“Help you matter more and enable you to make a bigger difference”
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Region 8 Director's Column
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In This Issue
Region 8 Director's Column
Seattle Section Update
Region 8 Calendar of Upcoming Events
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Aloha and Mahalo for your membership in ASCE. Your membership dues support the civil engineering profession and the development of leaders to help us all matter more.
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The Region 8 leadership wrapped up ASCE’s FY2019 by planning for FY2020 at our Fall Board of Governors and Assembly meetings in Reno, NV. Serving as an ASCE officer or on a committee can take a lot of energy out of you. However, when a meeting comes together like it did in Reno and you see the expressions on the faces of our leaders and the positive feedback from them on the great experiences that they had, it makes it all worth it. Coming out of these meetings gives me great energy to take on the next set of challenges this year.
Thanks to Governor Florence Ching for chairing our Conferences Committee and taking the lead on the logistics. Thanks to Randall Rice, President of the Truckee Meadows Branch for hosting Region 8 in his hometown and taking care of all the local logistics. Thanks to David Giacomin of the Truckee Meadows Branch for organizing both tours of the Tesla Gigafactory. Thanks to the 18 University of Nevada-Reno students that participated in the Assembly meetings with your high energy and unique perspectives.
Welcome to our two new Governors Mark Lamer from the Arizona Section and Matt Roblez from the Utah Section. Mark comes from the academia world at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ while Matt is from the consulting industry at McNeil Engineering in Salt Lake City, UT. Their diverse backgrounds and personalities will complement the existing Board of Governors. We look forward to working with them over the next three years.
The Board of Governors are here to support you. If you have any questions or need help or advice on issues related to ASCE, please contact your assigned Governor. Governor assignments to Sections are listed below.
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Inland Empire – Lance Mearig
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Southern Idaho – Matt Roblez
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Columbia – Kate Thompson
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Nevada – Darren Hippenstiel
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Tacoma-Olympia – Fred Nelson
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Oregon – Darren Hippenstiel
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The next set of Region 8 meetings will take place in San Francisco, CA prior to the 2020 Region 8 and 9 Multi-Region Leadership Conference (MRLC). The Region 8 Board of Governors will meet on Wednesday, January 22. The Region 8 Assembly will meet on Thursday, January 23. Region 8 will be sending out registration information for the Assembly meeting shortly. Please note that the Region 8 Assembly meeting is not a part of the MRLC.
The 2020 Region 8 and 9 MRLC is on January 24 and 25 in San Francisco, CA. The MRLC consists of the Workshop for Section, Branch and Institute Leaders (WSBIL), the Western Regional Younger Member Council (WRYMC) and the Workshop for Student Chapter Leaders (WSCL). Registration for all three sets of meetings should start in October and end in November. Sections, Branches, Institutes, Younger Member Groups, and Student Chapters should start deciding and budgeting on which of their leaders to send to the MRLC.
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I had the opportunity to attend the 2019 ASCE/American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE) Joint Arizona State Conference in Phoenix, AZ on September 13. It was an excellent, well-organized one-day conference that drew over 200 participants. The theme was “Making the Grade” with a focus on infrastructure – an appropriate theme as the Arizona Section starts work on their State Infrastructure Report Card update. Society Past President Kristina Swallow gave a wonderful keynote address on “Leading Others in Uncertain Times”. I was able to present an overview of ASCE and Region 8 as well as sharing information about the Society’s last National Infrastructure Report Card. It was also great to catch up with many ASCE friends that I’ve worked with on past Society events. Kudos to outgoing President Ted Smithwick, incoming President Breanna Connolly, and conference co-chairs Andrew Chill and Ozzy Bravo on an excellent conference.
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Finally, I had the pleasure of attending the Hawaii Section Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Awards Banquet on September 26. Awards were presented to the five projects.
- Best Special Project – Keauhou Beach Hotel and Site Demolition
- Best Large Project – Ae`o
- Best Building and Structural Systems Project – Espacio the Jewel of Waikiki
- Best Transportation Project – ConRAC Facility, Kahului Airport
- Best Studies and Research Project – Hydrodynamic Study of Saipan Lagoon
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The 2019 OCEA Award was presented to the Keauhou Beach Hotel and Site Demolition project. The demolition of the 7‐story, 309‐room hotel was a design and permitting challenge because it was built in and over tide pools and located close to coral reefs and on a parcel with 12 significant historic properties, including the remains of 4 ancient heiau which are ancient Hawaiian temples or sacred sites. The project met the client goal for sustainability by diverting more than 20,000 tons of construction material away from the West Hawai‘i Sanitary Landfill. Over 90 percent of all construction material generated from the building and site demolition work was recycled or salvaged and reused.
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I also had the honor of installing the new officers. We are looking forward to the leadership of the Section under incoming President Jason Kage and the rest of the Hawaii Section Executive Committee.
Mahalo for being a member of ASCE and for all that you do to help our great profession. Let’s increase out numbers so others can also realize that #Region8isgreat!!!
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Mahalo and Aloha,
Tony C.G. Lau, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE
Society Director, Region 8
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A lot is happening in the ASCE Seattle Section! Our Section is a little different from many ASCE Sections throughout the country. Unlike other states where the Section encompasses the state and there are branches in different parts of the state, Washington state has four Sections, including Seattle. Within the Seattle section (which has about 2,400 members), we have the North Branch, covering the northwestern part of our state, and the Kitsap branch covering an area west of Puget Sound.
Seattle Section is well known for having a particularly active YMF. This group has endless energy for activities and volunteering and is instrumental for keeping our Section vibrant.
Some examples of our YMF’s recent events include:
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Networking Events
The Seattle YMF hosts monthly networking events to give our younger members the chance to build connections in a fun, relaxed environment. They had a great time at our August networking event enjoying the end of summer at an awesome outside venue in Seattle.
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Backpacking to Pear Lake
The YMF spent a late September weekend backpacking in the North Cascades to Pear Lake. Although they may never truly be able to place the source of the lake's namesake, they we enjoyed bounding over beautiful views, tasty berries, campfire word games, and bear bag hanging adventures.
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Volunteering at The Green Line
The YMF went to The Green Line to garden in support of native plant restoration and improving pollinator habitat. The Green Line is a transmission corridor of Seattle City Light that used to be inactive public space, but is now being utilized to help improve our community.
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Washington State Infrastructure Report Card
A monumental accomplishment in our Section, in collaboration with our partner Sections in Washington was the State Infrastructure Report Card, which was released in the spring of 2019 in our capital Olympia and in Seattle. ASCE Report Card Chair Richard Fernandez is shown at right with King County Transportation Commissioner Shiv Batra, Washington State DOT Regional Administrator Mike Cotten, and Washington Association of Water and Sewer Districts Executive Director Judi Gladstone speak at the 2019 Report Card release at Seattle City Hall.
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Monthly Meetings, Speakers, Awards & Scholarships
Our Section has had engaging speakers and events at our monthly dinner meetings. In May, we enjoyed impressive presentations from University of Washington and Seattle University civil engineering students.
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In June, we awarded civil engineers for Local Outstanding Civil Engineering Awards (LOCEA), which drew a great turnout, including a visit from our National President Elect Kancheepuram “Guna” N. Gunalan. Scholarships were awarded to deserving students in our June meeting, too!
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Just last month in September, we kicked of our 2020 season with an engaging talk from Washington State Secretary of Transportation Roger Millar, speaking on Transportation Matters in our state and DOT’s role as stewards of the state’s $200 billion investment in transportation.
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New Ideas
In May, our section conducted a Membership survey to give us ideas on how to improve our member’s experience and add value. The survey results confirmed that we are doing things right in many areas and provided insights on how we can improve. An example of a survey take-away was our successful 2020 Kickoff Event, where our Board and Committee chairs had an open forum with our membership in a happy hour setting in Seattle’s Capital Hill neighborhood. It was an opportunity to meet each other in casual environment, learn about the roles of our Board, volunteer opportunities, etc. It was a successful event and we hope it is the beginning of a new tradition in our Section.
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Board and Branches
There were several transitions in our Section and Branches this year. I would like to thank our out-going Board members for their services to the Society and our Section, and welcome our returning and new Board and Branch leadership!
Seattle Section Board
New Region 8 Governor Representative: Mark Lamer
New President-Elect: Homero Flores Cervantes
Immediate Past President: Eset Alemu
Returning Treasurer: Katie Sultani-Wright
Returning Director of Branches: Tony Nguyen
Returning Director of Technical Committees: Mike Harney
New YMF Representative: Elyssa Dixon
New Secretary: Mari Otto
New Director of Technical Committees: Mark Rohrbach
Branch Leadership
New Kitsap Branch President: Justin Nodolf
New Kitsap Branch Secretary/Treasurer: Kelsey Hall
North Branch President: Dawn Greenwood
North Branch YMF President: Mark Rose
The North Branch has honorable mention for their popular Brewers Cruise in Bellingham Bay, which is a well-attended and successful event for all!
The Section also has an extensive YMF Board, dozens of volunteer committee chairs and members, Student Chapter leaders and members who support our profession and make our Section special!
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Region 8 Calendar of Upcoming Events
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- Deadline to apply for the Legislative Fly-In – November 21, 2019
- Deadline to Declare for Region Governor Candidacy – December 1, 2019
- Region 8 Winter Board of Governors Meeting date of Wednesday, January 22, 2020
- Region 8 Assembly Winter Meeting date of Thursday, January 23, 2020
- Legislative Fly-In, March 11 and 12, 2020
- 2020 Region 8 and 9 Multi-Region Leadership Conference (MRLC), San Francisco, CA, January 24 and 25, 2020
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