Dear ASCE-Philly Members and Friends,

 An interest of the ASCE Philly Section Board has been to try different venues for the dinner meetings.  For the October meeting at the Loews Hotel, we were blessed with a clear night and a breathtaking view of the City in all directions.  Thank you to the Younger Member Forum (YMF) for arranging our program.  Our speakers provided an excellent presentation on local case studies for LEED projects.

At the October meeting, we recognized our board members for their efforts.  James Markham, our first Past President, could not attend.  Jim has still been working hard for the Section in his retirement, answering my many, many questions.  Jim recently chaired a meeting organized by the Engineer’s Club, with the goal to help the many technical societies in our region work more efficiently.  Specific topics included minimizing event conflicts, partnering for meetings, providing a clearinghouse for scholarship information, and sharing information for legislative issues.

In October, Kristen Bowman Kavanagh started the Section’s program to generate more activities by the Technical Groups.  The tech group chairs are meeting to brainstorm new ideas for topics, speakers, and events.  The Section will tie the added events by the Tech Groups to our website improvements, providing more services for our members.  Another possibility is linking the tech group events to the Continuing Education program that is also in development.

Our Section committed to a joint sponsorship for the Governor’s Luncheon at the upcoming ASCE National Conference.  Our partners for the sponsorship are the three other PA ASCE sections.  The conference is in Pittsburgh on November 7th.  This sponsorship is a continuation of our efforts to spread the message of the PA Infrastructure Report Card.  The last two years, we have taken our message to Harrisburg with our Legislative Day in May.  ASCE National has prepared an Action Plan as a follow-up for the nationwide ASCE Report Card on infrastructure (see www.asce.org).

And for my most important point, Election Day is fast approaching.  This newsletter is our Section’s last contact with our membership before Tuesday, November 4th.  I will ask for two things (sorry, if you thought I would ask for one!).  First, please be sure to vote.  Second, please talk to others about voting, and the issues that impact our industry.  As engineers, we are the professionals on infrastructure preservation and investment.  ASCE published a Policy Briefing in the October issue of Civil Engineering magazine.  The article discusses both presidential candidates’ positions related to infrastructure funding.  We will post the article on the Section website.  I think this election will be both historical and critical, and I ask our members to take the opportunity to participate.

I look forward to seeing everyone at our November meeting.  We are working to gain PDH accreditation for this dinner.  Go Phillies!

Mark Tiger, PE

President, Philadelphia Section