“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
- Region 8 Calendar of Upcoming Events
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Aloha and Mahalo for your membership in ASCE. Your membership dues and contributions support the civil engineering profession and the development of leaders to help us all matter more.
October means the start of the new ASCE fiscal year. That means Region 8 has new leadership. I look forward to working with our new Board of Governors to continuing making Region 8 great.
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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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Southern Idaho – Matt Roblez |
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Inland Empire – Lance Mearig |
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Tacoma-Olympia – Fausto Burruel |
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We also want to thank our outgoing Governors who completed their three-year terms in September. They each provided excellent dedicated service to our membership.
Governor Florence Ching served Region 8 for the last three years out of Honolulu, Hawaii. Florence served the Hawaii, Inland Empire, and Nevada Sections, attended the Mid-Pacific Student Conference, and served on the Region 8 Communications, Conferences, Finance, and Younger Members Committees. She chaired the on-site logistics for not one, not two, but three sets of Region 8 Board of Governors (BOG) and Assembly meetings and assisted with the development of Assembly meeting programs. The BOG and Assembly will miss her generosity in supplying Hawaiian chocolates at our meetings.
Governor Fred Nelson served Region 8 for the last three years out of Phoenix, Arizona. Fred served the Alaska and Tacoma-Olympia Sections, attended the Rocky Mountain Student Conference, and served on the Region 8 Awards, Government Relations, and Younger Members Committees. Fred has a big heart and was extremely passionate about wanting to provide excellent service to the Sections he served. He typically went beyond the call of duty by offering additional disaster training at his personal cost.
Governor Darren Hippenstiel completed his second term as Region 8 Governor out of Portland, Oregon. After he completed his first three-year term as an elected Governor in 2016, we let him have about a year off before we came calling again after an opening for the At-Large Governor position opened up in early 2018. During his second term, Darren served the Columbia, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah Sections, attended the Pacific Southwest Student Conference, and served on the Region 8 Conferences, Nominations, Students, and Younger Members Committees. Darren also serves as the senior member on the Society’s Program and Finance Committee and provides excellent feedback on the Society’s finances which helps Region 8 in its financial planning. Darren was a pleasure to work with and was always willing to help and provide assistance and experienced advice when needed.
Over the last month, many of our Sections held their installation of office ceremonies. With the current virtual environment, I had the opportunity to view a few of them. We are amazed and grateful that so many of our members have “stepped up” to help our profession move forward. It takes great commitment and dedication to serve ASCE in a volunteer role and we look forward to working with all of you this new ASCE year.
We also want to send a special mahalo to all the Presidents of our 12 Region 8 Sections as they complete their terms. In addition to keeping their Sections running in good order, they have participated in at least two Region 8 Assembly meetings and served on Region 8 committees. Mahalo and aloha to the 12 Region 8 Section Presidents listed below. We look forward to your continued involvement in ASCE in future capacities.
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Arizona – Breanna Connolly |
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Columbia – Tatiana Skadorwa |
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Inland Empire – Kevin Picanco |
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Southern Idaho –Michelle McDonald |
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Tacoma-Olympia – Bernadette Sison |
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Due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Society decided to move the dates of the 2021 Region 8 and 9 Multi-Region Leadership Conferences (MRLCs) from the typical January/February timeframe to the summer. The Region 8 and 9 MRLC is now scheduled for July 9 and 10, 2021 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Anaheim - Orange County, 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).
A reminder that Governor Kate Thompson, Governor Lance Mearig and I will be finishing up our respective officer terms in September 2021. The Region 8 Governor and Society Director positions have three-year terms that begin in October 2021. Candidates can be from any State in our Region except for Arizona because they already have the maximum allotted two positions on the Region 8 Board of Governors (BOG). The BOG desire more diversity on the Board. Desirable diversity characteristics include female, ethnicity, Younger Member leadership experience, and active Institute participation or experience. We haven’t had a candidate from Seattle, Tacoma-Olympia or Inland Empire Sections recently. Candidates for Region 8 Governor or Director must submit their nomination papers to the Region 8 Nominations Committee Chair by December 1, 2020. If you are interested in serving the Society as a Region 8 Governor or Society Director, please let me know.
If you are interested in having me participate in your local virtual events or strategic planning sessions, please send me an invite. The depth and breadth of my ASCE experience could be helpful to you and your group.
Mahalo for being a member of ASCE and for all that you do to help our great profession. #Region8isgreat!!! Please be safe and continue to be diligent in washing your hands and wearing your mask for the benefit of others around you and yourself.
Mahalo and Aloha,
Tony C.G. Lau, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE
Society Director, Region 8
Email: tlau_1987@hawaiiantel.net
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Dear fellow Region 8 members,
Since my term as your ASCE president is coming to end, I was asked to share some thoughts on what I’ve accomplished this year with your help.
It has been a very interesting journey to begin with, but it was magnified several folds by my cousin COVID. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to serve you as the president of this great organization.
At the outset, I’m grateful to our board of governors and my good friend Dale Nelson for putting forth my candidacy not once, but twice.
I had the privilege of visiting a few interesting places and projects, such as Lehigh University, U.S. Air Force Academy, Bureau Laboratory, Air Bus Facility, Gulf Shores, Pensacola Bay Bridge, St. Louis Arch Museum, Cairo, Doha, Beirut, various universities in India, and the Mumbai Metro tunnel and station under construction. I saw the only two 5-million-pound compression machines in the country, one in Lehigh University and the other at the Bureau Laboratory in Denver.
I signed a Memorandum of Understanding between ASCE and AASHTO in St. Louis so that we can leverage the partners program for our peers in government; sent out letters to the United States President, Speaker of the House, senators and governors to encourage them to pass a stimulus package as the country was thrown into chaos due to the pandemic. In order to make this organization an inclusive one, passed a constitutional amendment with all of your support allowing Affiliate Members to be able to vote (one more on student voting to go), initiated realigning and streamlining the organization to be nimbler and more sustainable. Thanks to my cousin COVID, we have now pivoted successfully to doing more for our members virtually to be not only financially sustainable but also to reduce our carbon footprint.
The experience though curbed by the pandemic has been humbling and rewarding. You all stepped up to my challenge from when I was your region director to every section within Region 8 to have a Report Card highlighting the needs to ensure that our citizens enjoy the quality of life; I was proud to participate in the release of one of the last Report Cards in Hawaii a couple of years ago.
You have been very engaged, committed and fun to work with. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my role within Region 8 and at ASCE. We’ve had some great leaders that have gone on to lead ASCE, and I see a lot of potential in several of you. I am optimistic about our region and ASCE, and the future of our profession. My best wishes to all of you for a safe return to normalcy. Please feel free to reach out to me and know that I am always here to serve you and am always here to serve. Thank you for your support and friendship. I’m looking forward to the future’s possibilities.
K. N. Gunalan, Ph.D., P.E., F. ASCE, D.GE
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The Seattle Section has had an interesting year! Both before and after the Stay-at-Home mandate, we have been trying new things to better engage with our community.
Membership Committee
The Section sent out its second membership survey this fall in order to better determine what our membership values and to improve the upcoming year. We have created a membership committee in order to focus our efforts more on member retention, increasing membership, and improving engagement. We also held our first social media competition: Paper Structure Contest! This competition was for members to engage with their families and roommates during the Stay-At-Home mandate to build structures that could hold heavy weights and were creative. Winners were given gift cards for a food delivery service to support local restaurants.
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MRLC’s
Attendance from our Section was strong at the MRLC’s this year. For the first time we had Seattle University students in attendance! University of Washington were also in attendance. We also connected with the University of British Columbia students, hoping to work with them to host the 2022 regional student competitions.
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Networking
Prior to the Stay-At-Home mandate, the YMF was seeing significantly larger attendance at their networking happy hours. The YMF then continued their networking via Zoom. They have also been reaching out to other groups to do joint events such as this one with Tacoma-Olympia, Inland Empire, Columbia, and Oregon YMF!
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Student Outreach
Being virtual doesn’t stop us from engaging with students! The YMF, led by Maddy McKenzie, developed an FE exam review course over the summer with weekly sessions taught by different members of the YMF board. Over 80 students signed up!
On the K-12 front, led by Katarina Kubiniec, we attended a few different events, including the Pacific Science Center’s Curiosity Days. We had 12 engineers develop technical content that covered the range of civil engineering sub-disciplines to show the students the different career paths they could take as a civil engineer.
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Awards and Scholarships
At the Puget Sound Engineering Council (council of different engineering societies) Engineer of the Year Awards Banquet, ASCE took home all of the awards:
- Academic Engineer: Laura N. Lowes, PhD
- Young Engineer: Bobbie Gilmour, EIT
- Professional Engineer: Andrew Taylor, PE, SE
- Kenneth W. Porter (K-12 Outreach): Kristina N. Low, PE
- Government Engineer: Susan L. Everett, PE
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We held our LOCEA awards virtually in June, with one of the highest level of attendance we’ve seen. During this event, we also honored the recipients of the YMF’s scholarship for high school students. Typically this is given to one student. This year, we gave out four scholarships to worthy applicants! |
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Virtual Section Meetings
Starting in March of 2020, we started having all our meetings online. This included our monthly Board meetings and dinner meetings. After some struggles and technological tweaks, we finally feel more comfortable hosting virtual meetings. They have been a success so far. Our dinner meetings have more attendance than in our in-person meetings! We’re making them free and perhaps that’s an incentive. We’re still working towards generating more interaction among our participants in the virtual environment with rooms in Zoom.
Our technical committees have also adapted to the new normal of virtual meetings. In fact, the Water Resources and Environmental Engineering Group (WRE), an EWRI local chapter, has seen its attendance to its monthly brownbag lunch meetings more than double since they started hosting them virtually. This past Wednesday October 15 we had a Section joint meeting with the WRE group and had 100 attendees! We’re very optimistic this trend will continue throughout the rest of year.
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Region 8 Calendar of Upcoming Events |
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- Annual Convention, October 28-30, 2020 Virtual
- Deadline to Submit Nominations for Society Director & Region 8 Governor Candidacy, December 1, 2020
- Region 8 Board of Governors Winter Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, February 18, 2021 (Tentative)
- Region 8 Assembly Winter Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, February 19-20, 2021 (Tentative)
- Society Legislative Fly‐in, Washington, DC , March 2021
- Pacific Southwest Student Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, March 25-27, 2021
- Rocky Mountain Student Conference, Brigham Young University, April 8-10, 2021
- Mid‐Pacific Student Conference, California State University, Fresno, April 13-16, 2021
- Pacific Northwest Student Conference, University of Washington, April 15-17, 2021
- Regions 8 and 9 MRLC, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Anaheim, Orange County, CA, July 9-10, 2021
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