Come November 23rd, we will have the pleasure of the next president-elect, Bob Bein, visit our North Branch in Mount Vernon. Bob, as you may remember, visited the Seattle Section late last year and talked about some of the controversial issues affecting ASCE, such as the concept of the Master's degree. At the time Bob believed that the Master's degree as the Civil Engineer's first degree had merit, but left Seattle rethinking his position as many Seattle Section members voiced strong arguments against the Master degree concept. If you have any issues that you would like addressed at the National level, please let me know so that I can tell Bob what he should be prepared to talk about. I can be reached at shart@rwbeck.com

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The Tuesday night evening event will be a social hour with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at a local Mount Vernon brewery followed by a town meeting forum with Bob. This meeting will be in addition to our regularly scheduled November Section meeting.

The October Section meeting will be my last one as the Section President and it will end a little bit differently than past years. In addition to inducting the newly elected Board members and our joint program with the geotechnical committee, the incoming chairs of the technical and standing committees will be making a brief one-minute presentation to the Section of their committees' accomplishments over the past year and their goal for the upcoming year. Additionally, the treasurer will have about 5 minutes to report on next year's 1999-2000 budget. For anyone who is interested in what activities our local committees have been busy with, this would be a great meeting to attend. The reports will last approximately 30 minutes into the dinner hour, and you will learn about the progress of our Year-2000 National Conference Committee, about the Infrastructure and Transportation committee's progress on a local report card of the areas infrastructure, on the R. H. Thompson Committee's plans on improving the endowment scholarship program, and about the many other committee programs and activities.

This past year has been a wonderful experience for me, primarily because of the support and enthusiasm of the Section Board and the help of the committee chairs in making this past year successful. We've done a commendable job with local public relations on our activities, we're initiated a mentorship program with local universities, we've hosted an International Water Resource Engineering Conference, our UW Student chapter finished fourth Nationally overall in the Concrete Canoe contest, our Associate Member Forum organized a Popsicle-stick bridge contest for area highschoolers, which brought better understanding of our profession, we've given out scholarships, and we've had a chance to meet each month socially at our Section meetings and learned about our local projects, such as the Safeco Ballpark and the RTA. With your help, next year should be equally exciting.

The State Public Affairs Grant (SPAG) program was established in 1997 as a resource to help Sections undertake public relations and government relation's projects at the grassroots level. The goal of the program is to enhance the image of civil engineers as leaders and experts on America's vital infrastructure systems and to encourage advocacy on behalf of issues that are important to civil engineers.

The SPAG program is divided into three categories: conventional SPAG grants. Merit grants and grants for the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Award and National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark (NHCEL) dedications.

The criteria for the public relations grant include:

• reach an audience outside of the civil engineering profession
• support a Section goal or specific message on an issue of interest to the Section media relations or publicity is a component

The criteria for the government relation's grant include: support one of the top priorities for the State Government Relations Program train civil engineers in government relation's advocacy as a component. All grant applications are due by December 15. If you or your committee is interested in pursuing one of these opportunities, please contact Susan Gardner.

Persons turning in receipts or requesting checks from the section treasury will have two new rules to deal with. The Seattle Section board passed two resolutions at the September 8 meeting to reduce processing time for reimbursements and checks. The first resolution requires members to submit reimbursement requests by October 1 or within 90 days of the date the expense was incurred, whichever comes first. The second resolution limits the validity of a reimbursement check to 90 days from date of check. Treasurer Phil Cohen was pleased with the resolution saying it will reduce the amount of floating receipts and checks.

Phil Cohen, P.E.
Treasurer & Budget Chair

Under the leadership of James Wilhoit, the Section Public Information Committee was able to obtain outstanding publicity on key ASCE and general Civil Engineering items including the Popsicle Stick Bridge Building Competition, Engineering Week, Officer Elections and Installations, the Student Paper Competition, the Journalism Award, and the RH Thompson Scholarship. Recent events including the International Water Resources Engineering Conference and State Senator Jim Horn's presentation on "Transportation - Perspective from the State Capitol" have also received publicity.

With Convention 2000 in Seattle, the Associate Member Forum (AMF) Convention in Vancouver, BC, and Robert Bein's (ASCE President Elect) visit on the horizon, quality media coverage will be especially critical this fiscal year. Section Public Information Committee involvement offers exciting opportunities to learn how to contact reporters and get them to cover your events and issues. If you are interested in writing articles on section activities, voicing your opinion on Civil Engineering issues, or learning about media operations, you are cordially invited to get involved with the Section Public Information Committee. For involvement or information, feel free to contact the new committee chair David Schwegel at 425-455-5320 or schwegel@tranplaneng.com.

Thank you for your consideration. Special thanks to James Wilhoit for his enthusiasm and outstanding service as committee chair this past year.

David M. Schwegel
Transportation Engineer

The Seattle Section of ASCE designated the crossing of the Cascades at Stevens Pass for the Great Northern Railway a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark several years ago. The plaque designating the area as such is located at the trailhead for the Iron Goat Trail, which is a fabulous hike through this area steeped in railroad history. The Volunteers for Outdoor Washington have work parties organized to help with constructing the extension of the trail. The dates are as follows: September (Weds.): 1,8,15,22,29; September (Sats.): 4,11,18,25; October (Weds.): 6,13,20,27; October (Sats.): 2,9,16,23

Work party carpools leave from the Bothell Park & Ride, SR 522 and Kaysner Way, at 7:15 am, and leave the trailhead at 4:00 pm, returning to the Park & Ride at 5:45 pm. Please contact Mike Sharpe, 206/706-4691 for work in September, and Endre Dale, 206/525-7796, for work in October. A US Forest Service (USFS) parking permit is provided to volunteers. The Iron Goat Trail can be accessed via the Martin Creek Trailhead via Stevens Pass Highway, U.S. 2, to Milepost 55, 6 miles east of Skykomish (9 miles west of the summit), or to Milepost 58.4 at Scenic. Turn north onto the Old Cascade Highway, USFS Road #67. Proceed to the junction with USFS Road #6710, and turn onto USFS Road #6710 and proceed 1.4 miles to the Martin Creek Trailhead parking lot. A USFS parking permit is required.

Cindy M. Hirsch, PE
HNTB

What better way to celebrate the new millennium than by documenting the role of civil engineers in building our modern society? How about by deciding how to spend your $1,000 prize? Join ASCE in a contest to identify the ten civil engineering achievements that have had the greatest impact of quality of life in the 20th century. Write one of the ten best nominations, and you could win $1,000!

The rules are simple. In 600 words or less, describe a civil engineering innovation, such as water purification, that has made a positive contribution to society in the 20th century. The innovation may predate the century, as long as its impact is most evident in today's society. Give us the names, places, facts and figures we'll need to verify and evaluate the nominated achievement, with references where possible. You may submit as many nominations as you like.

What's the catch? The deadline for nominations is October 1, 1999. We plan to announce the top-ten list at the ASCE convention (and on the ASCE Web site for those not attending) and ask ASCE members to vote for the top five. The top five will be sent to the National Academy of Engineering for possible inclusion on a list of the 20 greatest engineering achievements of the century. (The NAE deadline is October 29, which is why we need your nominations by October 1.)

E-mail your nominations to millennium@asce.org or fax them to Millennium Project, (202) 289-6797 or mail them to Millennium Project, ASCE, 1015 15th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20005.

For more details, visit the ASCE Web site at www.asce.org. Questions? E-mail gfields@asce.org.

ASCE Legislative Committee is gearing up for action during the 2000 Washington State legislative session. This committee reviews and comments on initiatives and bills being considered by each house of the legislature. Our input is then combined with opinions of other professional organizations represented by Architect Engineers Legislative Council (AELC). An Olympia law firm represents AELC by presenting our combined input and opinions to key decision-makers, tracking issues as they move through the legislature, and gathering related information. Some of the issues we expect to be considered in the upcoming session include: Taxation; A&E Selection; Government Contracting; Infrastructure Funding; Liability Reform; and Licensing.

The Washington State Legislative home page contains a lot of information such as helping you determine exactly who your governmental representatives are and how to contact them. This home page address is http://www.leg.wa.gov/wsladm/default.htm . Copies of bills can be accessed for review and comment via the Internet in several formats (bill reports, digests, histories, and full text). This Internet address is http://www.leg.wa.gov/wsladm/bills.htm.

Off session as issues arise that are of specific interest to ASCE membership the ASCE Committee will solicit member input and messages to government representatives.

This is a great opportunity to gain insight to the legislative process and make your voice heard. Most of our work and coordination is done via email, FAX and phone calls, so don't let lack of time for another meeting discourage you from participating. We encourage ASCE members working in both private industry and public agencies to participate so that our input is representative of all members. If you are interested in participating please contact Dan Dixon, ASCE Legislative Committee Chair, at ddixon@hntb.com or (425) 450-2529.

The Water Resources and Environmental Committee October meeting topic will be "Evaluating Stormwater Treatment Technologies with a Statistical Sampling Approach". The meeting will be held on Thursday, October 21, 1999 at the offices of HDR in Bellevue. The address is 500 - 108th Ave. NE, next to the ASCE Bellevue Transit Center. Parking I the area costs between 3 and 5 dollars. The presentation will be in the 12th floor conference room. Light refreshments will be available.

The feature speakers are Ed McCarthy of Haozous Engineering and John Lenth of Herrera Environmental Consulting. They will present concepts of statistical water quality sampling.

The sampling method, which has recently been gaining wider application, provides the following benefits: statistically sound and unbiased results, cost effectiveness and simplified field logistics. Results from a 4-year performance monitoring study at Lakemont Park stormwater facility in Bellevue, Washington will be used as a case study to describe the sampling method. The facility uses state-of-the-art stormwater treatment technology to remove phosphorus prior to being released to Lake Sammamish.

Who should attend? Engineers, scientists, and regulators involved in projects with water quality sampling and evaluation and/or stormwater treatment requirements would benefit by attending. For more details on the meeting, contact Felix Kristanovich at (206) 624-9190 (e-mail: fkristanovich@shap.com). Also contact Felix if you would like to add your name to our e-mail distribution list. We still have open dates for this winter for presentations, if you have an interested topic.