PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

February 2003

Hostile Winter. Previous newsletters have begun with some cute or polite comment regarding the weather; however, these past few months have been neither cute nor polite – we’ll leave it at that. Looking forward to some excellent dinner meetings and perhaps some summer events should melt the ice a little.

Farewell to the Arches. ABCD has a new home for our dinner meetings. After the “less than perfect” acoustical conditions at our last two dinner meetings, the Board made the decision to search for a more accommodating location. The search was concluded with the selection of the Holiday Inn – West (Wandas) on the Carlisle Pike in Mechanicsburg. Hopefully, our new spot will be better suited to our growing membership and our invited guest speakers.

Next Meeting. Our next dinner meeting will be at the Holiday Inn – West in the Terrace Ballroom on Monday, March 24. Our speaker will be Larry M. King, Deputy Secretary for Planning for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Larry has been in charge of the Office of Planning since 1991 and responsible for developing and managing PENNDOT’s $1.5 Billion annual construction program. His presentation will focus on:

· Reauthorization of the Federal Transportation Program
· PA’s 12 – Year Plan
· Bridges in PA’s Upcoming Program
Administration of federal funding and its application at the state level has a direct impact on all of us, so please plan to attend and find out what’s in store for our industry in the next few years. Bill will be on travel the week leading up to the dinner so please contact George Gorrill at Michael Baker for reservations.

George Gorrill
Association for Bridge Construction and Design
c/o Michael Baker Jr., Inc.
4431 North Front St., 2nd Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17110-1709
717-221-2022 (ph)
717-234-7611 (fax)
ggorrill@mbakercorp.com
CHAPTER NOTES:

Membership. 110 members with 14 Sustaining Memberships

Web Site. Thanks to Dave Hoglund, a small problem with our domain name has been corrected and we’re back online at the same URL address. Some of the most recently added features include:
· Logos and links to sustaining member websites
· Membership directory
· Useful links to other industry websites
· Technical ½ - day seminar survey – please check-in on the site and complete the survey

Any suggestions or input are more than welcome and can be forwarded directly to Dave (dhoglund@mbakercorp.com). The site is located at www.abcd-susquehanna.org. Dave has made a lot of progress with the site lately. Please show your appreciation by using the site and giving him your input.

Educational Outreach Committee (EOC). Tom Drda is contacting officials within the Cumberland County School District to make them aware services and availability of engineering professionals coordinated through the EOC that can assist in their educational curriculum. Upcoming presentations are being arranged for the City of Harrisburg and the Mechanicsburg Middle School.

Email Tom (thomas.drda@fhwa.dot.gov) if you can volunteer some time for activities such as judging science fairs and making presentations relative to technical aspects or career opportunities within engineering.

Election of Officers. We’re going to shake things up a little in the front office this spring with some changes in our leadership. Planned changes will include:

· J. B. Williams, Steve Bussanmas, and Mike Britt will step down from the Board of Directors.
· Bill Sinclair, our current Secretary, will shift his responsibilities over to George Gorrill (former Secretary of the Engineer’s Week Council).
· Gary Graham will relinquish Treasurer duties to Tom Macioce. Gary will remain on the Board of Directors.

As such, three vacant Board positions will be filled by election this coming May. Accordingly, the Board is now accepting nominations from the membership for these elected officers. Currently, we have two excellent candidates in Neil Shemo, P.E. (DMJM-Harris) and Tom Wandzilak, P.E. (High Steel Structures, Inc.). I urge anyone that is interested and willing to take on a greater role within our organization to please contact one of our Board members to be included on the nominating list for the upcoming elections.

Future Dinner Meetings. We are in good shape for our next two meetings. Following Larry King in March, our next meeting will be May 5th. The topic for this one will be the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project presented by Bob Healy of the Maryland SHA. The May 5th meeting will also be designated as our “Student Night” where we will invite upcoming graduates from the surrounding colleges to bring their resumes and interact with our members.

We’re stockpiling a nice backlog of other potential presentations from which to choose for September and October. Please feel free to contact anyone on the Board with suggestions or requests for presentations you would like to see in the future or perhaps give yourself.

In Closing. I would like to personally thank J. B. Williams, Bill Sinclair, Steve Bussanmas, and Mike Britt for their participation and dedication to ABCD. Your efforts have played a major role in our expanding membership and chapter development. With our new incoming officers, we will look forward to building on your accomplishments and advancing our organization even further.

…John A. Buchheit