Articles

Oct 2013 - President's Message

Howdy!! This past year has really flown by. It has been both rewarding and challenging leading one of the largest and definitely the best ASCE Branch in the nation. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the officers, committee chairs and volunteers who make this such a great organization. I am totally confident that the next group of officers and committee chairs will continue on the same path and hopefully make this organization even better in the next year. It will all start at our next meeting when the new officers will be sworn in by the ASCE National President-Elect Robert Stevens. I believe this will be one of his first official acts as President-Elect since he will be practically traveling to our meeting from his swearing in at the national ASCE conference in Charlotte.

Once again, our Programs Committee has outdone itself in finding interesting and dynamic speaks to go along with the monthly Centennial Themes (this month’s theme is Geotechnical Discovery). Mr. Subal Sarkar, P.E., from URS Corp will give us an Overview of Tunneling Technologies & Current Practice and Projects. We are also kicking off our first official Technical Institute presentation following our meeting with Mr. Scott Mackiewicz, PhD, P.E., who will have a presentation entitled Designing Efficient Deep Foundations - A Geotechnical Perspective. Thank you to our monthly meeting sponsors from the past year, but we are in need of future meeting sponsors so please let one of the ASCE officers know if your firm would like to sponsor an upcoming branch meeting.

The Texas Section Fall Conference and Centennial Celebration was a great success last month with over 600 folks in attendance. Many thanks to the host committee and the volunteers who gave many hours to making this such a great conference. A special thanks goes out to the co-chairs of the host committee, Angela Matthews, Kristin Green, Quinn Spann, Mark Boyd and Marvin Oey (from the CI). A detailed recap of all the activities from this conference will follow next month. Also a big thanks to the firms that sponsored the Centennial Celebration. Lastly concerning the Centennial Celebration, please be sure to check out the new ASCE Texas Section Centennial History Book that is on sale now!!

Be sure to think about who you would like to nominate for the ASCE Dallas Branch Outstanding Engineer and Outstanding Young Engineer of the Year Awards. Nominations are due Nov. 10 to the honors committee. Award details and the nomination forms are available on the website. We are also still looking for a few branch committee chairs for next year. Please volunteer for one of these positions to help maintain the excellence and strength of the Dallas Branch.

Centennial Habitat House Volunteers are still needed to help with the construction of the ASCE Centennial Habitat for Humanity house. Habitat for Humanity’s goal is to provide safe, affordable housing for families in need. We are looking for volunteers on weekends from now until Nov. 9. Visit here for more information and for details on how to register. In addition, there are lots of great opportunities in the newsletter this month to mentor, speak to or meet with students to help them understand what Civil Engineering is all about. Please think about volunteering for one of these opportunities to ensure future growth in the Civil Engineering field.

Once again, it was an honor to serve this great branch and I look forward to continuing to serve you as a new Region 6 Governor. I hope to see all of you at our October Branch meeting on the 14^th.

Sean P. Merrell, P.E., PTOE
President
ASCE Dallas Branch, 2012 - 2013