[President Perspective] [Meet the Member] [ASCE Luncheon Fees] [Monthly Meeting]
I've been a member of ASCE for 15 years now, after joining as a student at Brigham Young University. Joining the student chapter of ASCE gave me many opportunities to be mentored by professional engineers. Through the years, my involvement in ASCE has changed, and this year has been no exception. During my term as President, I have attended more meetings, traveled more, and met more people than I could have imagined when I began.
Attending the ASCE Zone IV Leadership Conference in Hawaii ranks high in my list of events, but my favorite experience this year was helping with the Pacific Southwest Regional Conference at Cal Poly. During this event I was able to work closely with the SCE leadership, participate as a judge for the Steel Bridge Competition, and attend a fabulous closing event dinner. Although I was disappointed to see Cal Poly's championship reign end, I enjoyed the opportunity to mentor student engineers, the way I was mentored.
During this conference I was also able to rub shoulders with Norm Buehring and Carl Blum, who are both heavily involved in ASCE leadership at the national and section levels. As I spent three days getting to know these men, I realized that despite the years between us, or their station in life, we actually had a lot in common, and ASCE was the common thread that brought us together. They are my mentors now.
Bringing civil engineers together is one of the greatest benefits of ASCE. Through ASCE, my network of friends and acquaintances has grown. I have gotten to know the owners of most of the local engineering firms, as well as all of the local Public Works Directors. Just as the relationships I developed as a student member of ASCE helped shape my career, the relationships that I have developed over the past few years as an ASCE officer will continue to influence me.
I am confident that our incoming President, Valerie Beard, and the other officers, will do a tremendous job providing meetings and seminars where these local networks and mentoring relationships can flourish, and I would encourage each of you to take advantage of them. A small investment of time and energy now can pay off for the rest of your career.
by Jeff van den Eikhof, P.E.
This month's Meet the Member spotlights Thomas Korman. Thomas is an Associate Engineer with the City of Arroyo Grande, Public Works Engineering Department, where he is responsible for Capital Improvement Projects throughout the City. Thomas is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of California.
Born in Burbank, California, Thomas grew up in the San Fernando Valley. He moved to the central coast to attend Cal Poly and study Civil Engineering. After graduation, Thomas moved back to Los Angeles to work for DeLuew-Cather, a Parson Transportation Company in Pasadena. There he worked on the design for numerous MetroLink Stations. After a number of years, Thomas went to work for Los Angeles based construction contractor Tutor-Saliba Corporation, with whom he had performed a student internship during his undergraduate studies at Cal Poly. While with Tutor-Saliba, he primarily worked on the Los Angeles MetroRail Project. The most notable portions of the project that he worked on were the famous Hollywood/Vine and Universal City Stations where he designed earth retaining systems for construction purposes and prepared construction schedules and traffic control plans.
Thomas was transferred to the Bay Area for a few years to work on a number of smaller projects for Tutor-Saliba. While in the Bay Area, Thomas was briefly lured away from civil engineering by the Dot.Com boom. He worked on a software development product to automate Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Coordination as well as on 4D CAD construction planning software. Although the work entailed long hours, Thomas says the experience is one he would not trade.
After getting married, Thomas and his wife moved back to the Central Coast two years ago to join the engineering staff at the City of Arroyo Grande Public Works Department. He recently completed working on the Rancho Grande Park Project and the East Grand Ave Reconstruction Project; two challenging projects that were considered very political for the City of Arroyo Grande. He says that both projects were very rewarding in that they both provide facilities that will benefit the community and promote economic development within the City. Currently, he is working on the design for a Tennis Court addition to the Soto Sports Complex and is also overseeing construction of the Reservoir No.1 Replacement Project, which replaces an existing 0.8 MG tank with a new 2.0 MG pre-stressed concrete tank.
Thomas will be a new officer this year with ASCE, taking over for Ed Sullivan as membership chair. Thomas is no new comer to ASCE though; while working in Los Angeles he was an officer with the ASCE Younger Member Forum for two years.
After ten years of being away from San Luis Obispo County, Thomas enjoys being back in the area where he has been able to reunite with former classmates from Cal Poly. He also comments that after spending countless hours on Los Angeles and Bay Area freeways he appreciates the less congested driving conditions and better air quality. Thomas and his wife reside in Arroyo Grande. They recently had their first child who is now 4 months old.
By Kari Wagner
The subject of fees for Branch luncheons has been a topic of lively discussion at several officers meetings over the past year or two. As you may have noticed, recent luncheons have had a fairly regular, if not predictable, rotation between three restaurants in Pismo Beach. While this has most likely been an incentive for attendance by South County and Santa Maria engineers, besides becoming mundane, it may be a disincentive for North County engineers. Most local restaurants have raised their banquet fees significantly in the past few years, and it has become increasingly difficult to avoid losing money for our monthly luncheons. Raising the fees for the branch luncheons would give us a better chance of breaking even, allowing Branch resources to be put to better use than subsidizing the luncheons. The last such fee increase was in mid 2000. Various alternatives have been discussed, including higher fees for non-members (and/or non student chapter members), raising fees uniformly for members, non-members and students, and keeping the fee structure status quo, requiring Branch dues to subsidize the luncheons for those members (and non-members) who attend the meetings.
What do you think? We would appreciate member feedback on this issue. In the coming weeks, an informal poll will be e-mailed to members to solicit input.
Pavement management is not a new concept; management decisions are made as part of normal operations everyday in street departments throughout the nation. The idea behind a pavement management system is to improve the efficiency of this decision-making process, expand its scope, provide feedback, and ensure the consistency of decisions made throughout an agency's system.
Please join us at AJ Spurs on September 16, 2004 as Joe Ririe of Pavement Engineering, Inc. discusses how pavements deteriorate, how to apply maintenance/rehabilitation techniques to extend pavement life and the development of pavement management systems.
[President Perspective] [Meet the Member] [ASCE Luncheon Fees] [Monthly Meeting]