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January 2012 President's Message

Special thanks to Brad Hernandez for working with the Marriott folks to set up our holiday dessert social following our December luncheon. I thought it was very nice and it looked like many people stayed around to visit with friends and colleagues.
I hope that everyone had a great holiday. Mine was super and included special church activities, celebrations with both my extended family and my wife’s family, and a few extra days off. It is always nice to recharge and think about the next year. Like I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, now is the time when I tend to set some goals for the coming year. One of my goals for our office is to renew our collective focus on safety. Our firm has had a great 2011 with no lost-time injuries. This is not easy for our firm, as we tend to spend a lot of time in the field. The problem with this type of performance is you can get complacent. I know many of our members’ firms are similar, with significant personnel-hours in the field. So maybe you can join me in a focus on safety for 2012.

The biggest thing we can do is drive safely. I read the other day that the most dangerous thing that many of us do associated with work is to drive there. Obviously, the travel to our job sites can also be risky. So think about limiting distractions while driving. I would be interested to hear from my highway design colleagues about how serious a problem this is. Particularly in construction zones (which I seem to be in a lot)!!

Another focus for the first part of 2012 is ASCE membership. Sophia Harvey (past Branch president) was visiting a while back and she noted the Dallas Branch was twice its current size once upon a time. Twice the size!! You will be hearing from Katie Barron, your Membership Chairperson in this newsletter. Please see how you can help her out. If not by encouraging colleagues to join, then by providing suggestion to her (and me) on how we can grow the Branch. Look for a survey this spring and please respond with ideas on how we can improve the Branch, meetings, membership, etc.

Speaking of growth, Ron Patterson with the City of Frisco will be our luncheon speaker at our January meeting on the 9th. He will be making a presentation on the development of the City, which is one of the fastest growing in the nation. I am sure it will be very interesting.

So Happy New Year’s and I will see you at the Marriott Quorum on Monday, January 9, 2012.

Wear those new clothes!!

Douglas L. Smith, P.E.
President
ASCE Dallas Branch, 2011 - 2012