Geotechnical News March 2011
47
ASFE NEWS
What’s an ASFE-Member Firm Doing
Writing a Kids’ Comic Book? Plenty!
NTH Consultants, Ltd. and the city
of Pontiac, MI have jointly unveiled
a new environmental educational
program called
Otto’s Great Watershed
Rescue
, designed to educate 1st
through 8th graders about community
watershed management principles.
Funded by a grant from the Michigan
Department of Natural Resources and
Environment, the program examines
common sources of watershed
pollution and how seemingly small,
environmentally friendly behaviors at
home can improve the quality of our
rivers, lakes, and streams. Working
with city personnel, NTH developed a
comic book and video game featuring
Otto the River Otter and three polluting
monsters. The video game, which
closely follows the comic book, is
available at
According to Pontiac Mayor Leon
B. Jukowski, “Educational outreach is
a critical step toward improving envi-
ronmental stewardship in all our com-
munities, and reaching school-aged
children with this message is an impor-
tant part of their future, too.”
Pontiac and NTH plan to spread
their environmental message during
2011 by developing a school-focused
marketing program and constructing
a traveling Otto exhibit that will reach
many more of the city’s children.
Editorial
The following editorial expresses
the viewpoint of the ASFE
NewsLog
editor; a viewpoint possibly espoused
by no one else. Your comments are
encouraged. Address them to info@
asfe.org.
My nearest and dearest friend, Doug
Downs, is a geoprofessional. Like so
many of his peers, Doug is a well-ed-
ucated, intelligent, caring person with
a good sense of humor and a highly
developed sense of integrity. My circle
of friends also includes some repre-
sentatives of geoprofessionals’ clients,
some of whom find it odd that I talk
about geoprofessionals’ integrity with
such conviction and enthusiasm. “They
don’t keep their promises,” the client
representatives have said. “They don’t
meet their schedules or their budgets.”
“But what about the quality of the
deliverable?” I ask. “So what if the re-
port comes in a little late or over bud-
get. Doesn’t the quality make up for
that?”
“I’m in no position to evaluate qual-
ity. I’m not a geoprofessional,” comes
the reply. “What counts to me is keep-
ing your word.” Which makes total
sense when it comes to a service busi-
ness, because so much about it is based
on trust: We trust the service provider
to do what we cannot do, because we
don’t understand what’s involved. And
we base our buying decision on what
we hope to get; we cannot see it or ex-
perience it beforehand. All of which
was reinforced by a recent, personal
incident.
My truck had been acting up and I
took it into my mechanic, Bubba, for
repair. “I’ll check it out and call you in
about a hour,” he said.
Bubba called 50 minutes later, told
me what was wrong, and said it would
cost about $325 to fix. “Suppose I
asked you to do it for $275?” I asked.
“Wouldn’t do it,” Bubba said. “I do it
right. $325 is what it’s gonna’ cost.”
“Okay,” I said. “And when will it be
ready?”
“Thursday at four.”
“What if I said I wanted it Wednes-
day by three?”
“I could try to get it done early, but
you can count on Thursday at four.”
I spoke to Doug about my experi-
ence with Bubba. “Why can’t you guys
do that?” I asked.
“I don’t know why,” he replied. “We
get into that situation and it’s like deer
in the headlights.”
“Do the client representatives pres-
sure you?”
“Sometimes, but usually they just
ask about the delivery date and we feel
this need to set an almost impossible
deadline so we don’t lose the commis-
sion.”
“What about fee?”
“Same thing. We don’t like to talk
about contingencies, how maybe some-
thing extra needs to be put aside in case
we run into something unexpected.”
“And how often do you encounter
the unexpected?”
“About 90 percent of the time.”
“So why don’t you tell your clients
that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I think that,
if I tell them that, they won’t trust me.”
I saw Bubba next on Thursday at
four and, sure enough, my truck was
ready. He’d also had it washed and
vacuumed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get it
done any faster,” he said. Then came
the good news. The problem was a
faulty alternator, just as he expected,
but he was able to get a rebuilt it in-
stead of a new one, but with the same
warranty. The final bill came in at $295,
$30 less than the estimate.
“That’s great, Bubba, just great.”
And then I mentioned the schedule/
budget problems that seem to plague
geoprofessionals and lead people to
misconstrue their professionalism.
“What’s their problem?” I asked.
“Darned if I know,” Bubba replied.
“Well, then,” I asked. “What’s your
secret? How do you do deliver on time
