four Seattle University and 12 UW students have been matched with mentors. So far 37 mentors have signed up but we can always use more! The UW will have a pizza party "Mentoring Night" on Thursday, November 9th.

The Student Recruitment Program visit to Rainer Beach High School is set for early in December. The goal is to visit one high school per quarter. Ray would like to find volunteers to increase this goal.

Todd Slidd will make a presentation at Seattle University on November 9th for the Guest Speaker Program.

Some other activities taking place are: Seattle University is establishing a Student Intern Registry. They would like to find companies to "sign up" at www.seattleu.edu/scieng/cee/asce. Also Seattle University and the University of Washington are both developing their "wish list" for field trips.

Daniel Dixon, chair of the Legislative Committee, reported the committee will be ramping up for the next legislative session. Dan will be coordinating with AELC members and Cliff Webster (AELC lobbyist) to get information on issues of concern. Dan also plans to link in to CECW’s web site as another method of getting information on bills to review. He plans on sending an email to committee members in November, asking for their help in reviewing bills and providing input. Dan will also make an announcement at the November and December ASCE Section meetings, asking for new members to help with his work. Committee members don’t even have to attend meetings; most if not all work of the committee involves accessing the Internet for information on bills, and doing review and comment work.

David Schwegel reported on the activities of the Public Information Committee. He is currently working on the publicity for the Infrastructure Report Card. He has acquired a press kit from Delaware’s Infrastructure Report Card and will use this as an example. He will also be pre-paring an article for press submission to introduce the new officers.

Bob Boudinot reported that the Kitsap Branch would be meeting November 14th in Poulsbo at Campana’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria. They will be going over innovative engineering solutions to replace failed culverts. Bob Turpin and Monte Reinders, Jefferson Co. PW Dept. Project Managers, will make a pre-sentation on their approach to culvert replacement. The North Branch will be meeting December 6th in Mount Vernon. The location of this meeting is to be announced.

AMF/YMF Report: Ann Epler reported that the AMF/YMF had a successful fundraiser selling ASCE Seattle T-shirts at the National Conference. Twenty-two YMF members volunteered at the National Conference selling shirts, working the information booth, giving tours of the exhibition hall to over 100 high school students, and hosting two social events that drew crowds of well over 100 people.

The Popsicle Stick Bridge building contest is well underway with school visits being conducted now through January. The YMF is working on a new promotional video that will be ready for next year’s contest. An expansion of the PSB contest into the middle schools is being investigated.

YMF members participated in the Building Big Outreach Program and the PSEC Mentor Night at Seattle University during October. They are planning a holiday party in December and a state-wide ski trip in January. Their next meeting will be November 15th at Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire.

PSEC Update: Dave Crippen is our representative to PSEC. He is very enthusiastic about upcoming events. PSEC Mentor/Practitioner Night is going to be at UW on November 14th. PSEC is looking for nominees for Engineer of the Year Awards. PSEC is also looking for booth coordinators for the Engineers Week Fair. The SEAW Meeting will be November 28, 2000, at the College Club. The meeting topic is the new EMP structure.

OLD BUSINESS: Ron Leimkuhler reported that the Awards Program would be recruiting representatives from each technical committee to help identify projects. The nomination forms will be on the Section’s website next week.

Ron Leimkuhler reported that he had spoken with national regarding our service providers. National has indicated we can hire service providers on an hourly or monthly rate as we see fit and there is not need for us to fill out any Federal tax forms.

Susan Gardner will review past meeting minutes and talk to sponsors to get a sense of the types of activities that are intended to be funded from the Student Activities Fund that was established to recognize Honorary Members of the Section.

Ron Borowski announced that the Annual Report would be out in January.

The newsletter editors will research how much our print costs per column-inch. We will also discuss how much to charge for ads at our next meeting.

Ron Leimkuhler reported on our proposed email contact tree. The Board determined that we should use the list we currently have.

Ron Leimkuhler and Susan Gardner reported that PNC is considering an increase in our dues from $1.75 to $2.00 per member per year. Our PNC delegates may be asked to vote on this increase at the next PNC meeting in February. The dues increase will enable PNC to meet with the Pacific Southwest Council on a regular basis. Ron Borowski and Ron Leimkuhler will talk to the Board Members to get a con-sensus on our position. They will report back to the Board in January.

NEW BUSINESS: A motion was passed renaming the Associate Member Forum (AMF) to the Younger Member Forum (YMF).

The Seattle University Student Section has submitted a funding request for an additional $300 to support their meetings. A motion to grant this request was approved.

Ron Leimkuhler has asked the   Board to consider reimbursing the Section’s PSEC representative for attending PSEC’s monthly dinner meetings. This was briefly discussed, and the issue was tabled until the next Board meeting.

A request was made by The American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) for ASCE to co-sponsor a specialty conference in February. A motion to support ASCE co-sponsorship was approved on condition that no monetary commitment was involved. A motion was also approved for Linda DeBolt to apply for a SPAG grant in the maximum amount for co-sponsorship of the upcoming ASPA specialty conference.

Ron Leimkuhler clarified that the deadlines for the Board and committee chairs to submit material to the webmaster is the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month. The material will be posted by the following Friday.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m.

Meeting minutes prepared by Ann Epler.

A very special THANK YOU to all of the younger members who made this year’s ASCE National Conference a huge success! These volunteers spent hundreds of hours preparing for and volunteering at the conference and still managed to stay billable! Great Job Everyone!

Barghausen Engineers: David Schwegel; DCI Engineers: Holly Carter, Diane Earnest, Athena Kalogiros; Entranco: Eric O’Brien
Hammond Collier Wade Livingstone: Tracey Belding, Ann Epler;
Lin & Associates: Aeli Furtado; Mary Lear; Shannon & Wilson: Agnes Tirao; Shearer Design: David Shearer; Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire: Cheryl Burwell, Christi Schwend; University of Washington: Jeff Colon, Amalia Leighton, Kathyrn Petek, Julie Smith; URS (Dames & Moore): Paul Chu, Mary Holland, Dolan McMillan, Cameron Ochiltree, David Straka.