July 2015

REGION UPDATE—JULY 2015 BOARD MEETING HIGHLIGHTS Through Strategic Discussions, ASCE Board Takes On the Future F. Jay Burress, P.E., M. ASCE, your Region 7, Director, is a member of the Kansas City Section and is a senior project manager at Shafer, Kline & Warren, Inc. (SKW). Jay 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: Transitioning student members to associate member status, and attracting and retaining younger members. How associations and their local components must adapt to stand out and thrive in the new reality of 21st century technologies, lifestyles, workplaces, and ways of interacting. How the ever-growing civil engineering population outside the U.S. raises opportunities and challenges in balancing resource investment to address the needs and expectations of both domestic and international members. The threats to ASCE publications revenue from government mandates for open access to the results of federally funded research and from the competition of larger publishers, among other factors. How new learning platforms, sources of learning, and modes of assessing and documenting educational achievement will impact ASCE’s approach to educational offerings. Among 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 Jay.

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 7 update? See the June edition of  News Around Region 7       Share this page via social media and email:

IN ASCE’s CIVIL ENGINEERING ONLINE MAGAZINE Pressure mounts to keep global temperatures in check A new International Energy Agency report on energy-related carbon dioxide emissions focuses on the steps that must be taken to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. Consider the recommendations in ASCE’s web-exclusive Civil Engineering magazine.

IN ASCE’s CIVIL ENGINEERING ONLINE MAGAZINE Cities, universities lead in resilience planning Research by the consulting firm Haley & Aldrich finds that cities and universities are leading the way on bolstering resilience, but several barriers impede progress. Explore the trends in ASCE’s web-exclusive Civil Engineering magazine.

IN ASCE’s CIVIL ENGINEERING ONLINE MAGAZINE Report examines the pros and cons of vertical greenery New research examines the benefits and challenges of incorporating extensive greenery into tall buildings by focusing on the early months of Bosco Verticale in Milan, Italy. Ponder the potential for success in ASCE’s web-exclusive Civil Engineering magazine.

IOWA SECTION Iowa Section tours new children’s hospital Courtesy Iowa Section The Iowa Section recently toured the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City, notably a new children’s hospital on campus. Keep up with the Iowa Section on Facebook.

ST. LOUIS SECTION, YOUNGER MEMBERS St. Louis member wins ASCE’s 2015 Friedman Young Engineer Award Melantha D. Norton, a member of the St. Louis Section Younger Members Committee, recently was named one of five recipients of ASCE’s 2015 Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award for Professional Achievement. The award is given annually since 1972 to the nation’s best young civil engineers.

SOUTH DAKOTA SECTION Chair of South Dakota State’s CE department elected Fellow Nadim I. Wehbe, Ph.D., P.E., F.SEI, F.ASCE, chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD, has been elevated to Fellow status by ASCE’s Board of Direction. Wehbe joined SDSU in 1998, teaching courses in structural analysis and design, as well as conducting structural-engineering research. Within ASCE, Wehbe has been named a Structural Engineering Institute Fellow for his contributions to SEI. Read more about the achievements that made Wehbe deserving of Fellow status.