Geotechnical News • December 2017
7
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Message from the President
As we near the end of the Year 2017,
I would like to dedicate this message
to summarizing some of the many
accomplishments of the Canadian
Geotechnical Society (CGS) over the
past 12 months. It is important for me
to note that much of our efforts over
the past year have been focused on:
member’s engagement and involve-
ment (including young professionals),
new approaches for general com-
munications and dissemination of
technical matter and related topics,
enhancement of member experience,
and improved relationships with Local
Sections. With these in mind, we have
started working towards a number of
new initiatives through the portfolios
of the CGS Executive Committee
(EC) and Board of Directors (BOD).
Let me begin by saying that the 70th
CGS Annual Conference (GeoOttawa
2017), held October 1st to the 4th, was
a highly successful event with more
than 900 delegates in attendance,75
booths at the trade show and over 20
sponsors. Sincere thanks are due to
the Ottawa Local Organizing Com-
mittee (LOC) led by
Mamadou Fall
,
Geotechnical Technical Committee
Chair
Paul Simms
and Hydrogeology
Technical Chair,
Nell van Walsum
.
Considering the coincidence of this
year with the 150th Anniversary of the
Canadian Confederation, the Monday
luncheon presentation, along with 29
posters, highlighted past Canadian
Geotechnical Achievements (orga-
nized by Past President
Doug Van-
Dine
) as one of the key highlights of
the conference. In addition, a number
of awards were presented during the
Banquet to recognize achievements
of our members. On Wednesday, we
were pleased to recognize our distin-
guished colleague
Doug Stead
as the
2017 recipient of the most prestigious
award of the CGS, the
Legget Medal
.
The annual Board of Directors (BOD)
meeting and the annual Business
Meeting were held as a usual part of
the CGS annual conference, GeoOt-
tawa 2017. At the BOD meeting,
a number of important decisions
addressing communications and oper-
ational aspects were made including
approvals: (i) of the Executive Com-
mittee’s recommendation to accept
major revisions to the CGS Confer-
ence Manual; (ii) to reform the Mem-
bership committee with an expanded
mandate; (iii) to add the Chairs of
the Committees and Geotechnical
Research Board as voting members
of the BOD; (iv) of a proposal, so the
73rd Annual Canadian Geotechnical
Conference will be held in Calgary,
Alberta, in 2020.
The three Vice Presidents (VPs) of the
Society,
Suzanne Powell
(VP Techni-
cal),
Kent Bannister
(VP Finance),
and
Jean Côté
(VP Communications
and Member Services) presented sum-
mary reports during the BOD meeting
on October 1st. Suzanne leads the
process to have the Errata of the 4th
Edition of the Canadian Foundation
Engineering Manual (CFEM, 2006)
completed by the end of 2017; she is
also aligning alternative options for
the next version of the CFEM. Jean
is spearheading the formation of a
renewed Membership Committee with
a wider mandate to promote the CGS
to current and future members, survey
geoprofessionals and assess members’
expectations, explore and analyze
new initiatives, increase interest in
volunteering and monitor and increase
membership renewal. Kent is steering
a new Financial Advisory Task Force
to examine the ways to best invest the
CGS’ funds while keeping in line with
the government financial/tax regula-
tions. Kent is also in the process of
developing policies and guidelines for
funding new initiatives to serve the
best interests of the membership. Our
VPs have led numerous other tasks,
and I would invite you to read their
reports in the CGS Annual Report for
further details. In the meantime, let
me take the opportunity to express
my gratitude to these three individu-
als for their unconditional support in
contributing to the Society’s strength
and health.
It is also my pleasure to announce that
Mario Ruel
has been named the CGS
President-elect for 2018; in turn, he
will become the President of the Soci-
ety for the period 2019-2020. Mario
will be assembling his administration
team with three Vice Presidents, and
their names will be announced during
the 71st CGS Annual Conference to be
held in Edmonton in September 2018.
This event will be Co-Chaired by
Don
Lewycky
and
Seán Mac Eoin
.
Three of our Executive Committee
(EC) members
Richard Brachman
(Technical Divisions Representa-
tive),
Seán Mac Eoin
(Local Sections
Representative), and
Ariane Locat
(Young Professionals Representa-
tive) are completing their terms at the
end of 2017. I would like to take the
opportunity to appreciate the extensive
Dharma Wijewickreme, President of
Canadian Geotechnical Society
