The West Coast Chapter held its Winter Meeting in San Diego at the Loews Coronado on February 8, 2014. The meeting was held following the International Board Meeting. We chose to hold our meeting in conjunction with International aiming to introduce more of our chapter members to International meetings and vice versa as well as to allow our members that would typically attend both meetings the convenience of having them in the same place. Based on the feedback we received, we believe we met that goal. Over 40 people attended the Chapter meeting; including many WCC Past Presidents, current ADSC International Board Members, ADSC staff, and, of course WCC members.
The WCC is very active with the various Transportation Agencies in our Chapter region. There are Substructures and Geo-Support Task Force meetings scheduled with Caltrans in March. There is a WSDOT Joint Training scheduled for April 2014. The Chapter continually communicates with the other DOT’s in the region to explore the needs of the DOT’s and the Chapter members. There will also be the DROS in Phoenix, Arizona in September of this year. Tony Kraut has volunteered to be the Training Chairperson for the WCC.
The chapter is finalizing a new PowerPoint Presentation and Table Top display that will be used for educational outreach. We hope to have our new booth on display at the Anchored Earth Retention Seminar / Micropile Design & Construction Seminar in Seattle this March. The Chapter has also decided to explore funding student activities of local ASCE chapters and other industry related organizations. In the future, the Chapter has decided that it will carry a budget item for these donations. Currently the Chapter will evaluate and determine whether any funding will be provided for each of the requests received individually as we recognize the importance of these student organizations and realize that this outreach will help to build familiarity of the ADSC to these future members of the industry.
The Chapter previously approved funding of a redesign of the Chapter website. This redesign is currently underway and we hope to have the newly redesigned website up and running by the May meeting.
A special thanks to Glenn Patterson, Tony Kraut and the Watson Suite for our informal beverage break.
Colin Perkins provided our Safety Committee report, as always, and our Safety Moment – fall protection is key to employee safety.
Our Associate Presentation was given by Vincent Jue – Secant Piling with the use of a rotator and conventional drilling equipment.
Overall the WCC is happily looking forward to our 30th Annual Meeting this May. We will be going back to Pismo Beach at the Cliffs Resort. We are hoping to have many of those who have contributed greatly to the long-term success of the Chapter in attendance including Past WCC Presidents as well as many others who have been heavily involved in the Chapter over the years. Any and all ADSC members are welcome! Come and help us celebrate. We will be having Please contact beckypatterson@adscwest.org for more information.
The West Coast Chapter would like to congratulate Al Rasband of Malcolm Drilling as the new President of the International and Ray Fassett for his re-election to the Board of Directors as well as all of the others who were elected to the Board of Directors or to new offices on the Executive Committee.