Articles

President's Message - May 2013

Howdy!! I had a great time at the 24^th Annual ASCE Dallas/Fort Worth Golf Tournament at Tour 18 golf course in Flower Mound on April 29th. It could not have happened without our volunteers and sponsors. It was an outstanding opportunity to network, have fun and raise money for the G.B. Mann Scholarship fund. We had 77 golfers show up who enjoyed the beautiful weather all while raising over $3,400 for the G.B. Mann Scholarship fund. Although we fell short of our initial goal of $6,000 we will continue to have fundraisers this year to increase our scholarship fund.Besides the monthly raffle drawings at the branch meetings, we are actually planning on raising more money for scholarships during the 2013 Texas Section Fall Conference and Centennial Celebration on September 11-14. Last month we received 14 applications from great candidates who are seeking to receive a G.B. Mann Scholarship this year. Our scholarship committee is working hard to evaluate and score these applications and they should announce a winner very soon.

We had a outstanding presentation last month from Mr. Thom Powell, AIA LEED, who presented "The Perot Museum of Nature and Science - A Wide View of Sustainability". This month we have a topic and speaker that goes along with our monthly Centennial Theme of Water Awareness.  Mrs. Shelly Hattan, P.E. from the Tarrant Regional Water District will speak to us about Zebra Mussels and the Integrated Pipeline. Thank you to our monthly meeting sponsor: GarzaBury, LLC. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the Joint Meeting with the Fort Worth Branch on June 10^th at the Hurst Conference Center. Our guest speaker will be Tom Shelton, Sr. Program Manager, NCTCOG who will talk about Transportation Needs & Funding Options for the Future.

ASCE Dallas had a great time participating and teaming with UT-Dallas at Earth Day Dallas at Fair Park on April 20 & 21. It featured LIDAR technology their students worked on using a Centennial Grant. The model they built was of the Margret Hunt Hill Bridge. This free event was a great opportunity for children and concerned citizens to learn more about the environment and sustainability.

A great learning opportunity will present itself at the next monthly centennialwebinar which is set for May 30 at noon. This webinar is entitled “Current State of Water Infrastructure in the U.S.: Key Lessons from ASCE’s Report Card and ‘Failure to Act’ Series”. It will be presented by Emily Fishkin, director for Infrastructure Initiatives at ASCE. RSVP Now!!

Don’t forget: The Communication Committee has set up social media sites for our members to get updates and information from the Dallas Branch. This is really one of the best ways to get current and updated information from the Dallas Branch.

I hope to see all of you at our branch meeting on May 13^th.

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