Iowa Section of ASCE

March 2012 ASCE Iowa Section Newsletter

amccoy — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:53:39 +0000

March 2012 ASCE Iowa Section Newsletter

2012 ASCE Legislative Fly-In

amccoy — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:43:50 +0000

On March 20 and 21, ASCE Iowa Section board members Steve De Vries, P.E. and Joe Spradling, P.E. participated in the Society’s annual legislative ‘Fly-in’. Overall, 160 ASCE representatives from all over the country gathered in Washington, D.C. for the day and a half event. Each attendee was assigned to visit his/her Senators and Representative and to lobby them to be aware of and, hopefully, support key issues.
Activities commenced at 3PM on the 20th, with a legislative process and status overview. Staff from ASCE headquarters explained how the legislator offices are set up, outlined the agenda for the next day, and went over the issues that they wanted us to promote. With our time being limited and the legislators always extremely busy, National asked that fly-in attendees focus on just two major issues – on the premise that we could only be effective if we spoke with one voice and made the same points to every member of Congress. First, in light of recent Senate action passing a two year reauthorization of the Federal Transportation Program, we were asked to thank each Senator for getting a bill out and to encourage as many Representatives as possible to pass a similar measure in the House. Second, ASCE wanted us to promote funding for two research programs that focus on finding ways to reduce damage from earthquakes and windstorms. We were further advised that there is intense debate in Congress about what the national government should or should not be doing for the country and that this issue would likely impact our discussions with the legislators: some strongly favor ‘devolution’, or delegation of duties and powers down to the states, while others firmly oppose the idea. And we were encouraged to think about our ‘local stories’ – examples or situations that we could relate to help the legislators see how the ASCE key issues are important to their constituents.
After a break, we reconvened for dinner. The featured speaker was Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation. He urged us to focus on promoting passage of the Senate’s two year reauthorization. His argument was that while it’s well and good to debate different program configurations and a six year bill would be preferable to two, the nation needs to get something done – so let’s go with what the Senate managed to pass. Being engineers, the attendees tried to get Mr. LaHood to discuss things in a “what happens if things turn out this way or that way?” fashion but he maintained a laser like focus, always returning to, “We need to get the Senate bill passed through Congress”.
On Wednesday morning (March 21), we reassembled to receive instruction on the protocols of visiting a Legislator’s Office, how to best present the ASCE focus issues, how to deal with diversionary responses and then received our afternoon schedules. As part of the Fly-in, ASCE pre-schedules meetings between members from a particular state and the legislators therefrom. In our case, we were assigned to meet with Senator Grassely’s staff at 2:00 PM, Senator Harkens’ at 2:30 and Representative Boswell’s at 4:30. So, after a light lunch, everyone boarded buses and rode into central D.C. to spend the afternoon meeting, greeting, and lobbying.
There were three ASCE members from Iowa, two from the Iowa Section and a third from the Quad Cities Section. Our backgrounds were diverse: county engineering, consulting and Corp of Engineers. We reviewed our instructions and decided that we’d a) promote the two year reauthorization, b) ask for a return to a six year bill as soon as possible and c) explain how the windstorm part of the disaster mitigation research funding request could benefit Iowans. Then we set forth.
We were received in Senator Grassley’s Office meeting room by Sherry Kuntz. She listened intensely to our presentation, indicated appreciation for the ‘Thanks for passing the reauthorization bill’ thank you, and then discussed pro’s and con’s, possibilities and impossibilities with us for twenty more minutes. Sherry indicates that the Senator favors a six year Transportation bill, but only if a way can be found to fund it without raising taxes. It did not appear that they were aware of the earthquake/windstorm research programs prior to us bring them up – and she stumped us by wanting to know, “Exactly which Federal agency would be in charge if the programs got funded?” – a detail that we hadn’t garnered from our earlier briefings. And it was apparent that Mr. Grassley sees a lot of merit in the idea of devolution.
Next we met with Richard Bender, of Senator Harkin’s staff, an intense man in his mid-fifties who seemed to have near total recall of all legislation and all projects that the Senator has worked on over the years. He lead us out into the hallway and kept our dialog fairly casual. He agreed to pass our ‘Thank you’ for the two year bill on to the Senator but advised that Mr. Harkin had only reluctantly endorsed it due to there being some program cutbacks he didn’t like – so there was concern that he’d retract his support if the House imposed still more cuts. Mr. Bender was strongly opposed to a six year bill this year because the only way to achieve it would be to accede to a thirty percent cut in funding, as demanded by Congress’ ardent deficit hawks. As with our previous meeting, Harkin’s Office was not aware of the research programs, but did indicate they’d look them up. And they were fully opposed to devolution.
Last, Joe and I met with Ross Maradian, of Representative Boswell’s staff. He let us make our pitch and then dialoged with us about the challenges of getting anything done. He apparently had been directly involved in working on a previous House version of the transportation bill and spoke of working from 6:00 AM to 3:00 AM (long day) with other House staffers to negotiate the details of and mark up the bill for debate. He spoke of it as an intense, emotional and hostile experience that he’d just as soon not repeat in the near future. As before, it did not appear that this office had heard of the hazard reduction research. And, as a Democrat, Boswell is not a fan of devolution.
At the end of the day all the ASCE representatives held a reception, then returned to the hotel to compare notes, report results of their encounters. Attendees found the partisan divide to be extremely apparent and intense. We also came away realizing that odds of a two year reauthorization were very small, which was born out at the end of March when the Congress finally punted with yet another short term extension. The earthquake and windstorm damage reduction research programs probably will not get funded, at least not fully, as the mood is one of “Where can we cut back?”

9-11 Truth Communications

amccoy — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:40:57 +0000

Regarding 9-11 Truth Communications. Here is a message from Nancy Berson, ASCE Director, Geographic Services

It has come to our attention that a number of ASCE Sections and Student Chapters have received correspondence from an organization calling itself Architects & Engineers for 911 Truth. ASCE is not affiliated with this group and will not be responding to them.

Many of you may be aware that following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, ASCE formed two expert engineering teams to study the structural performance of the buildings at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Information about these studies, and other resources including podcasts with some of the authors of the reports, can be found at http://www.asce.org/ASCE-Remembers-9-11/. ASCE created this webpage for the 10-year anniversary of the attacks.

In addition, following ASCE’s study the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted an extensive study of the WTC collapse. The comprehensive NIST study, along with many of the frequently asked questions surrounding the World Trade Center collapse, can be found at http://www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/wtc/index.cfm.

ASCE has publicly shared our WTC report and we stand by the conclusions in the reports, which are supported by the facts and sound engineering analysis. If you have any questions about the reports, please do not hesitate to contact Jim Rossberg, ASCE Managing Director, Engineering Programs, at jrossberg@asce.org or 703-295-6196.

Iowa Section ASCE Joint Meeting – April 18th

amccoy — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:47:22 +0000

ASCE Joint Meeting – Information and Flyer

2012 Iowa Section Award Season

amccoy — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:06:06 +0000

The Iowa Section is seeking nominations for the Section’s 2012 Awards. The Iowa Section currently presents five Section Awards recognizing individuals for their academic or professional achievements and one Section Award recognizing a project achievement. This year’s awards will be:

Outstanding Engineering Senior (nominated by the academic advisor)

Associate Member of the Year (for members under 35 years of age by June 1)

Outstanding Government Civil Engineer

Outstanding Civil Engineer

Iowa Section Award (awarded every 3 years, last awarded in 2009)

Outstanding Civil Engineering Project Achievement Award

Please consider nominating one of your Iowa Section colleagues or one of your projects located within the Iowa Section for consideration. Section Awards are an excellent opportunity to honor the hard work and accomplishments of our Iowa Section members.

The deadline for nominations is June 15^th, 2012. For a full list of Iowa Section Awards and for information including nomination rules, deadlines and procedures, visit www.IowaASCE.org.

Regional ASCE Conference in Kansas City

amccoy — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:58:55 +0000

Members of the Iowa Section of ASCE Board of Directors recently attended a regional ASCE event down in Kansas City, Missouri. The 2012 Workshop for Section and Branch Leaders for Regions 3, 6 and 7 was held on February 10^th and 11^th at the beautiful Intercontinental Hotel & Resorts in Kansas City. Joe Spradling, Ben Cole and Gary Reed attended on behalf of the Iowa Section.

The workshop was an information packed success. The workshop started out with an overview of the ASCE organization and the three (3) guiding principles of the Society (term now widely used to define the “National ASCE organization”). The three (3) guiding principles are Infrastructure, Sustainability and Raising the Bar. Raising the Bar involves the continued discussions of raising the educational requirements for practicing engineers. There appears to be some traction in raising the educational requirements for a licensed engineer (to learn more about this, please follow the link to ASCE Policy Statement 465 – Academic Prerequisites for Licensure and Professional Practice).

There were a number of great breakout sessions including topics on Sustainability, Government Relations, Ramping up Your Community Service Agenda and PR University. PR University is a unique resource offered by the Society. The Society offers one-day workshops to help engineers address media issues like; drafting news releases, talking points for interviews, practicing in mock interviews and how to respond to different media requests.

Outreach is another very important topic that was addressed. The Society offers a wide ranging supply of various outreach information for varying ages. I would highly recommend visiting the Society web page (www.asce.org) to learn more about outreach information for grade school up to college ages.

We also had the privilege of meeting the four candidates for the ASCE president-elect. Each candidate was introduced and gave a summary of their credentials and views for the future of ASCE. The workshop audience was then given an opportunity to ask each candidate pertinent questions related to our profession and the direction of civil engineering.

The workshop was a great experience and the Iowa Section board members learned a lot during the two-day event. We hope the things we learned will further improve the Iowa Section of ASCE. Oh yea, and the Kansas City barbecue was a big success, also.

Update from Director of Membership – Joe Spradling

amccoy — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:55:27 +0000

On Saturday, February 18^th, the Iowa Section hosted two exhibitor tables at the Science Center of Iowa’s Girls in Science event. The event’s goal was to showcase education, careers and research in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) for girls and their families. The Iowa Section’s tables had two hands-on activities for the girls and their families – identifying 20 green technologies on an “ASCEville” poster and building the tallest structure possible by using 20 toothpicks and 12 gumdrops. This event was a great opportunity for the Section to reach out to the community and teach young girls and their families about civil engineering and how the profession impacts their daily lives.

The next pre-college outreach event at which the Section will be exhibiting is the Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa, Believe in Girls (B.I.G.) event. More than 2000 girls and 750 adults from across the state will come together on Saturday, March 31^st at the FFA Enrichment Center at the DMACC campus in Ankeny, Iowa. The event is geared towards introducing girls to their future in the areas of STEM. The Iowa Section is thrilled to be a part of this event so we can share what an exciting and rewarding career in engineering is and explain how we change and impact the world around us! In order to make this a successful event, we need you to get involved. WE NEED YOUR HELP. We are actively seeking 12-15 volunteers, each to serve a 3 hour shift at this event. We have 6-7 openings from 9am-12pm and 6-8 openings from 12pm-3pm. If you are able to volunteer the entire day, that is great too! For more information on the B.I.G. event and to schedule your volunteer opportunity, please contact Ben Cole at bmcole@dmgov.org or 283-4176. As this event is geared towards girls, the Iowa Section puts a special call out to female engineers to volunteer their time to help foster a connection and for the girls to hear first hand what it is like to be a female engineer. Did you know that women make up ONLY 27% of the STEM workforce?? Change a life today and volunteer your time to share your career with the future generation of Iowa. Also, don’t be fooled and think that someone else will volunteer and we don’t need you. You couldn’t be more wrong…we need YOU to volunteer.

Letter to Governor Branstad concerning the Road Use Tax Fund

amccoy — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:46:55 +0000

The Iowa Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers supports the recommendations of the 2011 Citizens Advisory Commission (CAC) in the Road Use Tax Fund (RUTF) Study to generate critical revenue for the funding of Iowa’s roadways.

Here is the letter sent to the governor: Letter

Here is the response: Response

Iowa Section ASCE to exhibit at Girls in Science event at Science Center of Iowa

amccoy — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:29:06 +0000

The Iowa Section will be an exhibitor at the Science Center of Iowa’s (SCI) “Girls in Science” event from 11:00am to 4:00pm on February 18, 2012. The event is being held to explore the many careers and opportunities for girls in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and is targeted for girls ages 7-14; however, all are welcomed to attend the event, which is free with SCI admission. Plan to attend the event to check out the Iowa Section exhibitor table and help encourage our younger generation to become excited about the civil engineering profession. The Iowa Section is seeking volunteers, especially women engineers, to help staff the table and engage the target age range by explaining why they are passionate about civil engineering and how they use STEM in their work. If interested in volunteer opportunities, please contact Joe Spradling at joseph.spradling@hdrinc.com or call 515.280.4944. For additional event information go here.

Feb 2012 Joint ASCE Membership Meeting

amccoy — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:18:29 +0000

Feb Joint ASCE Membership Meeting