Another month has absolutely flown by. So much has been happening, both in ASCE and at work, that it is hard to keep up. But we all do our best, and by golly, we score some successes and have some fun, too. I thought I'd look back over the past half year's successes to see just what we've accomplished so far.

I periodically review in my mind our progress toward the goals I set for my year as your president. My goals at the beginning of the term were:

• To bring the Section closer together as a whole,
• To increase the level of our involvement with our Student Chapters
• To start moving the Section and our Members toward becoming active in the communities where we live to help formulate public policies where appropriate
• To establish a scholarship in the names of our Honorary Members. (This has since been changed to some sort of annual action, possibly a scholarship, but not limited to that.)

It will be interesting when the Section's Council of Past Presidents makes their review of our accomplishments against our Strategic Plan for the year and reports back on how we have measured up. I see many things happening, however, which make me feel we are making progress. I hope you have seen some progress from your perspective. Drop a line and let the Board and me know what you think. Are there other things you would like to see the Section take on as activities and long range goals? Remember, this is YOUR section. We can be successful in your eyes only if we know the measures by which you are judging us.

Bringing The Section Together - The April meeting was held tonight as a joint meeting with the North Branch - one more step toward bringing the Section together. We toured the tulip fields and had a great salmon barbecue. The turnout of Seattle area members was not as high as I would like to have seen, but those who went really enjoyed the trip. It was nice to see some new faces and spouses join the activities, too. My hat is off to Bob Boudinot and the North Branch for inviting us on this outing. Let's do it again. My wife is ready to sign up now.

Involvement With Student Chapters - I was pleased to be asked to deliver the keynote address at the Regional Student Chapter Conference in early April. Nete Leth, UW Student Chapter President, invited me to speak, partially because the Section was really working to help the Students in their activities. (A suggested topic was advice to new engineers as they are starting into their careers. Have you ever thought of just what you would tell 150+ students that might help them in their careers? We'll post my speech on the Homepage in the Mentor Section, just in case you are interested.)

In addition to the speech, I participated as a judge for the concrete canoe contest again this year. Joe Donisi, Kitsap Branch President, Larry Wade and Steve Hart also spent their time judging, along with Bruce Chattin of the Washington Concrete and Aggregates Association. It was a close competition, and the UW's team unseated WSU after a nine year string of wins. (As a Cougar, it's hard, but, I have to admit the UW deserved it. Way to go UW!!) And of course, Jill Marilley and Cathy Smith (Cathy flew home from Hong Kong for the event) worked tirelessly over the weekend. I know there were lots of other Section members involved with the canoe contest and the many other events. I want to thank each of you for pitching in. (Speaking of pitching in, the UW Concrete Canoe team needs to raise some money for the trip to Nationals in June. Step right up there with your check books and wallets, folks. It's for a good cause!!!!)

In addition to this event, by the time you read this, I hope Steve Hart and I will have met with both the UW and Seattle U. Student Chapter officers and advisors to lay some ground work for next year. So I think we get credit on this goal, as well.

Community Involvement - The Geotechnical Committee made some major inroads in helping local governmental agencies deal with their sensitive site and geotechnical issues by using a modified format in presenting their annual conference in April. The session was very successful and well received. Congratulations to Bo McFadden and to his committee. So, there is some major credit toward that goal as well.

Honoring Honorary Members - This last goal is still in the formation stages. You may have noticed the change in potential format of honoring these distinguished folks. We'll have to check in on it later to see if we can claim credit then.

I feel good about what I see as our accomplishments so far this year. But we can't stop now. The job is not finished; the goals can be stretched a long way to let us go further.

I hope you can feel good about what you have done for the Section and Branches so far this year, too. If you haven't contributed to the successes we are enjoying, there is still time to step up to the challenge and get involved. Then you, too, can feel personally a part of the Section's success. Don't be shy. We have something for you to do!

Have a great month. I hope to see you at the May meeting.

John

By now hopefully you've heard that 1998 is the Centennial anniversary of the Department of Civil Engineering at UW, and plans for a Reunion Weekend for alumni on June 26th and 27th are in full swing. Highlights will include an evening cruise to Blake Island/Tillicum Village, a field trip to see the progress on the construction of the new Mariners Stadium, a symposium featuring distinguished alumni speakers, and a Centennial Banquet on campus on Saturday night. Former Governor and State Senator and current UW Regent Daniel J. Evans (BSCE '48, MSCE '49) will give the keynote address at the banquet.

To get into the 100-year spirit, the UW student chapter of the ASCE is hosting a barbecue for alumni following the close of the College of Engineering's Open House on Saturday, April 25th from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. And to coincide with the Department's anniversary, three emeritus professors of Civil Engineering have compiled a centennial history, which will be published in late spring 1998. Written and edited by Professors Colcord, Seabloom and Sylvester, and based on the work started by the late Art Kramer, the book is entitled Civil Engineering: 1898-1998, One Hundred Years of Excellence in Education. This beautiful 450 page hardcover book contains information about the facilities, curricula, students, and faculty of the Department over the past 100 years, with nearly 400 photographs of classes, people and places. The expected cost of the book will be around $50 plus shipping and handling. In addition, one copy will be free to all alumni who pre-register for the June event.

Look for a Reunion Weekend registration form and book order form to be mailed at the end of April. If you and your family are interested in attending the barbecue on April 25th, or if you have not been receiving mailings from the department, please call Nancy Cudlipp at (206) 543-2390, or send email to to update your mailing address.

The Pacific Northwest Council is comprised of the nine sections in District 12, which includes sections in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Washington. The objective of the council is generally to coordinate the activities of and cultivate friendly relations between the local sections. We also draft up several resolutions to be passed on to the National Directors. This year, the Spring Conference of PNC was held in Spokane. Meetings were held during the mornings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. In the afternoons we participated in a golf tournament, toured a waste-to-energy plant, learned how to communicate more effectively as engineers, or just plain goofed off. Saturday, however, was special. The local organizing committee provided a bus to take PNC members and friends to the Grand Coulee Dam for a ceremony that designated the Dam as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. National President, Luther Graef, was on hand to speak on the historical impact the dam had in developing Eastern Washington. Also on hand was one of the original designers of the dam who reminisced on some stories about the dam's original construction. The event was well covered by the local media.

During the PNC meetings several items were discussed at length. Gary Carroll, our Zone IV Director, commented that civil engineering is held in high regard by public opinion--we're just below priesthood. However, when it comes to placing engineers in positions of decision making, we seem to lack the public confidence. A National Task Committee is being formed to address this issue. One committee idea to create better awareness is to educate and enlighten school age kids on the value of civil engineering to society while they are still impressionable. Then, when they become future decision makers, they will be more apt to use civil engineers in their policy decisions. The committee also believes that we should "toot our horn" a bit more. One way to do this is to create more outstanding civil engineering awards (OCEA). Why should their be just one, why not have an OCEA for each of the many civil engineering disciplines such as environment, structures, water, etc.

ASCE provides a National report card on the status of America's infrastructure. For the most part, the grades in several categories are below "D". In general, ASCE reports that our infrastructure has not progressed far in the past 10 years. Obviously, we have not been very influential in getting our national and local leaders to address the poor state of our infrastructure. Later, the discussion shifted to the local needs of our membership. Gary Carroll and Zone IV Vice President Mike Stevens reported that ASCE student members would like to see more money given to the student chapters for their activities rather than to see additional scholarships. The focus is to increase the involvement of student chapters rather than individual students. I agree with this philosophy and believe that the Seattle Section can and will do more for its student chapters financially next year. Our Section Board had discussed the concept of an Honorary Membership Scholarship Fund. Instead, I believe the focus should be for an Honorary Fund for the Student Sections, which can be used to send more students to the Zone IV training and other specific activities.

Several Board members suggested that the Board should expand to get better representation of its membership, i.e. to extend board invitations to the AMF representatives and Branch presidents. This topic is to be addressed more extensively at PNC's fall meeting.

Discussions continued on whether there should be realignment of section boundaries to fall along state lines rather than geographic boundaries. The idea of a Washington section with multiple branches was touched on, but several Board members were resistant to this change. However, the Inland Empire Section and Columbia Section, both predominantly within Washington, discussed a possible merger of their sections. ASCE is also proposing a redistricting plan for Zone IV. One planned called for adding Arizona, Hawaii, Utah and the Nevada sections into District 12, with the four other California sections becoming District 11. The PNC felt that a better redistricting plan would be to merge Districts 11 and 12 into a single District within Zone IV. I believe this type of plan would be very positive for the Seattle Section, who could then have a Director elected from its Section membership every 6 to 9 years, rather than every 21 years as presently occurs. Please send me an e-mail (shart@rwbeck.com) or fax (206-695-4772) with any of your comments since I will be attending a meeting in July to further discuss this topic with a task committee.

One of the last items on the agenda was to elect new officers to the PNC for the upcoming year. The bylaws state that the Vice-chair and secretary to PNC is to come from the section which hosts the Spring Conference. Next year is Seattle's turn, and consequently, I was elected as vice-chairman of PNC starting in June. The Seattle Section Board will nominate someone to be PNC's Secretary for the upcoming year.

For next year's PNC spring conference to be held in March or April, I believe a joint conference with one or more of our technical committee groups would be highly successful. Also, a goal I would like to see for the History and Heritage Committee is to honor the Cedar Falls Hydroelectric Project as a National or Local civil engineering landmark during the PNC conference.

The R.H. Thomson Memorial Scholarship Committee, composed of chair Rick Gilmore and members Bill Shannon and Susan Gardner, reviewed 15 applications and selected four candidates to proceed to the oral interview. When plans to return to the Northwest for spring break fell through for one of these candidates, the interview was conducted over the phone-with the eventual winner, as it turns out.

Kevin O'Leary is completing his junior year at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. He graduated from O'Dea High School. Last summer he was an engineering intern with Kiewit Construction and assigned to work on the baseball stadium. At Catholic University he is active in student government and within his fraternity. Kevin has been involved with the ASCE student chapter since his freshman year. This year he chairs the hull design committee for the concrete canoe competition. In his studies, Kevin is concentrating on construction management. After graduation he would like to work in the field for a general contractor and eventually start his own firm. He sees his future role in civil engineering as someone who will strive to maintain and improve our transportation infrastructure. Kevin is an impressive, well-rounded candidate and the R.H. Thomson Committee is pleased to present him with this award. We hope you will be able to meet him at the May or June meeting.

The Committee was impressed with the caliber of the applications. We want to recognize a second candidate, Lynnea Watts. A senior at Ferndale High School, Lynnea looked at career choices that would encompass her interests and strengths as has focused on civil engineering for some time. She is a mature and thoughtful person and the Committee would like to recognize her potential by awarding Lynnea a Certificate of Honorable Mention. We hope to make this presentation to her personally at a future North Branch meeting.

For Committee members, the selection process is a rewarding endeavor and it provides a basis for optimism about the future of civil engineering on a very personal level.

Associated Earth Sciences, Inc. - Bainbridge Island Office - seeks a registered geotechnical engineer (or general civil engineer with geotechnical and environmental capabilities) with 8+ years of professional experience, including project management. Landfill experience would be a plus. AESI Bainbridge currently employs 10 professionals on a wide range of private and public environmental, hydrogeologic and geotechnical projects. Call Mark Shaffer or Eric Miller at (206) 780-9370, or e-mail at aesibi@seanet.com.

Greg Varney, a Senior Project Engineer at KPFF, will present the structural design of the Washington State Emergency Operations Center in Olympia, which is the first base isolated building in Washington. In his presentation, Greg will include many interesting facets of the design process, including the geotechical engineering which was used to determine the site specific response spectrum. Greg will also cover other critical elements of design including compatibility of architectural and mechanical systems with base isolated structures. Greg will present state of the art information about base isolation and its growing use in California, as well as for select projects in the Northwest.

Thank you to all of the firms listed above for your generous contributions.
If you or your firm would like to contribute to the success of the conference, please contact Nete Leth at (206) 783-7282 or by email at nleth@u.washington.edu.