| Deadline Extended for
Outstanding Project Awards Program
The deadline for submitting entries for the Outstanding Project Awards program has been extended from January 15th to February 2nd. Award categories are: • Geotechnical, Rules and entry forms can be downloaded from the Section web site, www.asce.org/gsd/sections/seattle. Don’t miss the opportunity to receive recognition for the great work you are doing. For more information contact Ron Leimkuhler at 206-622-5822, or by email at ronl@kpff.com.. |
| ASCE Legislative
Committee
The 2001 Washington State legislative session promises to be one of the more active sessions in recent history. Some of the issues anticipated in the 2001 session include: Taxation; A&E Selection; Infrastructure Funding (understanding and implementing findings of the Blue Ribbon Commission); Liability Reform; and Licensing. The ASCE Legislative Committee provides you with the opportunity to review bills being considered by the legislature that are related to or impacting our profession. Our input is combined with opinions of other professional organizations represented by the Architect and Engineers Legislative Council (AELC). An Olympia law firm, representing AELC, presents our combined input and opinions to key decision-makers, tracks issues as they move through the legislature, and gathers related information. This information is communicated back through AELC. This is a great opportunity to gain insight to the legislative process and make your voice heard. Our work and coordination are done via email and FAX, so don’t let time constraints discourage you from taking part. If you are interested in participating, please contact Dan Dixon, ASCE Legislative Committee Chair, at ddixon@hntb.com or call him at (425) 450-2529. |
|
Management in
Engineering Committee The January 24 meeting, which is a joint program with Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS), will feature speaker Jerry Fay, Executive Director, Transportation Improvement Board. Jerry will update us on what is going on at the State’s TIB. Is there a silver bullet out there? How much funding is available after I-695 and potential impacts of I-722? The February 28 meeting will feature speaker Wyatt Wood, King County Wastewater Design and Construction Section. The topic will be The Technical Employees Association: The Story of Labor Organization at KCMETRO. For more information, contact Timothy Lowry, 206-937-5380, TimothyLowry@home.com. |
| YMF Ski Day
The Younger Member Forum will be having a ski day at the Snoqualmie Ski Area on Saturday, January 27. For more information, contact Mary Holland at 206-728-0744, mary_holland@urscorp.com. |
| Request for
Donations
The UW ASCE Student Chapter is raising money to supplement the cost of our Grand Coulee/Chief Joseph Dam tours taking place in June 2002. There will be two tours offered on separate weekends. Each tour will visit both dams. Our goal is to raise half of the estimated $8,000 necessary for the trip to reduce the cost to the students. We are collecting money from both private and corporate contributions as well as university grants. If you would like to contribute to our tour fund, you may send a check to: GC/CJ Dam Tour Fund, Thank you for your contributions and helping to make these exciting tours happen! |
| Civil
Engineering Design Products For Undergraduate Familiarization
I am collecting examples of civil engineering products such as design calculations, reports, plans and specifications, and briefing displays, which are used in developing private and public projects. This material would be displayed at More Hall, University of Washington, for undergraduates to get familiar with civil engineering products, which will develop a connection between theory and practice. I am working with Bob Holtz at the University and he will help in providing an area for this display and general strategy. These projects can be routine and unique and can be examples of various disciplines of civil engineering. The material can be mailed or be picked up and if desired could be returned. The material could be rotated to Seattle University and Shoreline Community College and would make the most of this effort. This will supplement the fine effort of the current mentoring programs between the Universities and the engineering consultants. Of particular interest would be the public projects involving the Sound Transit, 2nd Narrows Bridge, North End Metro Expansion, and other public projects being planned, designed, and built by city, county, state and federal agencies. An interesting side benefit of this program would be to develop a library resource of classic designs of local projects for future reference at the University and in particular if the information is contained on CDs, which will simplify storage of the material. Editorial — I am a advocate of developing for every large public project an organized design analysis and "as built" drawings as a "technical time capsule" which would document the design criteria, analysis, methods, etc., for future inspections of private and public facilities. Our structures will outlive the designers, consulting firms, and will be here for centuries as with many structures around the world. Organized analysis will help future engineers to evaluate facilities using updated techniques, which will help periodic inspection of our infrastructure. We are a young society and with our tools that we have now we can store a large amount of data at the agency and at that facility. It is very unlikely that structures such as the Safeco Baseball Stadium will be demolished as was the Kingdome after 25 years. These structures will, or should, last for centuries (but with global warming, nuclear war, asteroid impacts, and other disasters — who knows!) For more information, contact: Gene Grieve P.E., 425-481-6280, grieve@jetcity.com. |
| ASCE Seattle
Section Executive Board Meeting Minutes of December 13, 2000
Attendees: David Schwegel, Don Northey, Susan Gardner, Ron Leimkuhler, Arthur Fleming, Ann Epler, Ron Borowski, Bob Boudinot, Stan Boyle.Section President Ron Leimkuhler called the meeting to order at 4:50 p.m. at the La Quinta Inn, Tacoma. The November 8, 2000, meeting minutes were accepted. Treasurer’s Report: The Board recognized Arthur Fleming as the new Section Treasurer. Arthur replaces Phil Cohen in this position. Arthur reported that the Section has two Certificates of Deposit maturing at the end of this month. One is for $15,000, the other is for $4,000. The Board agreed that these CDs should be allowed to roll over. We have 15 days after the roll-over date to change this decision at no cost and may revisit this decision in January if projected cash flow requirements change. Arthur presented the checking account activity summary for the period 10/1/2000 through 12/12/2000. Susan Gardner and Arthur are going to get together to develop a system for separating budget items associated with Section "flow-through" accounts from the reporting of Section budget items that are handled out of our checking and savings accounts. The Treasurer’s Report for the period ending December 12, 2000, was approved. Committee and Branch Reports: Neither Shannon Kinsella nor Linda DeBoldt were present. No reports were presented for the Technical or Standing Committees. Dave Schwegel of the Public Relations Committee reported that he has been submitting meeting notices to the PI and Seattle Times each month. He also submitted a press release announcing new Seattle Section officers. Dave is working hard to increase public awareness of ASCE. If anyone would like to help Dave with this please contact him at 425-656-7424. Bob Boudinot of the North Branch gave the North Branch and Kitsap Branch reports. Bob stated that he was impressed with Ms. Anna Crickmer’s presentation at the December 6 meeting of the North Branch. Ms. Crickmer is with WSDOT and traveled from Olympia to Mt. Vernon to make her presentation on the Infrastructure Report Card (IRC). She gave a very interesting and well-received presentation on the methodology used in the Seattle Section’s analysis and compared this method with that used by National in developing their IRC. North Branch meetings will continue to be held the 3rd Wednesday of the month in 2001. Their next meeting will be February 21, 2000. Rick Notestine of the Washington State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors spoke at the December 12 Kitsap Branch meeting. The talk included changes in the examination and examination review process, comity, continuing education, and other issues. Bob reported that the North Branch would like to pursue the Building Big program in their area. He will get with Susan Gardner to help put this together. A proposal was made and approved that the Section obtain five sets of the five PBS Building Big videos for use by the Section, the North and Kitsap Branches, and the two Student Chapters. Susan Gardner to follow up on this. Ann Epler of the Younger Members Forum presented the schedule of activities that are coming up for the YMF. :
Don Northey reported on the activities of the Puget Sound Engineering Council. Engineer of the Year nominations are due by the end of December. Don is coordinating through SEAW for their nominations for Engineer of the Year and for the ASCE Seattle Section Awards Program. Engineers Week activities will be February 17 and 18, 2001. Dave Crippen is coordinating this effort. Don Northey was confirmed by the Board to be ASCE’s Alternate Representative on PSEC. OLD BUSINESS: Ron Borowski reported no change in the status of the Infrastructure Report Card. He is looking for more feedback and hoping for something to come out in early 2001. The Annual Report was submitted to ASCE National on November 30th. Ron reported that ASCE National has a different set of committees for various areas of engineering than we have in the Seattle Section. Discussion was postponed to January on how our committee categories and those of National compare, overlap, or leave areas not covered. Ron Leimkuhler discussed the issue of limited space in the newsletter and putting ads in the newsletter. Currently advertisements are $30.00, but are not generally restricted in length. They are, however, restricted to ads by members, member firms, or firms with members. The issue of the type of ads appropriate for the newsletter and how much to charge, and whether the rate should be a function of space used were discussed. Additional research into the cost of producing the newsletter and accommodating advertisements is to be performed and this issue will be taken up at a future meeting as newsletter production and mailing represents a major expense for the Section. NEW BUSINESS: Life Members will be announced and presented with certificates at the February meeting. Susan Gardner will be contacting members that are to be awarded Life status and encouraging them to attend. Ron Borowski discussed his efforts at increasing coordination between the Seattle Section and British Columbia-based Canada Society for Civil Engineers (CSCE) Sections. This is an opportunity to foster communication and camaraderie between Seattle Section and BC Section CSCE. Actions already taken in this regard include adding announcements for CSCE activities on our web site and in future newsletters. CSCE leadership personnel will be added to our mailing list to keep them informed of upcoming activities. Future sharing of mailing lists to announce activities or program of interest to our members was proposed. Exchanging speakers at our respective meetings on an annual basis was also discussed. Bob Boudinot stated that the North Branch would help with the effort to coordinate with CSCE. The meeting was adjourned at 6:20 p.m. Meeting minutes prepared by Stan Boyle. |
| FREE National
Student Membership!
National ASCE Student Membership is now available free of charge! ASCE’s members also voted to open membership up to students who wish to join ASCE National, but do not have a chapter or club at their school (those who have chapters or clubs still must be a member of them before joining National). And, as of January 1, 2001, a new on-line Student Community will debut. At this time, all services and resources provided to students will be available exclusively on ASCE’s web site. This is aimed at providing a greater number of students with the latest and most complete civil engineering information available. For further information about ASCE’s new, free National Student Membership, please send an email to ccatlin@asce.org, or call Claudia Catlin, Coordinator of Student Member Services, at 800-548-2723, ext. 6296. |
| Volunteers
Needed:
Volunteers are needed to staff the ASCE booth at the upcoming ENGINEERS FAIR on Saturday and Sunday February 17th and 18th at Crossroads Mall in Bellevue from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. This is a great opportunity to spend an hour or two talking to the public about civil engineering. Contact Dave Crippen, email: dave.crippen@metrokc.gov or by phone at 206-263-4647. |
| ASCE’s 150th
Anniversary
In October 2001, ASCE will begin a year-long celebration of its 150th Anniversary. A meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, December 14 at 6:00 at EISI Consulting Engineers in Seattle (1900 West Emerson Pl., Suite 200) to begin activity planning. If you are interested in participating or if you would like further information, contact Chuck Greely: 206-284-1181 or chuck@eisi-engrs.com. |