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President's Message - April 2013

Howdy!!  I had a great time Celebrating and learning about the past 100 years of the ASCE Texas Section a few weeks ago at the Spring Centennial Conference in Corpus Christi.  I enjoyed being able to hear from so many of the past Texas Section Presidents and listen to them tell their stories of how Texas Civil Engineers helped make Texas what it is today.  We had many award winners from the Dallas Branch win Section level awards at the Awards Luncheon.  I truly hope many of you in the Dallas area will attend the 2013 Texas Section Fall Conference and Centennial Celebration September 11-14.  We have many dedicated folks working hard to plan this conference which is on track to be the biggest and best Texas section conference ever.  Look for more detailed information coming soon.

We had a very interesting and enlightened presentation last month from John H. Slate who is the archivist for the City of Dallas and talked to us about Dealey Plaza and the Triple Underpass.  This month we have a topic and speaker that goes along with our monthly Centennial Theme of Sustainable Environment.  Mr. Thom Powell, AIA LEED, will have a presentation entitled "The Perot Museum of Nature and Science - A Wide View of Sustainability".  We also have an excellent opportunity after the lunch program to hear fromMs. Joetta Dailey, CPESC, who is speaking on Proactive Watershed Planning for Lewisville Lake.  Thank you to our monthly meeting sponsor:Binkley & Barfield – C&P, Inc.

As a reminder, ASCE Dallas will be participating in Earth Day Dallas at Fair Park on April 20 & 21. Come out and see our booth that we are teaming up with UT-Dallas to present.  It will feature LIDAR technology their students worked on using a Centennial Grant.  The model they built is of the Margret Hunt Hill Bridge.  This free event will be a great opportunity for your children to attend and learn more about the environment.   Another great learning opportunity is the next monthly centennial webinar is set for April 24, 2013.  This webinar will cover sustainability and will be presented by D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE at noon.  Wayne is the Chair of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) and a former ASCE National President.

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.   One of the upcoming events you’ll get lots of information on from our social media is our golf tournament.  Mark your calendars now for the2013 DFW ASCE Golf Tournament on April 29 at Tour 18 in Flower Mound.  This golf tournament benefits the G.B. Mann Dallas Branch Scholarship fund.  Spots are filling up fast, so register today!! 

And finally, it is will great sadness that I must pass along the news of the passing of two of our great Civil Engineers.  Past ASCE Dallas Branch President (80-81) Robert Yielding passed on March 7.  Distinguished ASCE Member Dr. Albert H. Halff passed on March 25.  Both of these men were great leaders in the Civil Engineering world and will be missed dearly.  Please click on the links for both of these gentleman to learn about them and what made them such great ASCE leaders.