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Geotechnical News • March 2013
www.geotechnicalnews.com
ASFE NEWS
we have had a break-through, thanks
in part to fallout from the Houston/
Nelson paper, and in particular to the
diligence of Bob Thompson, who is
heading the standard-development
committee that has been green-lighted
by ASCE. The goal is to develop
a standard that says, in essence, if
you’re going to testify about the
standard of care, you should first learn
what it actually was. If we can get this
done, it could have a huge impact on
liability exposures. That would be a
good thing for all design professionals,
not just us.
To achieve our purpose requires us
to achieve
more outreach
to other
organizations that represent clients and
those that influence clients; organiza-
tions and memberships that need to
realize that ASFE-Member geopro-
fessionals, when wisely selected and
deployed, can help project owners
save time, save money, and manage
their risk. However, if we are going
to have our outlooks take hold, all
quality-oriented geoprofessionals will
have to sing from the same hymnal:
geoprofessionals in independent
private practice, like ourselves; those
employed by government agencies
that review our deliverables; those
employed by private-sector and
public-sector clients; those involved
in construction, working for construc-
tors of different type; and those in
education, both as faculty and stu-
dents. We need all of them to do more
to inculcate awareness of just how
important geoprofessionals really are.
And we have been working diligently
toward that end in an effort to create
The Geoprofessional Foundation
, a
stand-alone group that will represent
the dozens of geoprofessional orga-
nizations and thousands of geopro-
fessionals who have much to benefit
through combined efforts: to achieve
more recognition of geoprofession-
als; to create more awareness of what
wise selection and deployment are all
about; to affect codes and standards
that affect us and all the American
people; and similar activities that
will be of mutual benefit. We have
much to thank the External Relations
Committee for in this endeavor. They
have been tenacious and effective. I
am confident we’ll get to where we
need to be, possibly before we meet in
South Carolina next April.
As another part of outreach, ASFE
is now a founding member of the
Institute for Sustainable Infra-
structure
. We are joining other
major organizations to develop green
initiatives for geoprofessionals and
civil engineers. ISI initiatives are also
creating opportunities for new services
ASFE-Member Firms can offer, and I
certainly hope you are taking advan-
tage of them.
ASFE has also joined an associa-
tion of some 35 organizations called
ConsensusDocs
, an AGC-led group
that develops model contracts. By
becoming involved, we believe we
can influence what these contracts
require, especially when it comes to
services geoprofessionals are retained
to provide.
Our commitment to do more for all
our members requires ASFE itself to
become a larger organization with
more money and volunteered efforts
to invest in achieving our goals. To do
that, we must
increase membership
and, toward that end, we created the
new Membership Director position on
staff. We have been highly success-
ful despite the weak economy. Last
year we added 25 new ASFE-Member
Firms, almost a 10 percent growth
rate. Year to date this year we have
added 13 new ASFE-Member Firms.
As most of you are aware, we now
have a new Membership Director –
Tamara Kukla – and with her enthu-
siasm and know-how, I’m looking
forward to reporting the addition of 30
new ASFE-Member Firms when I next
address you. To help fund this effort,
we have encouraged the involvement
of a limited number of
meeting spon-
sors
– sponsors thank you very much;
your involvement is much appreciated
– and we’ve also opened
NewsLog
and our website to a limited amount of
advertising
.
We are also looking at our programs,
services, and materials. I can tell you
that John Bachner’s monthly
webi-
nars
on writing, especially focusing
on writing and risk management, have
been very well received. For that rea-
son, starting in January, we are going
to start offering two webinars a month,
one focusing on writing and the other
on risk management. I don’t have to
tell you that it’s sometimes difficult
to make webinars not just an effective
learning experience, but something
that almost all staff find enjoyable.
I believe you’ll agree that ASFE’s
webinars are refreshingly different and
highly effective.
Also on tap this year is an
overhaul of
some of our most important materi-
als
, starting with our message flyers;
brief documents that focus on one
issue, for use as handouts to clients
and colleagues, and for use as in-
house professional-development tools.
Most need to be refreshed; all of them
need to be reformatted to accommo-
date downloading, as we
continue to
get greener
.
We’ll also be looking at our
Prac-
tice Alert
monographs. We intend to
categorize existing
Practice Alerts
and
all new ones as focused on an issue of
the moment or on a best practice that
should remain viable for long-term
application. As part of this effort, we
have created a new
Branding Task
Force
, to coordinate our efforts and
make it clear to clients, those who
influence clients, and prospective
members that ASFE is
the
organiza-
tion to join if you’re serious about
wanting to improve your business.
There’s more change we’re working
on, too: Our IT/Website Task Force
is developing
improvements to our
website
. These are taking effect piece
by piece, because we have to work
with a third-party website provider
to get things done. It’s not easy, but
because of the tenacity of Sarah Lan-
ning, we are making it happen. We’ve