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Geotechnical News •March 2015
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Message from the President
This is my first President’s message
to the CGS membership in the CGS
News. I briefly thanked my prede-
cessor,
Richard Bathurst
and his
administration in my “few words” in
the January 2015 issue of the CGS
e-Newsletter, but here I would more
formally like to recognize the legacy
of his administration. Among other
things under Richard’s leadership, the
French version of the 4
th
edition of the
Canadian Foundation Engineering
Manual
was completed and published.
Planning was also initiated for the pro-
posed online 5
th
edition of this impor-
tant document.
Michel Aubertin
was
retained as CGS Executive Director
to replace
Victor Sowa;
and the CGS
annual conference Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) was updated.
For those of you who didn’t attend
the very successful GeoRegina
2014, I introduced the 2015 Execu-
tive Committee. Joining me will
be VP Technical
Angela Küpper
(Senior Geotechnical Engineer, BGC
Engineering); VP Finance
Dharma
Wijewickreme
(Professor, Civil Engi-
neering, University of British Colum-
bia); VP Communications
Catherine
Mulligan
(Professor, Building, Civil
and Environmental and Associate
Dean Research and Graduate Stud-
ies, Concordia University); Technical
Division Rep
Richard Brachman
(Professor, Civil Engineering, Queen’s
University) and Section Rep
Seán
Mac Eoin
(Senior Geotechnical
Engineer, AECOM). Angela, Dharma
and Catherine served very well in the
same capacities in the previous admin-
istration. In addition, the Executive
Committee will be supported by CGS
Headquarters staff,
Michel Aubertin
,
Wayne Gibson
,
Lisa McJunkin
and,
for a portion of the year,
Victor Sowa
.
In addition to the above, the CGS
depends on a myriad of other vol-
unteers: Section Directors, Division
Chairs and Committee Chairs and all
their respective executive members
and members. The Directors and
Chairs are listed elsewhere in this
issue. Thanks to all who spend a bit of
their “free time” helping to make the
CGS a dynamic technical society.
Some credit an engineer, Robert
Johnson, with the quote “The world
is run by those who show up”. The
same is true about the geotechnical
profession. If you want to make a dif-
ference in the geotechnical field, get
involved. I would like to remind you
that besides the 20 CGS local sections
across Canada, there are seven techni-
cal divisions:
Soil Mechanics and
Foundations
,
Engineering Geology
,
Rock Mechanics
,
Groundwater
,
Cold Regions
,
Geosynthetics and
Geoenvironmental
and there are 7
committees:
Landslides
,
Mining
Geotechnique
,
Transportation
,
Professional Practice
,
Education
,
Heritage
and a newly minted commit-
tee,
Sustainable Geotechnique
. There
is literally something for all Canadian
geotechnical professionals in the CGS
and I encourage you to get involved.
For more information on all CGS
activities visit
.
For me, an important aspect of any
organization is communication. Hope-
fully by now you have received the
first few issues of the CGS monthly
e-Newsletter. We hope that along
with the quarterly CGS News, the
monthly e-Newsletter and the soon-to-
be-updated website and social media
outlets, will keep you better informed
as what’s going on in the CGS and the
Canadian geotechnical profession in
general.
I would be remiss in not reminding
you of the
68
th
CGS Annual Confer-
ence and the 7
th
Canadian Per-
mafrost Conference (GEOQuébec
2015)
that will be held in beauti-
ful Quebec City September 20 to 23.
Thanks to the organizing committee
under the leadership of J
ean Côté
, this
conference promises to be one of the
best. Make your plans to attend now,
participate and get involved.
And for those who like to plan ahead,
prepare to attend
GeoVancouver 2016
in September 2016. More about that
conference later.
Provided by Doug VanDine
President 2015 - 2016
Message du président
Il s’agit de mon premier message aux
membres de la SCG à titre de prési-
dent dans
CGS News
. J’ai remercié
brièvement mon prédécesseur,
Rich-
ard Bathurst,
et son équipe adminis-
trative, dans mes “quelques mots” du
numéro de janvier 2015 du Bulletin
d’information électronique de la SCG,
mais j’aimerais maintenant reconnaître
Doug VanDine, President of
Canadian Geotechnical Society
