PRESIDENT S MESSAGE: April, Volume 18, Issue 7 EST In This Issue

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1 Volume 18, Issue 7 April, 2014 Visit ASCE at or call ASCE ASCE's mission is to provide essential value to our members, their careers, our partners and the public by developing leadership, advancing technology, advocating lifelong learning and promoting the profession. In This Issue PRESIDENT S MESSAGE: President s Message Page 1 Meeting Announcement Page 2 ASCE Section Calendar Page 2 Greetings! Board of Directors List Page 2 Annual Meeting Agenda Page 3 March Board Meeting Minutes Page 4-5 Legislative Fly-In Update Page 6 Region 3 Director Update Page 7 Sponsors Page 8 This month I would like to share with you the details of our Annual Awards Banquet. Once a year, we like to honor those who have served the and ASCE in the past and present. The most recent past president will receive a special award and all of our past presidents are encouraged to attend as we will be doing a roll call to recognize you. Plus it is a great way to connect with your fellow board members during your term on the ASCE board. So, encourage those you served with to attend as well. We also celebrate those who are the future of our Section though an update from the UMD ASCE Student Chapter and the presentation of the ASCE Scholarship recipients. Interested in submitting an article for the ASCE newsletter or becoming a Board Member next year? Our keynote speaker this year will be Mike Kennedy, PE, of the City of Minneapolis. He will be speaking to us on the emergency response to the I-35 Bridge collapse. We will be offering a PDH for attendance of his talk, so if you need a few more hours before the end of June; this is a great way to earn one. Contact David Franseen (newsletter editor) for information at or David.franseen@krechojard.com Lastly, be sure to bring along your spouse, partner or associate. A detailed agenda of the Annual meeting is on page 3 of the Newsletter. Hope to see you on April 15 th at the Banquet! President Lisa Karlgaard 1

2 BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Lisa Karlgaard, P.E. LHB, Inc. 21 West Superior St, Suite 500 (218) President-Elect Cindy Voigt, P.E. City of Duluth 411 W 1st Street - Room (218) cindyvoigt@live.com. Please join us for our Annual Award Dinner And a Unique Presentation: April 15, :00-7:30 pm Radisson Hotel Vice President David Franseen, P.E. Krech Ojard Engineers & Architects 227 West 1 st Street, Suite 200 (218) david.franseen@krechojard.com Secretary Matt Nordine LHB, Inc. 21 West Superior St, Suite 500 (218) matthew.nordine@lhbcorp.com Treasurer Nick Patterson Marine Tech 716 Garfield Avenue (218) x 203 npatterson@marinetechduluth.com First Past President Art Johnston, P.E. USDA Forest Service (retired) 37 N. 93rd Av. W. Duluth, MN (715) ajohnston2@charter.net Younger Member Chair Tom DesMarais, EIT (218) tdesmarais@msa-ps.com Membership Chair Joel Hinnenkamp (218) joel.hinnenkamp@lhbcorp.com Government Relations Chair Craig Bursch, P.E. (218) cbursch@mbjeng.com Toothpick Bridge Chair John Hinzmann, P.E. (218) john.hinzmann@state.mn.us Please RSVP by responding directly to the electronic invitation you received, or ing asceduluth@yahoo.com Professional rate is $25. Student rate is $10. Costs will be collected at the door. ASCE will issue a PDH certificate to members in good standing. It is the responsibility of the individual to determine whether or not the presentation is applicable to his/her career. ASCE Calendar Membership Meetings Board Meetings September 17, 2013 September 26, 2013 October 15, 2013 October 24, 2013 November 19, 2013 November 26, 2013 December 10, 2013 December January 28, 2014 January 30, 2014 February 18, 2014 February 27, 2014 March 18, 2014 March 27, 2014 April 15th Dinner Meeting April 24, 2014 May 20, 2014 May 29, 2014 September 16, 2014 September 25,

3 BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Lisa Karlgaard, P.E. LHB, Inc. 21 West Superior St, Suite 500 (218) President-Elect Cindy Voigt, P.E. City of Duluth 411 W 1st Street - Room (218) cindyvoigt@live.com Vice President David Franseen, P.E. Krech Ojard Engineers & Architects 227 West 1 st Street, Suite 200 (218) david.franseen@krechojard.com Secretary Matt Nordine LHB, Inc. 21 West Superior St, Suite 500 (218) matthew.nordine@lhbcorp.com Treasurer Nick Patterson Marine Tech 716 Garfield Avenue (218) x 203 npatterson@marinetechduluth.com First Past President Art Johnston, P.E. USDA Forest Service (retired) 37 N. 93rd Av. W. Duluth, MN (715) ajohnston2@charter.net Younger Member Chair Tom DesMarais, EIT (218) tdesmarais@msa-ps.com Membership Chair Joel Hinnenkamp (218) joel.hinnenkamp@lhbcorp.com Government Relations Chair Craig Bursch, P.E. (218) cbursch@mbjeng.com Toothpick Bridge Chair John Hinzmann, P.E. (218) john.hinzmann@state.mn.us American Society of Civil Engineer s Mission is to provide essential value to our members, their careers, our partners and the public by developing leadership, advancing technology, advocating ASCE Annual Dinner & Awards Banquet 5:00 5:45 Social Hour 5:45 6:15 Dinner April 15, Radisson Hotel $25 Professionals, $10 Students 6:00 6:15 Welcome to Honored Guests Announcements Region 3 Update: John Frauenhoffer, PE 6:15 6:55 Keynote Speaker: Mike Kennedy, PE City of Minneapolis Minneapolis Emergency Response to the I-35 Bridge Collapse 6:55 7:10 Presentation of Past-President Plaque Roll Call of Past Presidents 7:10 7:20 UMD Student Chapter Update 3

4 ASCE DULUTH SECTION BOARD MEETING MINUTES March 27, 2014 Sneakers, 207 W Superior St, Duluth, MN Board Members present were Lisa Karlgaard, Cindy Voigt, David Franseen, Matt Nordine, Nick Patterson, Tom Desmarais and Craig Bursch The meeting was called to order at 4:35. A quorum was present. Student Chapter Report: (Neal S.) Neal was not present for the meeting due to weather, but he sent an to the board informing everyone that the concrete canoe is going well in preparation for competition on April 26. They are doing a joint meeting with ACI next Thursday. HR from LHB will be talking about resumes and feedback that companies gave from the civil engineering career fair. All of their volunteer opportunities are on hold due to scheduling or the weather, but are still anticipating doing at least one event, the highway cleanup, and hopefully more. Membership Update: (Joel H.) Joel was not present for the meeting, but updated the board via that the Duluth section is currently at 286 members. 233 of these members have paid their National dues, and of those members, 177 have paid the Duluth section dues. There have been 24 new members since 1/15/2014 (5 members, 19 students). Joel watched the ASCE Membership Champions HUDDLE webinar and informed the board that all board members using the membership data must sign the Membership Database Use form and submit it to national. Younger Member Report: (Tom D.) Tom updated the board that there was a P.E. review session event in February and there are future events scheduled. Treasurer s Report: (Nick P.) There is $4, in checking and $6, in savings. The section has received $940 from national since our last meeting plus money from last month s lunch meeting. Craig requested to be reimbursed the amount difference for his hotel cost and ASCE national s reimbursement for the 2014 ASCE Legislative fly-in he attended in March. Dave made the motion to reimburse Craig this difference and the board passed the motion. Tom, Nick and Matt distributed the ASCE national reimbursements from the St. Louis conference amongst themselves and are not requesting any reimbursement from the section. 4

5 ASCE BOARD MEETING MINUTES (CONT.) Annual Matrix Review: (All) Since the Minnesota section is having their 100 th anniversary this fall, the board encouraged members to visit and take notes on the ceremony being held in Minneapolis this fall. The MN section will be having a landmark ceremony, and the board will continue investigating moving forward the process of getting the Aerial Lift Bridge a national landmark for our 100 th anniversary. The board will also propose to establish a report card by Craig offered to host the ASCE 100 year anniversary webinar in the MBJ office. Awards Dinner Planning: (All) The board discussed the schedule, program details, menu, costs, registration table, speaker gift, photographer, scholarship presentation and ideas to boost attendance for the annual awards dinner. Dave is going to send the board a timeline of the events discussed to be included in next month s newsletter for the board to review ASCE Fly-In Report: (Craig B.) Craig sent the board a recap of the 2014 ASCE Legislative Fly-In he attended in Washington D.C. before the meeting and discussed the trip with the board. Craig also updated the board that he is a member of the 2016 ASCE 7 corresponding committee. Craig encouraged the board to look further into getting more fellows in the. Newsletter Report: (Dave F.) Newsletter items are due April 1. Next Board Meeting is scheduled for April 24th at 4:30 pm at Sneakers. Meeting was adjourned at 6:00 pm. Matt Nordine, Secretary 5

6 Legislative Fly-In Washington, DC 2014 Update from Craig Bursch I was privileged to attend the 2014 ASCE Legislative Fly-In on behalf of from March ASCE had about 200 members in attendance representing 47 states in the Union. Congress was in recess during our visit, which made for a different dynamic from years past. Congressman Nolan, Senator Franken and Senator Klobuchar were all at home speaking with constituents, so the normally hectic pace at the Capitol was slowed to a relative crawl. The positive of this development was that our delegations were granted more time to discuss issues with the key staffers in each office. ASCE s message to Congress this year had two main points. First, we urged Congress to continue the push to pass the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). The initial versions of the bill passed the House of Representatives and US Senate in 2013 by overwhelming majorities of both parties. The bill now sits in conference before it (hopefully) will move onto President Obama for signature. WRDA is of particular interest to those of us in the Twin Ports as it contains language to protect the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and help clear dredging backlog on the Great Lakes. I am happy to report that all three of our elected officials voted for the WRDA bill in 2013 and will support it going forward. Secondly, the MAP-21 two-year reauthorization of the Highway Maintenance Trust Fund (passed in 2012) is already set to expire this fall. Our message to our elected officials was to continue working on a stable and reliable source of funding to keep our Highway Maintenance Trust Fund solvent. Unfortunately, the outlook for consensus in Washington on this issue is not optimistic. There are many competing priorities and visions about the future of the gas tax, vehicle mileage tax, toll roads and other funding sources. Part of our message was that ASCE takes an all of the above approach to funding sources and is willing to listen and get behind many different options. I wish I could paint a rosy picture for you all, but only time will tell if the nation s elected officials will pull together to reauthorize the Trust Fund before it runs out of money. All in all, this is a first class event put on by ASCE National that I am proud to participate in. I thank the for allowing me to represent us in Washington! 6

7 Message from the Region 3 Director Diversity and Concrete Canoes By: John Frauenhoffer The has a Diversity Committee. As your Director, I press the Committee on Advancement of the Profession regarding measurable progress on diversity. Diversity in Civil Engineering has broad support. I know of no barriers to entrance into the profession. If I found one, you would likely read about it in this column. I want diversity progress as opposed to claiming we support diversity because we have a Diversity Committee. We have Diversity Committees in our Sections. The Wisconsin Section has a Diversity Committee, and one of their foci is students. Wonderful!!! It is my opinion that our industry s lack of racial prejudice is a greater force than what we attempt to accomplish on the National Level. Let me tell you the story of Sara: Sara is an African American female student at the University of Detroit Mercy. UDM has a small civil engineering program with approximately forty students. One of this program s strengths is that they concentrate on helping promising students find their interests in engineering and convert their talent into readiness for the profession. Sara s father and brothers have served and serve the US Military. Sara enjoyed success in science and was military bound until she found the UDM program. She now flourishes there and was a member of the UDM Concrete Canoe team competing on a Lake Erie Inlet the weekend of March 30. Sara is bright, articulate, and confident. For those of us who saw the 1960 s race riots, Sara is the epitome of a better society. Even better, if Sara accepts my suggestion as her career progresses, her opportunities to give back to UDM will give future students a quality role model. I congratulate the University of Detroit Mercy and Dr. James Lynch for sponsoring the North Central Regional Conference. The conference chair, UDM junior Julie Roberts was an outstanding organizer and manager. Anyone or any firm looking for a leader and a communicator next year need not look further than Julie or Sara. 7

8 Thanks to Our Current Sponsors! (Well make more room for more!) 8