Geotechnical News • March 2012
57
ASFE NEWS
reviewed other firms that have. In
fact, they bring a wealth of knowledge
and experience you just cannot get
elsewhere. Just ask the good folks
listed below who have completed
Peer
Reviews
of their own. What are you
waiting for? A mountain?
Kenneth R. Miller, P.E
.
Civil & Environmental Consultants
(Pittsburgh, PA)
Barry K. Thacker, P.E
.
Geo/Environmental Associates (Knox-
ville, TN)
Michael W. Reed. P.E., G.E
.
GRI (Beaverton, OR)
David O. Cram, P.E
.
Materials Testing & Inspection (Boise,
ID)
Michael D. Kleames, G.E
.
Pacific Crest Engineering (Watson-
ville, CA)
Meeting management
Meeting management involves more
than managing meetings. It also means
managing the events leading up to the
meeting and managing what occurs
after. In the latter category, we’ve
already discussed the importance of
issuing minutes within no more than
24 hours after a meeting, and how to
do it within 30 minutes after a meet-
ing. The minutes should identify each
action item: who is going to do what,
when. But, to manage this aspect of
a meeting effectively, you need to
contact every person with an assign-
ment to say, “Please note that you are
committed to doing thus and so and
providing it to us by when.” If you
have received nothing by the half-
way point, contract the person again.
“Hello, Joe. I’m just checking to see
what progress you’ve made on the
assignment. PLEASE let me know…
and also let me know if there’s any-
thing I can do to help.”
If that type of missive gets no
response, fear the worst and call. If
you have to leave a message and hear
nothing in a few days, send another
e-mail and/or call again. You might
want to say, or suggest, “I under-
stand how things can come up and
create conflicts. Please let me know
if you will be unable to do thus and
so by the deadline. It’s important
that it get done, if not by you then
by someone else. Please let me hear
from you. Thank you!” If that elicits
no response, then use the phone and
e-mail to notify the person that you
will reassign thus and so to someone
else, and then do just that.
Remember: Meeting management
requires you to have all promises ful-
filled, even when those who make the
promises don’t deliver.
Editorial
You may be familiar with Herbert
Hoover’s 1954 article in Engineer’s
Week where he wrote:
To the engineer falls the job of
clothing the bare bones of science
with life, comfort, and hope.
No doubt as years go by people
forget which engineer did it,
even if they ever knew. Or some
politician puts his name on it. Or
they credit it to some promoter
who used other people’s money
with which to finance it. But the
engineer himself looks back at
the unending stream of goodness
which flows from his successes
with satisfactions that few
professions may know. And the
verdict of his fellow professionals
is all the accolade he wants.
Great advice, huh? Come up with
something really amazing, let every-
one else take credit for it, and be
blissfully satisfied with your public
anonymity. And this from an engineer
who in his earlier years had three
full-time PR professionals on staff,
vying to see who would issue the news
release announcing that Mr. Hoover
had recently sneezed.
Do as he did, not as he wrote, because
what he wrote is justification for
exactly the kind of behavior that has
turned the 500-pound engineering
gorilla into a 97-pound weakling.
In fact, why do others get credit for
something you did?
Because you let
them
. I’m not suggesting that you
give ultimatums – “Name this tunnel
after me or wind-surf to work” – but,
certainly, if you’ve performed the
geoprofessional services for a signifi-
cant structure, your name should be
on the plaque honoring all those who
clothed “the bare bones of science
with life, comfort, and hope.” Nor is
it unrealistic to make such appropriate
recognition an element of the con-
sideration you require for rendering
your services, especially given that, as
President Hover also wrote:
The great liability of the engineer
compared to men of other
professions is that his works are
out in the open where all can see
them…. If his works do not work,
he is damned.
Some will contend that the risk of fail-
ure or alleged failure and the liability
associated with it make not having
one’s name on a plaque preferable to
recognition, in case someone wants to
sue. How silly. Public records make
hiding from a claim impossible and,
that being the case, anonymity does
not help geoprofessionals and most
certainly does not help the geoprofes-
sions.
Now consider the opposite approach.
Imagine what would happen were
the geoprofessionals of a community
to actively court the news media,
including the bloggers and Tweeters.
The geoprofessionals could educate
by addressing the importance of what
they do in construction design and
quality assurance, in cleaning and
preserving the environment, and in the
support of sustainability and mate-
rial reuse. They could develop robust
news release distribution lists to keep
all media representatives apprised of
developments. And they could use
their news releases to also reach out
to client representatives, profession
and industry colleagues, and other
businesspeople in the community.
After all, if you fail to treat yourself
and what you do as a “big deal,” why
