8
Geotechnical News • March 2018
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
nical products” are difficult to codify,
thus leading to specific challenges in
assuring quality in a uniform man-
ner across our practice; in this regard,
it would be quite a challenge for
instance to try to codify approaches
for geotechnical site investigations! I
feel that it is timely to have a conver-
sation amongst us on these non-tech-
nical, but significant, considerations
related to quality-assurance. I invite
you to take a moment to think about
this and let us know your thoughts.
Now, let me present a few updates
with regard to our CGS activities.
We have been making further
improvements on the already updated
CGS website. We have introduced a
more personalized
myCGS
dashboard,
now in place, with newly updated
user-friendly navigation panes on the
website. If you have not already done
so, please log onto
and take a quick look. Thanks are due
to
Wayne Gibson
(Director of Admin-
istration and Finance) and our Website
provider pro.Net for working hard to
get this task accomplished.
By the time you read this message,
you should have already received the
updated
Errata for the 4th edition of
the Canadian Foundation Engineering
Manual (CFEM)
. Another major task
underway is to establish a framework
for the next (online) edition of the
CFEM
; this is not a straightforward
task, and it is a taking a bit longer than
we would have liked.
Our next Cross Canada Lecture Tour
(CCLT) talks are well organized:
Dr.
Tom O’Rourke
(Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY) will be the spring 2018
speaker for the CCLT, and
Dr. Alex
Sy
(Klohn Crippen Berger, Vancouver,
BC) has kindly agreed to be the fall
2018 speaker.
Sincere thanks to
Suzanne Powell
(VP Technical) for the above
CFEM
and CCLT related organizational work.
I also want express my gratitude to
Kent Bannister
(VP Finance) for his
leadership on the Financial Advisory
Task Force to examine the ways to
best invest the CGS’ funds, and
Jean
Côté
(VP Communications and Mem-
ber Services) for working towards a
renewed Membership Committee and
Communication Strategy.
Another important task that arises
periodically is to appoint new chairs
for our Technical Divisions and Com-
mittees, and new Section Directors
to replace the outgoing Chairs and
Directors who have completed their
three-year terms. In this regard, let
me first take the opportunity to thank
all the volunteers who stepped down
at the end of 2017 for their extensive
contributions to the CGS. It is my
pleasure to announce that the new rep-
resentatives of the Technical Divisions
and Regional Sections on the Execu-
tive Committee (EC) for 2018 are
Nicholas Vlachopoulos
and
Andrea
Lougheed
, respectively. Furthermore,
Maraika DeGroot
will be serving
as the new CGS Young Profession-
als Representative on the EC. I also
would like to welcome several incom-
ing Division Chairs:
Dipanjan Basu,
Jasmin Raymond
,
René Laprade
,
Magdalena Krol
and
Mohsen
Nicksiar
; Section Directors:
Dwayne
Tannant
,
Renato Macciotta
,
Leanne
McLaren
,
Billy Singh
,
Michael
James
and
Christopher McQueen
;
and Committee Chairs,
Sumi Sid-
diqua
and
Thomas Pabst
. The most
up to date list of all the CGS members
volunteering in 2018 is published
elsewhere in this issue.
As mentioned in my previous Presi-
dent’s message,
Mario Rue
l has been
named the CGS President-elect for
2018; he will become the President of
the Society for the 2019-2020 term. I
would like to offer my congratulations
and warm welcome to Mario, who
will also sit on the 2018 Executive
Committee as part of serving in this
new role.
The extensive and mostly time-
sensitive volume of work involved
in the operation of the CGS cannot
be accomplished without the com-
mitment and dedication extended by
the CGS National Office directors. I
would like to express my gratitude
to
Michel Aubertin
(Executive
Director),
Wayne Gibson
(Director,
Administration and Finance) and
Lisa
McJunkin
(Director, Communica-
tions and Member Services) for their
amazing contributions and support in
this regard.
This is the time that the CGS requests
nominations from the membership
with respect to the annual awards and
honours. Additional details on these
nominations are presented elsewhere
in this issue. Please consider nominat-
ing your deserving colleagues to be
rewarded with these CGS accolades.
Our Society is well supported by
generous donations from our Corpo-
rate Sponsors; I would like to take the
opportunity to thank the following
firms for their contributions for the
Year 2018:
Advanced Construc-
tion
,
DownUnder Geotechnical
;
Geo-Slope International
;
GKM
Consultants
;
Golder Associates
;
Insitu Contractors
;
Klohn Crippen
Berger
;
Knight Piésold Consulting
;
Mobile Augers and Research
;
Naviq
Consulting
;
Reinforced Earth
;
Rocscience
;
SoilVision
,
Stantec
;
Thurber Engineering
; and
Trek
Geotechnical
.
I invite you to mark your calendars
to attend the following CGS confer-
ences: Geohazards 7, the 7th Canadian
Geohazards Conference to be held
June 3-6, 2018 in Canmore, Alberta
and the 71st Annual CGS Conference
GeoEdmonton to be held September
23 - 26, 2018 in Edmonton, Alberta
(please visit the conference websites
and
http://
for more
details).
I am pleased to end my March report
by sharing the exciting news that
Kerry Rowe
(CGS Past President,
2001-2002) has been recognized as a
new Officer in the Order of Canada.
The Order of Canada is a Canadian
national order that was established to
pay tribute to those who exemplify
