CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Message from the President
While in high school in the mid-
1960’s, I bought my first slide rule.
In 1967, I programmed my first
computer (using punch cards). In the
mid-1970’s, I bought my first hand-
held calculator; in 1984, my first desk
top computer (256K RAM with DOS,
monochrome monitor and dot-matrix
printer); in 1989, my first fax machine
(thermal paper); in 1993, my first lap-
top; and in 2002, my first scanner. I
bought my first smartphone and tablet
several years ago.
Why am I telling you this? Because
methods of doing things change with
time and similarly, the way the CGS
has communicated with its members
has changed.
When I joined the CGS in the early
1970’s, besides receiving the Cana-
dian Geotechnical Journal (CGJ) four
times a year by mail, I received very
infrequent letters from the CGS which
sometimes included a mimeographed
3 or 4 page typed
CGS Newsletter
. In
1983, the
CGS News
was incorporated
into BiTech’s quarterly
Geotechni-
cal News.
In the late 1990’s, the CGS
started sending emails. In the early
2000’s the CGS’s first website was
up and running, and was revamped in
2010. In 2006, the 4
th
printed edition
of the Canadian Foundation Engineer-
ing Manual (CFEM) was published
and the French version in 2013. In the
mid-2000’s, the Canadian Geotechni-
cal Journal and the proceedings of
the CGS annual conferences became
available digitally. In 2010,
Geotech-
nical News
became available online
for the first time.
In the last year, the CGS has continued
to make a number of additional com-
munication strides. In January 2015,
the monthly electronic newsletter
(
CGS-Geotechnical Info Net
) began.
Doug VanDine, President of
Canadian Geotechnical Society
