Articles

President's Message - December 2013

It seems hard to believe that I am writing the President’s message for December already. Where did 2013 go? I guess the old saying that “time flies when you are having fun” is true. 2013 has been an amazing year, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the highlights of this past year. For January (Government Involvement), we got cities from across the Metroplex to sign proclamations supporting our Centennial celebration. For February (Student Mentoring), we participated in educational outreach events, including the Future City Competition and MathCounts. In March (Civil Engineering History), many of us attended the Spring Centennial Celebration Conference in Corpus Christi, where the first Texas Section meeting was held. In April (Sustainable Environment), we participated in the Earth Day event at Fair Park.  In May (Water Awareness), we had the Tarrant Regional Water District speak about the Integrated Pipeline Project. In June (Transportation/Traffic), the North Central Texas Council of Governments spoke to us about transportation needs for the future of North Texas.  In July (Discover Civil Engineering), we learned about mapping technologies and geocaching. In August (Structural Challenges), we learned about structural challenges associated with new and innovative interchange design.  In September (A time to Celebrate), the Dallas Branch hosted the Fall Centennial Celebration Conference.  In October (Geotechnical Discovery), we learned about Tunneling Technologies. For November (Community Involvement), we wrapped up the Habitat for Humanity Centennial House build.

This month, the centennial theme is “Looking Forward into the Future.”  In other words, how is the civil engineering profession going to grow and change as we look forward to the next 100 years. While this topic is certainly debatable, I think we would all agree that it never hurts to evaluate whether or not we are doing the right projects, and whether or not we are doing them the right way.  That is the premise of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s (ISI) ENVISION tool.  Kevin Shepherd with Verdunity, Inc. will be speaking about the Envision rating system and how it can be applied in the project planning and implementation processes.

Since this will be our last meeting in 2013, we will not be having any technical sessions after the main luncheon and will instead be hosting a holiday reception.  I hope that everyone can join us for some dessert and some great networking.  We will also be wrapping up our Christmas is for Caring drive at the reception.  Thank you to everyone who was able to donate at our last meeting to this very worthy cause.  We are very fortunate to have such generous members.  If you were wanting to donate at the November meeting and weren’t able to, bring your cash with you and help us make this the best year yet.

Please note that our December meeting will be held on the first Monday of the month (December 2nd) instead of our usual second Monday.  This was necessary because the hotel had a scheduling conflict with our typical date. I look forward to seeing you all there. I hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Kristin Green, PE, ISI ENV-SP
President
ASCE Dallas Branch, 2013-2014