November 3, 2007
2007 State of the Society
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It has been a tremendous year for ASCE! As you can see from these media clips, ASCE is more visible, more credible and more influential than ever.
From this position of strength, ASCE has newly defined its strategic objectives. We are focusing the Society's work and our resources on the most important issues that benefit our profession, society at large and the public. And, we are taking action to address them.
This year, again, disaster reminded us of the importance of a sound national infrastructure...the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota was another horrific wake-up call. The cause is still under study, but this tragedy jolted our nation to attention. The meaning behind our message became clear to the public. What is the message? Let me tell you!: "Years of deferred infrastructure investment and maintenance, and failure of public officials to act on infrastructure needs, place public safety at risk and hinder our country's economic growth and competitiveness!!"
We continue to spread the word about the infrastructure crisis to policy makers and the public through the media. We regularly talk to and communicate with legislators, regulators and the press to advance our policy agenda. Following the bridge collapse we renewed congressional focus on infrastructure. We reintroduced our Infrastructure Action Plan to Congress through in-person contacts, grassroots member participation and media outreach.
We saw real progress on the public policy front. The Senate passed the National Infrastructure Improvement Act to establish a national commission on infrastructure, now in House committee. Other big achievements were congressional passage of the Water Resources Development Act; and House progress on Dam Rehabilitation bills. Congress adopted a $4-billion fix on transportation funding, and we presented key congressional testimony three times following the Minnesota bridge collapse.
ASCE offers resources for lifelong learning. We engage and educate engineers in every stage of their lives and careers. During the year, we created stimulating unique programs for pre-college students, such as the FETCH and Curious George curriculums, and we fostered public awareness of our profession through such projects as the Me, Myself and Infrastructure museum exhibit, the Design Squad TV series and PR training for our members.
We are developing our second edition of the dynamic Body of Knowledge (BOK). It includes an explicit connection to our aspirational vision for civil engineering, and defines highly structured stages of education. A demonstrated attainment of this 'Body of Knowledge' will be required to earn professional engineer status, and there will be multiple paths to fulfill the requirements. We are collecting feedback from all levels of our membership and outside stakeholders, and we plan to release the new BOK during Engineers Week 2008. As leaders in 'raising the bar' for the entire engineering profession, we are working with sister engineering disciplines to encourage them to develop their own 'bodies of knowledge.' And the NCEES this year reaffirmed approval of a model law calling for higher educational requirements for licensed engineers.
Choosing to determine our profession's future, rather than have it decided for us, we published our report, The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025, which envisions civil engineers as master builders, environmental stewards, innovators and integrators. The report resulted from a summit of 60 civil engineering leaders from around the world held in July of last year. Demonstrating strong leadership will be required if civil engineers are going to fulfill this vision and maintain society's trust as the profession responsible for creating a sustainable world and enhancing quality of life.
ASCE's new partnership with Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB) affords ASCE members outlets to enrich their lives by applying their expertise to projects aimed at elevating standards of living in underdeveloped communities both in the U.S. and abroad. And, to encourage involvement, we offer ASCE members the opportunity to renew EWB membership at a significant discount.
We are working to make ASCE best and first to elevate the profession, to determine the emerging technical and professional needs in civil engineering and related disciplines, including the specialty areas served by ASCE's institutes and TAC. We have completed the first stages of upgrading the ASCE online experience for our members to make sure we are reaching our audiences. And we picture civil engineers enjoying increased recognition and compensation commensurate with their public health and safety responsibilities and value!!
To prepare our members for the global economy and make the international engineering community more accessible, we continue to expand and build partnerships with organizations around the world, including the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and groups in the UK, Canada and elsewhere. ASCE President Bill Marcuson and I traveled this year to Japan, China, Taiwan and Finland to meet with our civil engineering counterparts, to explore ways to exchange information and strengthen our profession through mutual initiatives. We are also better serving our international members through the new Region 10.
ASCE had another excellent financial year, in large part due to strong growth in our continuing education programs, our stable and growing membership base, and our successful publishing operation. We generated substantial resources needed to support our programs, activities and members. These resources allow us to invest in major initiatives to advance the future of the profession. As a thriving organization, we truly have what it takes to make our mission reality. Today is a phenomenal time to be part of ASCE at all levels, and in every capacity, as we are strategically positioned to take on the challenges of today's world, and the world of tomorrow. As our leader this year, our President, Bill Marcuson, focused our society on growing talent, on raising the bar and on the importance of ethics in our profession. As Bill frequently reminds us, we must invest in the future, or there will be no future. This year has been exciting, and representing ASCE as your executive director has been especially enjoyable with President Bill Marcuson at the helm! I look forward to welcoming and working with our new President, David Mongan.
