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Geotechnical News • December 2019
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Message from the President
A word from Mario -
Un mot de Mario
2019-2020 CGS President,
Mario Ruel
Dear friends, colleagues, and
members – Bonjour!
Winter is setting in and most of our
2019 active construction projects
should be almost done as we are
finalizing reports, closing budgets and
planning for 2020. It has been a busy
year at the CGS and we are conclud-
ing the first half of our mandate. I’ll
briefly go over what has occurred over
the last quarter and highlight some of
what your CGS Executive Committee
accomplished in 2019.
At the end of September, there was a
great deal of CGS activities packed
into one intense week.
GeoSt.John’s 2019
: Starting on Sept
29th, we held our 72nd Annual CGS
Conference in St-John’s, Newfound-
land & Labrador. This was particularly
special since it had been 23 years
since the CGS held a conference at
this location. Thanks to the leadership
of
Sterling Parsons
and his team,
GeoSt.John`s 2019 was very success-
ful and well attended. All delegates
were able to learn from strong techni-
cal presentations from Universities
as well as from experiences shared
by geo-practitioners aiming at raising
the profile of geotechnical practice in
Canada. Highlights included an excel-
lent R. M. Hardy Lecture delivery
by
Ryan Phillips
; a touching Legget
Medal Luncheon for our new and well
deserving R. F. Legget Medal win-
ner,
Arun Valsangkar
; and
Suzanne
Powell
was selected as our first winner
of the new CGS Early Achievement
Award. CGS also proudly presented
Honorary Life membership awards to
John Gadsby
and
Fred Matich
; these
two new members represent over 100
years of CGS experience and contribu-
tion. Finally, I am glad to confirm that
Ian Moore
will be the CGS President-
Elect for 2020, and President in
2021-2022; Ian will present his team
during the 73rd Annual Conference in
Calgary next September.
Preceding the conference over the
weekend, we held our Annual Board
of Director’s (BOD) meeting with 45
volunteer leaders representing CGS
Divisions, Committees and all local
Sections across Canada. Several key
decisions were made about issues
related to communications, develop-
ment of initiatives and the operation
of our Society. For instance, the BOD
accepted Saskatoon`s proposal to host
the 75th CGS Annual Conference in
the fall of 2022. You can find more
details on the BOD meeting within the
Annual reports on the CGS website.
Thanks are expressed to all members
of the Board for investing their time
away from their families for their vol-
untary work that is so essential for our
Society. I was glad to see all members
working in harmony and focusing
efforts on common objectives for the
success of the CGS.
Our Young GeoPros in action in
St-John`s:
A few days prior to GeoSt.
John`s, Co-Chairs
Vincent Caston-
guay
and
Vincent Cormier
lead the
team that organized the 6th Canadian
Young Geotechnical Engineers and
Geoscientists Conference (cYGEGC).
The CGS actively participated in this
dynamic and very well-organized
event. Thank you to the young
“Vincent`s’’ and their Organizing
Committee. After seeing the “next
generation’’ in action, I feel very con-
fident that the future of the CGS will
be in very good hands.
The end of September, early October
period in St-John`s was very intense
but above all, it was a lot of fun for
our delegates. I’ve personally really
enjoyed the cYGEGC, the BOD, the
GeoSt.John’s 2019 and, even after a
few months, I am still full of enthu-
siasm and looking forward to next
year`s GeoCalgary Conference in
September 2020, organized under the
leadership of Co-Chairs
Justyna Kos-
Fairless
and
Daniel Bertrand
.
Looking back at 2019
As we are concluding the first year of
our mandate, I’ll briefly go over some
highlights of how our CGS is doing.
I am pleased to report that our CGS
continues to be strong and healthy.
Our finances are well managed under
the direction of VP Finance,
Kent
Bannister
and membership is steady.
We are making efforts with creative
ways to increase member services,
promote loyalty and help grow our
society along with a communication
plan implemented this fall by VP
Communications,
Judith Bouchard
.
Over the last few months, we sup-
ported new initiatives by sections,
such as the RGG GeoCelebration
Mario Ruel, President of Canadian
Geotechnical Society.
