42
Geotechnical News December 2010
ASFE NEWS
A Call to Action from ASFE President James W. “Jay” Martin, P.E.
Congratulations! You are a vital
part of
ASFE/The Geoprofessional
Business Association
. Our purpose
is to “maximize the geoprofessions’
importance and value to the
marketplace.” To do it, we must
overcome the commoditization and
marginalization that affect all too
many geoprofessionals in all too many
markets.
Realistically, we’ve done this to
ourselves: Commoditization and mar-
ginalization are largely the result of
ill-advised business practices geopro-
fessionals must change if their fortunes
are to change. Even ASFE-Member
Firms and the people who comprise
them can do better in order to bet-
ter demonstrate the insight and skills
needed for client representatives and
others to change their opinions about
geoprofessionals. But more than ASFE
members are involved in the geopro-
fessions. As such, if we are to estab-
lish an overall geoprofessional “brand”
that will truly “maximize the geopro-
fessions’ importance and value to the
marketplace,” we will need widespread
geoprofessional
self-improvement.
At a minimum, this means improved
grasp of the business issues circulating
in the marketplace every day. And not
just geoprofessional business issues.
Our clients’ and colleagues’ business
issues are just as important if not even
more so. By recognizing that, and do-
ing something about it, we can become
better – more valuable and more valued
– consultants.
ASFE can help, because we have
created an astonishing, unmatched ar-
ray of proven-effective programs, ser-
vices, and materials geoprofessionals
can use to contribute meaningfully to
more gratifying, satisfying, and profit-
able outcomes for all project partici-
pants.
If we cannot increase our value
to others, our claims will ring hollow.
I
therefore urge you to use more of what
we have, almost all of which is avail-
able to you free of charge.
ASFE cannot do it alone. We will
need the active cooperation of allied
organizations with geoprofessional
components, and our plan calls for us
to engage them. We will also need the
active support of organizations whose
members – owners, developers, con-
tractors, construction managers, and
other design professionals, among oth-
ers – will benefit from recognizing and
seeking the value geoprofessionals are
truly capable of providing. Our plan
addresses that issue, too, and the plan
is well-underway.
And there’s one more element we
absolutely must engage if we’re go-
ing to move from here to there…
You.
We need you to carry the ASFE
message to everyone in your firm, so
you’re all on the same page. We also
need you to carry the message to other
groups you’re involved in, so they, too,
can join the effort. And please con-
sider getting more involved in ASFE.
We have new committees and more
of them; join, if not as an active mem-
ber, then at least as a corresponding
member; someone who stays involved
by staying aware, and who from time
to time antes up with your own two
cents. Go to
cfm?pid=11350
for information about
each ASFE committee and the form I
urge you to fill out to indicate “I want
to make the future happen.”
And, finally, this note: ASFE needs
to generate more income to do what we
have to do. I’m not asking you to give
more, but merely to encourage peers in
nonmember firms to at least give mem-
bership their consideration. Remind
them that, when they belong to ASFE,
ASFE belongs to them. Their dues will
purchase an unrivalled opportunity for
self-improvement and for improving
geoprofessionals’ value in the market-
place.
This can be an exciting, rewarding
future for us all, and we can make that
future ours by working to achieve it. I
echo the sentiments of many others by
saying that being part of the solution is
one of the most satisfying things I’ve
ever done.
New ASFE Practice Alert Helps You
Become a Better Consultant
It’s all about people, as every
geoprofessional should know, and
the most important people of all tend
to be client representatives; the folks
responsible for giving you and your
firm repeat business, opportunities
to provide new services and delivery
methods, encouragement to open new
offices, and (especially on your request)
recommendations and referrals. They
can also be the people who decide to
give you another chance or a claim; who
stick up for you in their organization…
or not. What do you have to do to be that
GREAT consultant who has the trust
and loyalty of client representatives?
That’s revealed in the ASFE Education
Committee’s new
ASFE Practice Alert
49: Ten Things You Need To Know
about Client Representatives
.
Adapted
from material developed several years
ago for
ASFE NewsLog
, this new
document has been updated and makes
excellent reading. Like other ASFE
materials, it’s available to members
free of charge.
