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VALLEY FORGE CHAPTER
PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS P.O. BOX 585 WORCESTER, PA 19490-0585
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
THE COMPASS Volume 43, Number 2 – October 2008
(Read the COMPASS on-line at www.pspe.org/valleyforge)
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By Tony Dougherty, P.E., VFC President
Happy Halloween!! I am writing this message the night after a great dinner meeting hosted by the Bucks County Chapter. Thanks to them for planning an interesting talk regarding solar power. I found the information exciting and the meal tasty. I also enjoyed meeting some other members of the organization that I haven’t seen before.
I know I have said this a lot in recent months, but I just can’t get over the milestone the Chapter is setting this year. Sixty years as a chapter is an amazing feat! I am sure that most engineers are history buffs as well, so I hope you find this as exciting as I do. We are all familiar with the famous saying, “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Hopefully, by looking back we can all learn how the Chapter began, where it has been, and how it has grown. As you will notice throughout this issue, the Compass will be geared toward looking back through the last 60 years and celebrating where we have been. The “Getting to Know You” article shows this as well as a new “Important Dates in History” piece.
I will start off this month’s compass with some basic Chapter History:
• The Valley Forge Chapter first met on April 13, 1948. • The Valley Forge Chapter was chartered on September 18, 1948. • The first President of the Chapter was George A. Greeby.
Also, we encourage all past officers of the Chapter to gather some memorabilia from the years past and bring them to Anniversary Dinner scheduled for April for us all to share in the memories.
Again, we are still in search of any ideas for dinner programs that you would be interested in or a program that you would like to present. Please drop me an email at [email protected]. This is your opportunity to share your engineering achievements with the membership.
That’s all for now. Hope to see you all at the Southeast Regional Meeting next month.
EVENTS SCHEDULE November 5, 2008 Board of Directors Meeting, Location: Robert E. Blue Consulting
Engineers; 6:00 PM November 18, 2008 Southeast Regional Meeting - Joint Meeting with the Delaware Valley Geo-
Institute. John Wanner of PSPE will discuss Continuing Education in PA,
Location: Radisson Conference Center in Valley Forge. RSVP info to follow.
December 4, 2008 Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award Project Presentations and
Dinner. Hosted by the Philadelphia Chapter of PSPE at McCall Golf and Country Club in Upper Darby. Cost and RSVP info to follow.
December 7, 2008 Valley Forge Chapter Annual Day at the Races! Location: Philadelphia
Park Race Track at the terraced dining area on the third floor. Participants should plan to get there by 12:30 PM for a lunch (which is Dutch Treat) before the 16th Annual Valley Forge PSPE Classic, which should go off at around 2 PM. There will of course be our annual handicapping contest. RSVP details to follow.
February 28, 2008 Bucks/Valley Forge Chapter MATHCOUNTS Competition (snow date of
March 7, 2008). William Tennett High School. More details to follow. April 2008 60th Anniversary Dinner Celebration. Details to follow. May 2008 Valley Forge/Chester/Bucks Chapter Golf Outing and Officer Installation.
Details to follow. Visit the VFC PSPE website (www.pspe.org/valleyforge) often for updates on upcoming events. IMPORTANT DATES IN HISTORY By Kristin Norwood, P.E., VFC Vice President Each month we will look at some important things that happened in each anniversary decade of the chapter beginning the first year of 1948. Next Month we will look at 1958.
• April 1948 - Scientists Ralph Alpher and George Gamow publish the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper about the big bang.
• June 1948 - The first monkey astronaut, Albert I, launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico.
• June 1948 - William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
• July 1948 - President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in the US amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.
• October 1948 - Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Braves to win World Series four games to two.
• November 1948 - Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey and Strom Thurmond for the US presidency.
• 1948 - Casimir effect discovered by Dutch physicist Hendrick Casimir.
• 1948 - Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.
PICTURE OF THE MONTH
Flooding in 1948 inundated Libby Montana. This photo is looking east showing the Libby train depot, tracks and parking area under water. Mineral Avenue is to the right, the Kootenai River just to the left. Picture part of an exhibit at the Libby Dam Visitor Center
Photo courtesy Heritage Museum.
A MESSAGE FROM FUTURE CITIES! Happy October from Future City Philadelphia! 35 schools are now working on their computer models. Here is the current list of schools that need mentors: Delaware Valley Friends School Paoli, PA Feltonville School of Arts and Science Philadelphia (Feltonville) GA Stetson Middle School West Chester, PA Holy Child Catholic School Philadelphia (Roxborough) JT Lambert Intermediate School East Stroudsburg, PA Lehman Intermediate School Dingmans Ferry, PA Mariana Bracetti Academy Philadelphia (Kensington) New Hope – Solebury Middle School New Hope, PA Raub Middle School Allentown, PA We need mentors! I’m sure we can all remember times in school or in our careers where having someone to nudge us in the right direction would have made a huge difference. These student teams need a mentor to provide that kind of nudge – please consider volunteering some time to help them out. Please let me know if you are interested in working with any of the schools above, I will get you in touch with the team's teacher. If you'd like to be a mentor but don't see a school in your area, send me an e-mail and I'll keep you posted as schools register. Spotlight on – GA Stetson: Stetson has been involved in the competition for a few years but has had bad luck with mentors that have either had to drop out or were unable to spend quality time with the team. Could you be the mentor that could move them from a good team to a great one?
Please visit our website at www.futurecityphilly.org and click on Volunteer Opportunities, then On-line Volunteer Sign Up. There you can register to be a mentor, judge, or general volunteer. You can also see the complete list of registered schools. Anyone that has been involved in the competition before knows how it simply cannot be run without dedicated volunteers - so sign up now and start the year off right! Any questions please contact me via e-mail or phone. Please feel free to forward this e-mail to your friends, co-workers, and technical society members. Thanks. Jennifer Philadelphia Regional Volunteer Coordinator Jennifer Wetzel Senior Project Manager University of Pennsylvania Facilities and Real Estate Services Design and Construction tel. 215-573-3935 fax 215-746-6606 [email protected]
2008-09 Chapter Officers and Board of Directors
President Anthony Dougherty, PE 2500 E. High St., Ste 650, Pottstown, PA 19464 610-326-3100 [email protected]
President-Elect Karen O’Connell, PE 425 Commerce Dr, Ft Washington, PA 19034 215-283-9444 [email protected] Vice President Kristin Norwood, PE 2500 E. High St., Ste 650, Pottstown, PA 19464 610-326-3100 [email protected]
Treasurer Mike Fischer, EIT 303 Valley Hunt Dr., Phoenixville, PA 19460 215-205-2130 [email protected]
Secretary Lindsay Musselman, EIT PO Box 4, WP20-206, West Point, PA 19401 215-652-6649 [email protected]
State Director Paul Dugan, PE 303 Valley Hunt Dr., Phoenixville, PA 19460 610-220-3820 [email protected] Past-President Paul Dugan, PE 303 Valley Hunt Dr., Phoenixville, PA 19460 610-220-3820 [email protected] Chapter Director Jim Thompson, PE 3174 Mayflower Road, Plymouth Meeting, PA 610-639-8990 [email protected]
Chapter Director Dan Humes, EIT 1149 Skippack Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422 610-277-9441 [email protected]
Chapter Director Anthony Handley, EIT 303 Valley Hunt Dr., Phoenixville, PA 19460 610-585-5889 [email protected]
Chapter Director Keith Bergman, PE [email protected] Chapter Director Kurt Leininger, PE 920 Germantown Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 610-313-3100 [email protected]
Chapter Director Chad Camburn, PE 2129 E. High Street, Pottstown, PA 19464 610-323-4040 [email protected]
SE Region PSPE Vice President Frank Stanton, PE 50 Fir Drive, Richboro PA 18954 215-497-1231 [email protected]
2008-09 VFC Committees Committee Primary Contact Secondary Contact Audit Jim Thompson, PE Kurt Leininger, PE Awards Lindsay Musselman, EIT Kristin Norwood, PE By-Laws Kurt Leininger, PE Paul Dugan, PE Engineers Week Tony Dougherty, PE Paul Dugan, PE Ethics Paul Dugan, PE Mike Fischer, EIT Legislative/Gov’t Paul Dugan, PE Anthony Handley, EIT Mathcounts Karen O’Connell, PE Dan Humes, EIT Membership Lindsay Musselman, EIT Keith Bergman, PE Nominating Paul Dugan, PE Karen O’Connell, PE Programs Tony Dougherty, PE Kristin Norwood, PE Publications Kristin Norwood, PE Anthony Handley, EIT Scholarship Lindsay Musselman, EIT Chad Camburn, PE Science Fair Tony Dougherty, PE Jim Thompson, PE VFC Website Anthony Handley, EIT Mike Fischer, EIT Practice Division Contact Professional Engineers in Private Practice (PEPP) Paul Dugan, PE Professional Engineers in Construction (PEC) Kurt Leininger, PE Professional Engineers in Government (PEG) Paul Dugan, PE Professional Engineers in Industry (PEI) Lindsay Musselman, EIT Professional Engineers in Education (PEE) Keith Bergman, PE (Note – The above committee positions were determined by those who attended the Board of Director’s Summer Planning Meeting.) “GETTING TO KNOW YOU” By Tony Dougherty, P.E., VFC President Since this year we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Chapter, we will try to interview a more “seasoned” member each month to get a different perspective on the Chapter and a little piece of history. This month, Rod Plourde who was a past president of the Chapter! Without further ado, here are the results:
Rod Plourde, Ph.D., P.E.
The Compass (TC): So, who are you? Rod Plourde TC: Where do you or did you work? McMahon Associates, Inc. TC: How long of have you worked there or been in business? 17 Years TC: What do you do there? I'm President and COO. I also am Principal-in-Charge or Project Manager on McMahon’s transportation engineering and planning projects.
TC: Any work accomplishments you would like to speak of? At McMahon, I'm pleased to have been a contributor to the growth of the company from two offices and 11 employees to 11 offices and 135 employees over the last 17 years. In my former life as a Principal of a major Boston area engineering firm, I'm pleased to have been the joint venture team manager responsible for the original environmental impact statements and traffic justification analyses for Boston's Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel (Big Dig) project. TC: Are there other notable employers in your career? Besides McMahon (17 years), my only other employer was Fay, Spofford & Thorndike, Inc. (23 years), a 95 year old Boston area civil engineering firm. TC: What is your educational background? BS, Civil Engineering, Villanova University MS, Transportation Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D., Transportation Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology TC: What licenses do you have? PE: PA, NJ, DE, MD, VA, FL, MA, RI, NH, CT, ME TC: How long have you been in PSPE? 6 Years TC: With what other technical or professional societies are you affiliated? NSPE, ASCE, ITE, ASHE, TRF, BSCES, and several honorary/scientific societies TC: Tell us about your family. I have been happily married for 39 years to my wife, Madeline and have a 30 year old (only child) son Matt, who's married to a wonderful young lady, Erin. Matt's my best friend and I was honored to be Best Man at Matt's wedding. TC: What are your hobbies? My major hobby is boating. We have several of all sizes and propulsion! I also enjoy occasional fishing and golfing (not too good at either!). I'm an avid reader, and bounce between Tom Clancy/James Patterson-type fiction thrillers and American Revolutionary and Civil War era historic commentaries. TC: What is your favorite quote? "It is what it is" (Note: My wife says I use it too often!)
TC: What is your favorite equation? A good person = Being kind to others TC: What is your favorite book? "Chesapeake" by James Michener TC: What or who inspired you to get into engineering? As a child, I was always interested in construction, especially roads and bridges. I guess I grew from playing with bull-dozers and trucks in sand boxes to planning and designing transportation facilities! TC: What year did you join the Valley Forge Chapter? 2002 TC: What is your most memorable meeting event? Date/year? It had to be PSPE's Annual Meeting in 2003, held in Erie, when I was honored as PSPE's 2003 Engineer of the Year. TC: How has the chapter changed/evolved over the years? I'm pleased to see that the chapter has become more diverse, including more participation at the Board and committee levels by young engineers and women engineers. I believe that this participation has increased the chapter's vitality, and hope it's a continuing trend for years to come. Thanks Rod for participating!!!
Plastic Bridge in Huron County May Be Path to the Future By David Patch, Toledo Blade (10/06/08)
NORTH FAIRFIELD, Ohio - Bridges don't get much smaller than one carrying Ridge Road over a Huron River tributary in Huron County's Fairfield Township. "It's only 17 feet long. Even at 20 miles an hour, it's like half a second to cross it," said Douglas Nims, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Toledo. But Mr. Nims and several of his students were there to observe when the Huron County Engineer's Office installed a replacement last month, and they will be back in the future to take readings from an array of sensors built into the structure. That's because the new Ridge Road bridge is not made of steel or concrete or even wood. It's plastic, reinforced with fiber glass. The only metal on it is the guardrails. Inside are 16 gauges to measure the strain placed on the bridge by the loads that cross it, and eight that measure deflection - the degree to which it bounces or is pushed around by traffic.
"Per square foot, it's probably the most instrumented bridge in the world," said Mr. Nims, whose ongoing bridge research includes studying the massive Veterans' Glass City Skyway on I-280 in Toledo, a structure more than 4,500 times as long as the Huron County structure - not to mention hundreds of feet higher and four lanes wider. The professor's interest in the Ridge bridge shows that small bridges matter too. Historically, small spans on rural roads tend to crumble, not under heavy traffic pounding, but rather from the effects of heat, cold, rain, and winter weather, plus the corrosive effect of salt used to combat the latter. "Salt eats the deck. What could [it] eat on a plastic bridge? What could rust?" said Joseph Kovach, the Huron County engineer, who secured a $155,000 Federal Highway Administration grant to install and study the plastic structure, hand-built at a Kansas factory and trucked to Ridge Road. Nonetheless, the effects of cyclical heating and cooling, and even sunlight exposure, on plastic need to be studied before the material can be used on a broader basis for structures like bridges, Mr. Kovach said. By testing it on a lightly used rural road, he said, any problems that arise won't disrupt much traffic. With a materials price of $73,000, the bridge cost somewhat more than a traditional concrete or steel-beam structure of the same size, Mr. Kovach said. But it is expected to last considerably longer than traditional bridges, and the modular design and light weight allowed it to be installed in just a few days, including time needed to ramp the roadway to it, he said. Speed of installation and portability, Mr. Kovach and Mr. Nims said, could make modular plastic bridges ideal for military engineers building bridges in combat zones. The panels also have tested successfully as barrier material to protect soldiers' foxholes from explosive ordnance, the professor said. And once such bridges' components are made in regular production, rather than custom-built by hand, their price should decrease, both men said. Before building the bridge panels, Kansas Structural Composites of Russell, Kan., made a small sample panel that was stressed until destruction at a University of Cincinnati laboratory, Mr. Nims said. The maximum load it could withstand proved to be 10 times stronger than expected, he said. Once the bridge was built, county officials maneuvered two dump trucks weighing a combined 240,000 pounds onto it, and the sensors inside the panels measured "very small" shifting from the load - much smaller than normal bridge-design maximums. Under normal traffic, vehicle weights won't come anywhere close to that test, Mr. Nims said. Yet for all its strength, the plastic used to build the bridge panels isn't solid. Instead, it's two slabs with a honeycomblike structure in between. The inside is only about 15 percent solid, Mr. Nims said, but that's all that is needed to give the bridge its strength. Anything more would just be additional weight that the structure would have to support, he said. Mr. Kovach said the bridge doesn't even sound like a conventional structure. "When you step on it, it sounds like hollow Styrofoam," the county engineer said. The bridge design is similar to one Kansas Structural Composites built in the 1990s near its plant and studies. Mr. Nims said he knows of one other plastic bridge in Ohio, in Hamilton County, but isn't familiar with its construction or research.
Considering the Ridge bridge's small size, the professor doubts it will attract too many visitors, though he was surprised when a man showed up during the pre-opening testing Sept. 26 hoping to be the first person to drive across it. "He was very disappointed to find out we'd been driving trucks back and forth across it all day," Mr. Nims said.
U.S. Failing to Promote Math Skills, Study Finds By Sara Rimer, New York Times (10/10/08)
The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.
The study suggests that while many girls have exceptional talent in math — the talent to become top math researchers, scientists and engineers — they are rarely identified in the United States. A major reason, according to the study, is that American culture does not highly value talent in math, and so discourages girls — and boys, for that matter — from excelling in the field. The study will be published Friday in Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
“We’re living in a culture that is telling girls you can’t do math — that’s telling everybody that only Asians and nerds do math,” said the study’s lead author, Janet E. Mertz, an oncology professor at the University of Wisconsin, whose son is a winner of what is viewed as the world’s most-demanding math competitions. “Kids in high school, where social interactions are really important, think, ‘If I’m not an Asian or a nerd, I’d better not be on the math team.’ Kids are self selecting. For social reasons they’re not even trying.”
Many studies have examined and debated gender differences and math, but most rely on the results of the SAT and other standardized tests, Dr. Mertz and many mathematicians say. But those tests were never intended to measure the dazzling creativity, insight and reasoning skills required to solve math problems at the highest levels, Dr. Mertz and others say.
Dr. Mertz asserts that the new study is the first to examine data from the most difficult math competitions for young people, including the USA and International Mathematical Olympiads for high school students, and the Putnam Mathematical Competition for college undergraduates. For winners of these competitions, the Michael Phelpses and Kobe Bryants of math, getting an 800 on the math SAT is routine. The study found that many students from the United States in these competitions are immigrants or children of immigrants from countries where education in mathematics is prized and mathematical talent is thought to be widely distributed and able to be cultivated through hard work and persistence.
The International Olympiad, which began in Romania in 1959, is considered to be the world’s toughest math competition for high school students. About 500 students from as many as 95 countries compete each year, with contestants solving six problems in nine hours. (Question 5 from the 1996 test was famously difficult, with only six students out of several hundred able to solve it fully.)
The United States has competed in the Olympiad since 1974. Its six-member teams are selected over years of high-level contests, and trained during intensive summer math camps.
One two-time Olympiad gold medalist, 22-year-old Daniel M. Kane, now a graduate student at Harvard, is the son of Dr. Mertz and her husband, Jonathan M. Kane, a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Wisconsin, and a co-author of the study. The other two co-authors are Joseph A. Gallian, a math professor at the University of Minnesota and president of the Mathematical Association of America, and Titu Andreescu, a professor of math education at the University of Texas at Dallas and a former leader of the United States Olympiad team.
All members of the United States team were boys until 1998, when 16-year-old Melanie Wood, a cheerleader, student newspaper editor and math whiz from a private school in Indianapolis, made the team. She won a silver medal, missing the gold by a single point. Since then, two female high school students, Alison Miller, from upstate New York, and Sherry Gong, whose parents emigrated to the United States from China, have made the United States team (they both won gold).
By comparison, relatively small Bulgaria has sent 21 girls to the competition since 1959 (six since 1988), according to the study, and since 1974 the highly ranked Bulgarian, East German/German and Soviet Union/Russian IMO teams have included 9, 10 and 13 girls respectively. “What most of these countries have in common,” the study says, “are rigorous national mathematics curricula along with cultures and educational systems that value, encourage and support students who excel in mathematics.”
Ms. Wood is now 27 and completing her doctorate in math at Princeton University. “There’s just a stigma in this country about math being really hard and feared, and people who do it being strange,” she said in a telephone interview. “It’s particularly hard for girls, especially at the ages when people start doing competitions. If you look at schools, there is often a social group of nerdy boys. There’s that image of what it is to be a nerdy boy in mathematics. It’s still in some way socially unacceptable for boys, but at least it’s a position and it’s clearly defined.”
Ms. Miller, who is 22 and recently graduated from Harvard, and Ms. Gong, 19 and a Harvard sophomore, both cite Ms. Wood as their role model. Ms. Wood and Ms. Miller helped coach the United States girls’ team that began competing in the Girls’ Math Olympiad in China two years ago. Thirteen girls from the United States have competed in the last two years, according to the study, and all are of Asian descent except one, Jennifer Iglesias.
The leader of those two teams, and of the United States Olympiad team is Zuming Feng, who grew up in China and teaches math at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.
Dr. Feng says that in China math is regarded as an essential skill that everyone should try to develop at some level. Parents in China, he said, view math as parents in the United States do baseball, hockey and soccer.
“Here everybody plays baseball,” Dr. Feng said. “Everybody throws a few balls, regardless of whether you’re good at it, or not. If you don’t play well, it’s O.K. Everybody gives you a few claps. But people don’t treat math that way.”
A big part of the problem, Dr. Mertz and others say, is that while the young math Olympians are wooed by elite colleges like Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as the country’s leading hedge fund firms, they are mostly invisible to the public.
“There is something about the culture in American society today which doesn’t really seem to encourage men or women in mathematics,” said Michael Sipser, the head of M.I.T.’s math department. “Sports achievement gets lots of coverage in the media. Academic achievement gets almost none.”
Ana Caraiani, 23 and a graduate student in math at Harvard, is a two-time Romanian International Olympiad gold medalist. “In Romania, math is not considered as something you need to be a nerd to do,” Ms. Caraiani said. “Math is about being smart. It’s about having intuition. It’s about being creative.”
Still, she says, it was not easy excelling in mathematics as a girl in Romania. In 2001, in fact, she was the first girl to make the country’s Olympiad team in 25 years.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 14, 2008
An article on Friday about a study asserting that the United States is failing to develop students’ math skills referred incorrectly to the high school education of Melanie Wood, a member of the United States Mathematical Olympiad team in 1998. She graduated from a private, not a public, school — Park Tudor in Indianapolis.
VALLEY FORGE CHAPTER
PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS P.O. BOX 585 WORCESTER, PA 19490-0585
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS Page 1 of 2
BOARD OF DIRECTORS' MEETING MINUTES Meeting Date
October 8, 2008 Those in Attendance: Tony Dougherty, P.E. Lindsay Musselman, E.I.T.
Kurt Leininger, P.E. Dan Humes, E.I.T. Jim Thompson, P.E. Chad Camburn, P.E. Paul Dugan, P.E. Kristin Norwood, P.E.
Meeting Called to Order 6:07 PM
Minutes from Previous Meeting
Accepted. Reports of Officers President’s report:
Nothing to report. President-Elect’s report:
Not present.
Vice President’s report: Nothing to report.
Secretary’s Report:
Nothing to report. Treasurer's report:
Not present. EIN/SSN number issue – letter from PSPE not received, must wait 45 days to submit e-card to IRS after IRS receives
PSPE letter certifying “exempt” status of chapter. $4120 checking, $30 dues received, $670 savings.
State Director’s Report:
September 26-27 PSPE Board Meeting attended. Presentation on continuing education and planning upcoming PSPE events.
SE Regional VP:
Not present. Committee Reports:
Communications Compass: Email this middle of October. Interview questions with "seasoned" member needed. Notifications: Reminder sent. Webmaster: Domain name renewal? Current provider Domain Registry of America. Unanimous vote of $95 for
5 years. Scholarship
Donation from TPD received. Scholarship applications to be sent out by end of October by email to guidance counselors.
MathCounts
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS Page 2 of 2
February 28 (March 7 snow date) at William Tenent High School. 6 schools currently registered. Need help with countdown round. Donations from TPD and Robert E. Blue received.
Membership:
Nothing to report. Programs:
September 23 – Eagleville Montco Emergency Center with happy hour at Brother Paul's. Good. October 22 – Joint meeting with Bucks County on Solar Farms. November 18 – SE Regional Meeting to be hosted by Chester County – John Wanner speaker. Joint meeting with
Delaware Valley Geo-Institute. Radisson Conference Center in Valley Forge. December 4 – Philadelphia Chapter Outstanding Engineering Achievement Awards. Invite VF chapter. April – Gala Anniversary Dinner/Golf Outing/Past-Presidents Dinner/50-50 drawing for scholarship. Location
suggestions: General Lafayette Inn, Blue Bell Country Club, Normandy Farm. Other suggestions:
o Political Speaker o Rt 202 or Turnpike Projects o Non-technical Fun Gathering o Cayuga Pipe Tour o PennDOT o Helicopters o "Millionaire Next Door" o 4-H Clubs o Lockheed Martin o Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy
o Philadelphia Water Works o Flooding in Ft. Washington o Spectrum Demolition (bus trip) o Sporting Event (bus trip) o VVF Ground Infiltration Wells o Falls Township Windmill Construction o Royersford Green Roofs Project o 2009 Switch to Digital Signals o US Electric Power Grid Update o Wastewater "Class A" Biosolids Drying and Distribution
Unfinished Business:
~10 gift mugs remaining which will last into next year. $200-250. Top 5 to be chosen by Kristin. To be voted on by board.
New Business:
PSPE State Board Nomination – Frank Stanton term still current, send nomination anyway. Engineering Awards Nominations sponsored by DelVal Engineers' Week Council. Oct/Nov deadlines. Renominate
Harve for PSPE Engineer of the Year. Engineer's Club Summit – Frank attended. Club wants to coordinate all engineer's organizations in area.
Adjournment:
7:08 PM Next meeting November 3 at Robert E. Blue at 6pm.
VALLEY FORGE CHAPTER
PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS P.O. BOX 585 WORCESTER, PA 19490-0585
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
VALLEY FORGE CHAPTER
PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS P.O. BOX 585 WORCESTER, PA 19490-0585
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
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