SAME Meet the Chiefs Meeting
Over 200 engineering consultants registered for the annual ACEC Washington/SAME Seattle Post “Meet the Chiefs” on June 22 in Bellevue, one of the largest industry meetings for the organizations. The meeting began with an hour of networking, with consultants connecting with military personnel and industry peers.
Chiefs from around the Northwest and Alaska presented the status of current and future projects in their district. Those presenting were:
Colonel Reinhard Koenig, District Commander, USACE Alaska District; Lt. Colonel Stephen Capps, USACE Portland District; Jerry Johnson, Shore Infrastructure Logistics Center, USCG; Dana Knudson, USACE Walla Walla District; Lt. Colonel Robert Hodgman, Washington Army National Guard; Colonel Anthony Wright, USACE, Seattle District; Commander Glenn Shepard, NAVFAC Northwest.
Much like last year, a common need for the majority of the districts is infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, not necessarily new construction. In many hydroelectric systems, upgrades are taking place, or scheduled, to improve efficiencies and capacity to the power grid.
On the military construction side, area bases are continuing with modernization and fulfilling the needs for the joint bases in the region. Other work includes formally used defense sites (FUDS), preparation for the future arrival of the tanker plane, and area Superfund sites.
If you missed the meeting, presentations are available here.
For federal opportunities, register at the following websites:
http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/
Upcoming ACEC Washington Events
The summer months provide some well-deserved sunny weather here in Washington, and ACEC Washington is capitalizing with some great outdoor events and personal development opportunities. Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening this summer and into the fall.
BBQ At Bill’s – ACECPAC fundraiser, August 13th. Enjoy a homestyle BBQ hosted and served by ACEC Washington’s own Bill Garrity. Reservations are required as attendance is limited.
“The Business of Golf” Clinic and 9-holes, presented by ACEC Washington’s Leadership Development Group and Landau Associates. On August 3rd at Willows Run, join ACEC members at a two hour golf clinic, followed by 9 holes of golf. Attendance is limited.
14th Annual ACEC Washington Golf Tournament at The Golf Club at Redmond Ridge, August 20th. A great time to network and meet peers in the industry. ACEC will offer mulligans to support the ACECPAC, along with prizes and in-game competitions.
ACEC Washington/Oregon Joint Fall Conference at Alderbrook Resort, September 9th-11th. This year’s main session will cover creating and retaining star performers. The resort is filling quickly, register today to get your spot.
Core Competencies for Principals begins its 10th year on September 2, 2010. CCP isn’t only for principals; it’s for anyone looking to capitalize on affordable business training geared specifically for the engineering industry. The class size is capped at 30, so register soon before the class fills up.
Lastly, ticket reservations for the ACEC Winter Social at Seattle Symphony are available. The reservation deadline is October 15; however, last year was a sell-out.
BBQ AT BILL’S – ACEC/PAC Fundraiser
August 13, 2010 – 6:00 p.m. | Garrity House | Directions
This summer enjoy a relaxing and fun evening outdoors to support the ACEC/PAC. ACEC Washington’s own Bill Garrity is hosting a homestyle BBQ. Attendees will be catered to by Mr. Garrity who will be your host, cook, and maître d' for the evening.
ACEC/PAC is our vehicle for political engagement. Government decisions on the issues that affect the engineering industry can have a decided impact on your business and the future success of our industry. It is critical we help to elect policy-makers who understand our concerns. It supports candidates on a bipartisan basis for election to the House and Senate who support policies favorable to the engineering industry. At the national level, our success means that we need every member of ACEC to get involved with our advocacy programs, starting with ACEC/PAC.
Please RSVP before August 1st. Seating is Limited.
REGISTRATION
$100 per person. As this is a PAC event, personal check or credit card (form available here). Corporate contributions are prohibited.
14th Annual ACEC Washington Golf Tournament
August 20, 2010 – 8:00 a.m. | The Golf Club at Redmond Ridge
7:00 a.m. Registration, 8:00 a.m. Tee Time
EVENT INFORMATION
The 14th Annual ACEC Washington Golf Scramble is arriving in August. If you are looking for an opportunity to build that relationship with a client or a colleague, or to reward your staff for a job well done, the ACEC Washington Golf Tournament is for you. ACEC offers the perfect combination of camaraderie, relaxation, recreation and laid-back golf, at a wonderful venue: The Golf Club at Redmond Ridge.
The golfing will include Longest Drive and Closest to the Pin competitions. Also available will be ACECPAC-supporting mulligans, in case your group needs that extra shot. Mulligans will be $10 apiece.
ABOUT THE VENUE
Set in the watershed of Redmond, Washington, The Golf Club at Redmond Ridge, formerly known as Trilogy Golf Club, carves its way through native forests and challenging water features, while providing incredible views of the Cascade Mountains. Recognized by Links Magazine for having the "Best Conditions in the Pacific Northwest", Redmond Ridge is among the elite "must-play" facilities in the greater Seattle area.
ACEC’s Business of Golf with Leadership Development Group
Landau Associates' Scott Woerman and the Leadership Development Group put together a unique golf outing on August 3, 2010 at Willows Run Golf Club. This outing includes 2 hours of golf clinic from Mark Bass Golf School, with 9 holes of golf afterward.
The clinic class size is limited to 28 people to ensure a proper student/instructor ratio. The clinic is $50 per person (+ golf club rental, if needed), with the 9 holes of golf compliments of Landau Associates.
RSVP by July 28th to reserve your spot in the clinic. It's a perfect time to tune up for the ACEC Washington golf tournament on August 20th.
The clinic begins at 1:00pm with the 9 holes of golf starting at 4:00pm. Register here.
2010 ACEC/SAME Meeting Presentations
Below are the presentations from the June 22 meeting with SAME's annual "Meet the Chiefs" .
Lt. Colonel Stephen Capps, Deputy Commander, USACE Portland District
Lt. Colonel Robert Hodgman, CFMO, Washington Army National Guard
Jerry Johnson, Product Line Division Chief, Shore Infrastructure Logistics Center, USCG
Dana Knudston, Chief, Programs, USACE WAlla Walla District
Colonel Reinhard Koenig, District Commander, USACE Alaska District
Alaska_District_Fort_Wainwright_Handout
Alaska_District_Fort_Richardson_Handout
Commander Glenn Shephard, Executive Officer, NAVFAC Northwest
Colonel Anthony Wright, District Commander, USACE Seattle District (Part 1)
Colonel Anthony Wright, District Commander, USACE Seattle District (Part 2)
Other notable links:
Federal Business Opportunities:
Seattle District
Army Single Face to Industry (ASFI)
ACEC Washington Spring Conference – Passing of the Gavel Dinner
Friday night at the ACEC Washington Spring Conference included the “Passing of the Gavel” ceremony, introducing the 2010-11 ACEC Washington Chair, Chris Robertson of Shannon & Wilson. Outgoing Chair Dwight Miller received an honorary gavel for his service.
2010-11 Chair Chris Robertson (l) and 2009-10 Chair Dwight Miller
The new ACEC Washington Board of Directors was sworn in by Sparling’s Jim Duncan. Carol Slaughterbeck, Herrera Environmental Consultants, and Nancy Walker, MWH Americas, stepped down from the board after champion the Membership and Client Liaison Advocacy Cabinets, respectively.
New additions to the board are Rich Reis, INCA Engineers; Pat Serie, EnviroIssues; and David Winter, Hart Crowser, who join the returning members: Bob Axley, Wood Harbinger; Kurt Gahnberg, TranspoGroup; Greg Hill, Roth Hill Engineers; Steve Johnston, Landau Associates; Mark Napier, J-U-B Engineers; and Arnie Rusten, BergerABAM. [Ed note: Apologies to Arnie Rusten, his name was misspelled on the Impact email.]
From left to right: Robertson, Steve Johnston, Rich Reis, Bob Axley
From left to right: Kurt Gahnberg, Pat Serie, Mark Napier, Arnie Rusten
The dinner included a dessert auction to raise funds for the WEPAC, which resulted in over $11,000 raised to fight for the industry in Olympia. This year’s auction also featured one of the first strategic alliances in a dessert auction, as two tables pooled their resources to outbid the other tables.
Clockwise from left: Ralph Boirum, Rick Schaefer, Scott Williams, Bob Galteland, Dan Campbell, Marlene Yeoman, Mike Yeoman
ACEC Washington Spring Conference – Session Recaps
This past May ACEC Washington hosted the annual Spring Conference, with a keynote presentation from Washington State economist Arun Raha, and the main workshop session led by Steve Isaacs and Sabine Hoover. The topic of the conference was Beyond Strategic Planning, outlining high-level strategies to capitalize on future market environments.
Economist Arun Raha, Ph.D., provided some metrics that supported the position of the recession ending. Raha explained that economists define “recovery” as the point at which the recession stops. It may be more appropriate to say our economy is recovering, however, the economy won’t be at 2008 levels until 2012. The “levels” is also misleading as it only pertains to state tax revenue, not business growth or consumer spending.
Because of Washington’s geographic location and major industries, it is somewhat insulated from major swings in the economy, like the turmoil in Europe. Asian markets bolster Washington’s economy, and the state may outpace the nation in recovering. Of course, this assumes the Asian markets don’t collapse either.
Steve Isaacs and Sabine Hoover delivered the main workshop on going beyond strategic planning, focusing on future scenarios that could occur. The session had a lot of groupwork and interaction, with teams developing strategies to address and conquer market situations.
Groupwork on scenario planning
Bill Taylor, Taylor Engineering, presenting to group (New ACEC member!)
Some of the common themes, regardless of scenario, was the importance to be politically active and engaged with public offices, keeping employees positive and productive, and developing new methods of finding financing for projects. Being innovative was also mentioned, and as the speed of change is increasing being innovative will keep firms in pace with change. To view the consolidated lists of the groupwork, download the document here: Scenario Planning Groupwork.
You can view the presentations from the conference here: http://acec-wa.org/blog/?p=287
Ways to Connect and Get Information
Impact Blog and Newsletter
Last fall ACEC Washington launched the Impact blog, home to breaking news, legislative alerts, meeting information, and member news. The blog offers marked improvement over the Impact newsletter, which contains the same content, only delivered in a monthly format.
With the blog, news is published as it happens, or recaps of event presentations are posted shortly after the event. The blog also provides tools to share the blog with others who may not have seen, or be aware, of the newsletter and its content. Another feature is the search function, which will allow members to look for older stories quickly, rather than sift through past Impact emails.
And standard with a majority of blogs, Impact also provides commenting on entries, as well as the option for an RSS feed and automated email delivery. These features deliver the current blog entries directly to you, without having to wait until the official newsletter arrives.
For more information, go here.
ACEC Washington on Twitter
Is your firm on Twitter? ACEC Washington is (@ACECWA), and has been tweeting event news and retweeting industry news. Twitter is a great way to promote our member firm’s successes in the media, retweet firm job openings, post urgent legislative action, along with opportunities to connect with peers.
If your firm tweets, follow @ACECWA and we’ll add you to the list @ACECWA/acecwamembers. ACEC member firms currently on Twitter include INCA Engineers (@incainc), Kleinfelder (@KleinfelderNW), Herrera Environmental (@HerreraEnv), EnviroIssues (@EnviroIssues), Landau Associates (@LandauAssoc), TranspoGroup (@TranspoGroup), and fellow ACEC organizations ACEC Arizona (@ACECArizona) and ACEC Virginia (@ACECVirginia).
Impact Insider
ACEC Washington recently launched a new political awareness newsletter, the Impact Insider. The Insider will be sent to ACECPAC contributors to inform them what is happening in Olympia, Washington D.C., and elsewhere where policy can adversely affect the industry.
The initial issue of Insider was distributed to ACEC Washington members, with the forthcoming issues going directly to members who significantly contribute to the ACECPAC.
ACEC/WSDOT Meeting Moved
Due to circumstances beyond ACEC’s control, the meeting with WSDOT representatives on June 8 was postponed. The event is rescheduled for Tuesday, September 28 at the Red Lion Bellevue Inn.
The WSDOT meeting covers the upcoming plans for the state’s transportation issues, from the 520 bridge replacement to the viaduct tunnel, and everything in between. Mark the date on the calendar for the new date; registration will re-open in August for the event.