Articles

Region 6 Directors Report

Ken Morris, P.E., PTOE, ASCE Region 6 Director

I would, first of all, like to thank all of the Texas Section members for selecting me as your Region 6 Director. During my term, I would like to visit as many branches as possible throughout the region. I would also like to make sure that we are supporting all of the student chapters of ASCE. In Region 6, there are 20 student chapters, 15 of which are in Texas. I think that it is important to visit these chapters and encourage the students to continue their membership with ASCE after graduation. After 35 years in ASCE, I can definitely emphasize what ASCE has meant to me.

Attending the Texas Centennial this fall was a great experience. I thought that the conference was well thought out and had a good selection of presentations for all disciplines of civil engineering. I would like to thank Sean Merrell for his participation as Centennial Celebration Chair. I know that it takes more than one person to pull off a meeting of this size and want to thank all of those who participated and were active in coordinating and making the Centennial so successful.

I also want to thank the Texas Section for recognition of Region 6 as a contributor to the Centennial Celebration. We were happy to provide funding for the centennial banners, history book and Habitat for Humanity house. Your Section Past President, Jack Furlong, did a great job promoting the Habitat for Humanity house as a viable project during the centennial. We held a Past President and Region Governors breakfast on Thursday morning. Martha Juch gave a presentation describing issues that the ASCE Board of Direction is dealing with at the present time. It is important for the membership to understand what is happening at the national level within their organization. It was great to see and meet some of the Past Presidents of the Texas Section as well as to talk with your President, Tim Newton. I look forward to working with Tim and the Texas Section Board over the next year.

The Annual ASCE Conference was held in Charlotte, North Carolina. The meeting was well attended and everyone enjoyed going to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Ali Velshi, financial journalist and author of How to Speak Money, shared his insights as opening keynote speaker. ASCE inducted the 2013 class of Distinguished Members at the Celebration of Leaders Luncheon, and 2014 President Randy Over, PE, F.ASCE, took office during the Society’s Annual Business Meeting speaking about the future of ASCE and a commitment to its membership. Pat Natale announced that he will be retiring as Executive Director of ASCE after 12 years. Pat has been an inspiration to many people within the ASCE community. It will be the job of the Board of Direction to find his replacement before the end of next year. Overall, it was a great conference and if you have never been to an annual conference you should plan on going next year. The conference will be held in Panama to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Panama Canal. Tours of the canal will be available for attendees and the weather should be great.

As you are probably aware, Sean Merrell is your newest Region 6 Governor.  He is serving as the Governor at Large and will be on the Region Board of Governors for three years. Your other Governors, Nancy Cline and Ken Rainwater will serve another year and two years, respectively. Our next Region 6 Board of Governors meeting will be held on January 9, 2014, the day before the Multi-Regional Leadership Conference (MRLC) starts. The MRLC will be held in St. Louis on January 10-11, 2014. It is a great opportunity for Section and Branch officers or Younger Members to take advantage of the leadership training that ASCE provides. The best part is it's FREE. That’s right, it is free to participate and ASCE national will pay airfare and per diem to those attending from the Sections and Branches. One officer from each Section and Branch can attend. Student Chapters members can also attend, and last year Region 6 provided a $200 stipend for each of 14 students who participated. As a board, we voted at our last Board of Governors meeting to extend the $200 stipend to 2014.  If you have not attended an MRLC and would like to attend, please call Nancy Berson (703) 295-6010 or email her at [email protected]. She can give you the details of the next MRLC so that you can plan to attend.