CalGEO - The California Geotechnical Engineering Association

President's Message

By Dr. Rex Upp
CalGeo President 2011-2012

BEGINNING CALGEO'S FOURTH DECADE

CalGeo - THE California Geotechnical Engineering Association, is the only organization focused on the industry of the private practice of geotechnical engineering in California. Over the past few years we have made a number of changes to our association to better serve our profession and the public who use our services. As we enter our 41st year, you will continue to see positive changes. Our overriding goal is to grow our membership, by providing more of what our members and our industry needs and wants.

As President, my number one goal is to obtain more participation on our committees. Almost all that CalGeo does is thought-up, planned, and implemented by the Directors, who all serve on our various committees. We are only limited in our accomplishments by the time they have available. Below, I've briefly described the goals we will pursue this year.

CalGeo Goals

1. Membership: Increasing membership remains our number one goal. Although CalGeo is an association of firms, individual professionals also are welcome if they (we) can't convince their firm to join. We have started recruiting for one or more "Ambassadors," who can give more time and a personal touch to member recruitment and retention. We are committed to continually improve the quality of our "product," which is the best way to increase membership.
2. Participation: We must have more member participation on our committees. I have challenged each committee chair to break down his committee's goals and tasks into smaller segments and then recruit a volunteer to manage that segment. To be true professionals, geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists must give back something to their profession. I think the best way to do that is to become involved in one of CalGeo's committees. You can learn about our committees by clicking the "get involved" button under the "PROGRAMS" tab on our home page.
3. Past Presidents: Most of CalGeo's Past Presidents are alive and well. We must use these leaders better, especially if they are retired or semi-retired. I encourage them to choose an area of interest and become involved again.
4. e.Geo: Our Electronic newsletter, e.Geo, is our flagship publication. Each month we will have 6 to 10 articles, including some standards, such as a technical article, "Landslide-of-the-Month," and "Council's Corner." We will recruit different members to volunteer to take responsibility for a category of articles and make sure that article is submitted on time each month.
5. Student Chapters: We have been very successful in this area and continue to interest more schools in forming student chapters. I would like the CalGeo student chapters to consider starting an annual event that would include an overnight visit to one of the chapter schools. The event could include: oral presentations of student research papers; a visit to a geotechnical construction site; hands-on competition of geotechnical field skills; a dinner (bar-b-que & keg?); and a social meeting with other students and professionals. The results of the competition could be included in the Rising-Star Award.
6. BPELSG: We are establishing a closer liaison with the Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. We intend to have a CalGeo representative at EVERY BPELSG meeting. (Their meetings are at different locations around the state.) BPELSG will know that CalGeo is here and what our concerns are. We also will continue to work with the enforcement division: first to encourage them to develop specific statistics on what causes complaints against geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists, to be followed-up with CalGeo sponsored training focused on mitigating those causes.
7. Legislative: We have retained a new Sacramento lobbying and advocacy firm (Keene Consulting) to re-focus our legislative efforts from simply monitoring pending legislature of interest to more aggressive advocacy.
8. Meetings: Several times a year we hold regional meetings on current technical, business, and legislative topics for more seasoned professionals; and loss prevention seminars for technicians and more junior staff. We will continue the very successful practice of webcasting our regional meetings to as many as 20 sites throughout the state. Our 2012 Annual Meeting will be in Maui in April. Our 2013 meeting will be outside of Yosemite. Upcoming meetings are shown on our home page. Most meetings are open to members and non-members.
9. Outstanding Projects Award: The Awards committee has conducted a complete review and overhaul of the OPA process. New this year will be electronic submission of entries, including your reports. Also this year, we are inviting, for the first time, individual members, affiliate members and non-member firms to submit entries.

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