This month the message is a housekeeping column. First, a discussion about Section meetings. We’ve had a change in House & Hospitality chairs. Ann Epler is taking on a different role as AMF representative to the Board. Coincidental to this shift, Kerry Ruth attended the October meeting and indicated an interest in getting involved as she had just moved into the area. She eagerly agreed to be the H&H chair, sight unseen; therefore you should now make your reservations at the new number. Also, if you have any doubts about meeting details, check the reservation line greeting for the latest information.

The next couple of meetings will test your flexibility. Keeping with tradition, the December 8^th meeting is a joint meeting with the Tacoma/Olympia Section; we're hosting. It will be at the DoubleTree Inn at Southcenter. Note: NOT Suites, and not one of their other now-numerous locations. The evening's topic will be Boeing's Sea Launch program. Start early and tuck some holiday shopping in before the event! January's meeting is the usual night, January 12^th (2^nd Wednesday), but at a different venue: the RockSalt Steakhouse (formerly Latitude 47). Details will be in next month's newsletter but we will have three County Executives' talking about ESA response so you need to save this date (and reserve early).

With the passage of I-695, agencies throughout the state will be taking hard looks at their budgets in the coming months. Infrastructure needs to be uppermost in their thoughts as they allocate resources. To this end, Ron Borowski, past chair of the Transportation & Infrastructure Technical Committee and current secretary, will draft a letter that provides focus and depth of reasoning in addressing agency spending priorities. If you have thoughts you want to pass on to Ron, contact information is provided elsewhere in the newsletter. It is this type of proactive approach that the Section has started to use to be leaders in our communities. Civil engineers were once at the forefront when it came to infrastructure decisions. The paradigm has shifted and we now must use different means to convey our messages. You are encouraged to participate in the process.

Speaking of participating, there is an opportunity for you to be a part of the University Advisory Committee's programs such as student mentoring and guest lecturer. The latter was the described in the November newsletter and other opportunities will be the subject of additional articles. Participate! And thanks to Cliff Williams, the chair, for making this once-fading committee a vibrant group that benefits students.

By Felix Kristanovich

In another up-to-date presentation to the ASCE Water Resources and

Environmental Group, Dr Ray Walton will present feasibility study of the John Day Dam removal. The presentation will be Thursday, December 16th,at noon at the offices of: HDR at, 500 108th Ave. NE, Bellevue in the 12th floor conference room.

The feature speaker is Dr. Ray Walton of WEST Consultants, and the director of extremely successful ASCE Water Resources Conference in Seattle last August. The study was limited to only drawdown of John Day Dam to (1) spillway crest and (2)natural river levels. The drawdown of the 76 mile John Day reservoir may provide substantial improvements in migration and rearing conditions for juveniles by increasing river velocity, reducing water temperature and dissolved gas, and by restoring riverine habitat. The drawdown may also improve spawning conditions for adult fall Chinook by restoring spawning habitat and the natural flow regimes needed for successful incubation and emergence. The presentation will include the reconnaissance level study to evaluate the impacts of the two alternative pool configurations on (1) flood control, (2) navigation, (3) shoreline structures and (4) reservoir sedimentation. This presentation discusses the overall purpose of the study, and provides some details of each of the four individual water resources investigations, including site inspection and numerical modeling.

The presentation will be a brown bag type: bring your own lunch, while

By Cliff Horton

Dateline Kirkland, Headquarters for UAC

The University Advisory Committee is in dire need of young blood. There are only two practicing members of the committee (not including the university faculty and student members). These two practitioners are really old with over 70 years of combined engineering experience. We need engineers who don’t even know what a slide rule is, let alone having ever used one.

UAC functions as a bridge between the Seattle Section and the University of Washington and Seattle University civil engineering faculties and ASCE Student Chapters. The Committee is presently offering four programs including a Guest Lecturer/Presenter Program (see last month’s newsletter for program outline), a Student Mentoring Program (providing ASCE practitioners as mentors to students), an Engineering Student Recruitment Program (recruiting high school students into engineering) and membership in the visiting committee for both universities.

We are especially in need of committee members to manage the mentoring program as it is presently stalled. We have over 25 students looking for mentors.