July 2015    

REGION UPDATE—JULY 2015 BOARD MEETING HIGHLIGHTS
Through Strategic Discussions, ASCE Board Takes On the Future 


Constantine Memos, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is your Region 10 Director.  He is a former Professor of Maritime Hydraulics and Port Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA).

Constance represented you at a day-long strategic planning session, held in advance of the regular July Board of Direction meeting, to examine the trends and issues facing the civil engineering profession and ASCE as its professional association.

At the July 17 session in Victoria, BC, the Board continued a strategic planning process that most recently centered on scanning the environment to identify issues that are affecting how civil engineers practice and how they can best serve the public welfare.

The Board entered its planning session with about 30 professional issues and 15 association issues to consider, the latter being those related to the health of ASCE as an organization as it works to serve its members, the profession, and society. The Board’s ultimate goal is to create a prioritized “radar screen” of perhaps 15 to 20 issues that will then serve as a guide to determining the small number of strategic initiatives that will receive special Board focus over the coming years. On the table would be the possible continuation of one or more of our three existing strategic initiatives--infrastructure renewal, sustainable infrastructure, and raising the bar on the education required for professional engineering licensure—along with the consideration of potential new ones.

After priority voting to close the day’s session, the interim list of professional issues was reduced to about 20 for the next stage of consideration. In addition to the issues that led to our current three strategic initiatives, those that received Board interest included:
  • The question of how well the continuing education used to fulfill the requirements for licensure renewal keep engineers up to date on the needed civil engineering body of knowledge.
  • The factors that influence attracting the best and brightest students to civil engineering careers.
  • Reducing infrastructure lifecycle costs and fostering optimization of infrastructure investments.
  • The recent trend of proposed state legislation calling into question the purpose of professional licensure in general.
  • The civil engineer’s ability to become a master innovator and integrator of technology in leading multi-disciplinary planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of sustainable infrastructure projects.
  • Among several others.

Regarding association issues, the Board trimmed its list from 15 to 10, showing interest in:

  • The question of how well the continuing education used to fulfill the requirements for licensure renewal keep engineers up to date on the needed civil engineering body of knowledge.
  • The factors that influence attracting the best and brightest students to civil engineering careers.
  • Reducing infrastructure lifecycle costs and fostering optimization of infrastructure investments.
  • The recent trend of proposed state legislation calling into question the purpose of professional licensure in general.
  • The civil engineer’s ability to become a master innovator and integrator of technology in leading multi-disciplinary planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of sustainable infrastructure projects.
  • Among several others.
Having explored and discussed the broad array of issues on its interim list, the Board will continue to refine it offline in August, and then seek to establish a final prioritized radar screen of issues at its October meeting.
 

Board members are interested in your views on the issues they are considering. To share your views, or other ideas on how ASCE can better serve its members and the profession, please email Constantine

Great outreach event or other activity? Let the whole Region know!

If you’re a local ASCE leader and your Section, Branch, Younger Member Group, or Student Chapter has staged any special events, engaged in outreach from grade-school kids to lawmakers, done charity work, fund raising or anything of the sort, let ASCEnews Weekly know and we may include it in next month’s Region report. You may already have written about it and posted pictures in your newsletter, website, or social media. Share the details and any photos at asce.org/localnews. Got questions? Write to submissions@asce.org.


See the other Region reports for July
If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for July, click on each to view them:
 
Region 1   Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, Buffalo Section, Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers Section, Ithaca Section, Maine Section, Metropolitan Section, Mohawk-Hudson Section, New Hampshire Section, New Jersey Section, Puerto Rico Section, Rhode Island Section, Rochester Section, Syracuse Section, Vermont Section

Region 2   Central Pennsylvania Section, Delaware Section, Lehigh Valley Section, Maryland Section, National Capital Section, Philadelphia Section, Pittsburgh Section

Region 3   Akron-Canton Section, Central Illinois Section, Central Ohio Section, Cincinnati Section, Cleveland Section, Dayton Section, Duluth Section, Illinois Section, Michigan Section, Minnesota Section, North Dakota Section, Quad Cities Section, Toledo Section, Wisconsin Section

Region 4   Arkansas Section, Indiana Section, Kentucky Section, North Carolina Section, South Carolina Section, Tennessee Section, Virginia Section, West Virginia Section

Region 5   Alabama Section, Florida Section, Georgia Section, Louisiana Section, Mississippi Section
 
Region 6   New Mexico Section, Oklahoma Section, Texas Section

Region 7   Colorado Section, Iowa Section, Kansas City Section, Kansas Section, Nebraska Section, South Dakota Section, St. Louis Section, Wyoming Section

Region 8  Alaska Section, Arizona Section, Columbia Section, Hawaii Section, Inland Empire Section, Montana Section, Nevada Section, Oregon Section, Seattle Section, Southern Idaho Section, Tacoma-Olympia Section, Utah Section

Region 9   Los Angeles Section, Sacramento Section, San Diego Section, San Francisco Section

Region 10 All International Sections, Branches, and Groups


Missed last month's Region 10 update?
See the June edition of  News Around Region 10 



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