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Geotechnical News December 2011
ASFE NEWS
Important New CoMET Document
Let’s hear it for ASFE’s
Construction
Materials Engineering and Testing
Committee
and the new model
advisory it developed for immediate use
by ASFE-Member Firms that provide
construction-materials engineering and
testing (CoMET) services:
Important
Information about Quality Assurance
.
ASFE-Member Firms can download
it free of charge at
The Committee designed
Important
Information about Quality Assurance
for insertion into ASFE-Member
Firms’ CoMET reports and other
quality assurance (QA) deliverables.
Its purpose is to help educate client
representatives and others who may use
the deliverable about who has and does
not have a right to rely on the document,
what to expect from CoMET services,
and how to maximize the value of the
services they receive. Key guidance
related by the new document includes:
• Understand the Difference between
Relying on Something and Having
a
Right
To Rely on Something.
• If You Have Not Been Formally Au-
thorized To Rely on a CoMET QA
Report, Do Not Rely on It.
• Recognizing the Difference be-
tween Quality Assurance (QA) and
Quality Control (QC) Can Help All
Parties Avoid Misunderstandings.
• The Scope of QA Services May Dif-
fer from Project Specifications.
• CoMET Consultants Deal with
Noncompliance as Required by
Their Contract.
• CoMET Consultants Owe a Duty of
Care Only to Authorized Parties.
• Do Not Misapply a Review-Only,
Courtesy Copy.
• Overall Conditions Are Inferred. In-
ferences Are Not Guarantees.
• Do Not Assume That Conditions
Found Will Stay the Same.
• Standards Complied with Are Those
That Are Referenced.
• The Sampling and Testing Loca-
tions Shown Have Been Approxi-
mated.
• A CoMET Consultant’s Field Rep-
resentatives Have a Strictly Lim-
ited Role on Site.
• CoMET Consultants Are Not Au-
thorized To Accept or Reject Con-
structors’ Work or To Modify Re-
quirements.
• Special Inspections Are Not QA
Services.
• Contact Your ASFE-Member CoM-
ET Consultant for Assistance.
The new advisory relates guidance
from an industrywide, professionwide
perspective. Nonetheless, the PDF ver-
sion is supplemented by a members-on-
ly MSWord version, permitting ASFE-
Member Firms to modify the language
and have it printed on the back of
various forms, like daily field reports.
Modified wording cannot display the
ASFE logo, nor may it be treated as an
ASFE document. Only ASFE-Member
Firms are permitted to use the PDF ver-
sion of the document as inserts.
Strategic Association Involvement
How much money does your firm
waste each year on the useless support
of societies and associations? Not that
societies and associations are useless;
far from it. It’s just that all too many
firms invest unwisely in: the time its
representatives spend on meetings and
conventions; annual dues and meeting
registration fees; and travel time and
cost. If that’s your firm’s situation,
or if you’re unsure about how much
money and time your firm spends on
these things, it’s time for you to pursue
strategic association involvement
(SAI)
.
SAI is particularly beneficial for
younger members of the firm, because
it can teach them how to be organiza-
tional leaders, by working their way
up through the ranks via committee
service. On the first day of an asso-
ciation’s new year, your firm’s rep-
resentative should be on a committee
and, when the committee chair asks,
“Who’s willing to take some notes?”
the individual’s hand should be in the
air. Why? Because the recording sec-
retary gets the names, organization-af-
filiation names, e-mail addresses, etc.,
of all the other committee members. It
helps if the person has taken ASFE’s
writing course so preparing and issu-
ing minutes is easy, but no matter what,
the minutes should be issued within no
more than 24 hours after meeting ad-
journment. That can get a person no-
ticed. And more!
Because few people actually like to
take and issue minutes, a hard-working
recording secretary is often named
a committee’s next chair. Chair the
committee, learn leadership. Get done
chairing the committee, chair another
one or be named the vice chair or – of
course – the recording secretary. Learn
more about leadership and establish
more relationships. Chair again and,
in most cases, service on the board of
directors. Then an officership. Then the
presidency.
People don’t learn leadership – nor
do they or your firm get to reap the
many other benefits available – through
casual, “eat-and-burp” association or
society involvement. If you really want
your company’s nonprofit investment
to be profitable, establish this rule: Join
the organization and get involved or in-
vest your own time and money, not the
company’s.
Once you establish a “you-must-
be-involved” dictum, the next activity
is determining which associations and
