Conference Program Committee

Are you a dynamic and engaging speaker with valuable content to share with industry leaders that can help improve their businesses and elevate the profession? Are you an experienced professional and an outstanding leader?

If you answered yes to any of the above then, the Geoprofessional Business Association invites you to submit an abstract for consideration for GBA’s Fall Conference scheduled for October 21-23, 2021 at the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort in Henderson, Nevada.

Reuniting at this conference will bring us back to the basics of what GBA does best. We will focus on business & educational resources, specifically risk management and business performance optimization for geoprofessional firms.

Presentations by subject matter experts may include:

• Silver Linings
• Best Practices.
• Case Histories
• Emerging Issues

More Information: GBA Call for Abstracts Form Fall 2021

Emerging Leaders Class 4

Case Histories have been written and read for more than 30 years. Now, they are available as podcasts so you can download, listen, and learn from anywhere. Follow along as our narrator shares the highlights, engages with subject matter experts, and delivers the lessons learned to your headset.

Case History #108 “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” is now available as a podcast.     

Lessons Learned:

• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
• Prevent Recommendations from Becoming Requirements
• Do Not Unilaterally Deviate from the Scope of Services
• It Pays to Be Your Brother’s Keeper
• Documentation Can Be Your Best Defense
• Consider Limitation of Liability During Your Go/No-Go Analysis

Download Case History #108: HERE

Listen to Case History #108 Podcast: HERE

Welcome New Members
On behalf of the GBA Board of Directors and staff, we welcome the following members to our Association.

Alaska Testlab, LLC

Alaska Testlab celebrates over 55 years of construction  experience across the state of Alaska. Formed as a testing lab in 1962, Alaska Testlab expanded to include special inspection services during the 1980s. Alaska Testlab was purchased in 1973 by Dickenson and Oswald, the two founders of DOWL, a multidisciplinary consulting and engineering firm and since 1989, the two companies have operated as one company. In 2018, the two companies amicably separated, and Alaska Testlab was relaunched as a small, Veteran and woman-owned business.

Over the years, the mission has remained unchanged. Provide quality construction materials testing and inspection services in support of commercial construction projects working for owners, contractors, developers, and federal, state, and municipal government clients.

Learn More: Alaska Testlab | Reliable & State of The Art Services

CGC Geoservices, LLC

CGC Geoservices is an experienced geotechnical and environmental drilling and sampling firm. We are more than just a drilling company.

Our firm is led by engineers who know what other engineers need to get their jobs done right. Our managers have years of experience at what they do, have seen it all, and are ready to share that knowledge on your project.

Plus we do so much more than just drilling … check out our diverse service offerings to see how we can fill all of your field sampling and implementation needs!

Learn More: CGC Geoservices

Olsson, Inc.

We work to leave the world better than we found it.

We are Olsson, a nationally recognized, employee-owned engineering and design firm with a rich history of success.

Founded in 1956 on the very mindset that drives us today, we’re here to improve communities by making them more sustainable, better connected, and more efficient. Simply put, we work to leave the world better than we found it.

Our most important asset is our people, and we are dedicated to an environment where we continue to learn, grow, and thrive. This entrepreneurial spirit has made us successful and will keep us successful.

The result? Inspired people. Amazing designs. And projects with purpose. A win-win for all.

Learn More: Olsson

GBA Member Directory: HERE

By: Guy Marcozzi, P.E., LEED AP BD+C, F. ASCE (Duffield Associates, Inc.) 

Goodbye 2020. What a strange year. Tragic yes for so many people, and my heart goes out to all of you, but also strangely productive, particularly here in the engineering community which seems to have weathered this crisis better than expected.

Recognizing that this pandemic might last a while, I put some goals for myself in place in spring 2020 to push myself to stay active. I mean how much mulch can you spread on your yard?! Some highlights from#mycovid2020: learned Italian, ran 1,900 miles in honor of Covid19 including a virtual marathon (don’t ask for the time), bench pressed 300 lbs., took up stand-up paddle boarding, built some furniture, learned to play the ukulele, and became an ordained minister to preside over a wedding of a former protégé. I also think I ate ice cream every single day and tipped quite a few fresh squeezed margaritas. I feel pretty good about all those things.

Until this pandemic hit, I am not sure if I am proud or embarrassed to say that I have never lived more than 8-miles from where I grew up in northern Delaware. In March, I relocated all the way to lower, slower Delaware, a whopping 82 miles away, in Rehoboth Beach Delaware, soon to be the summer White House community! It’s a bit tongue in cheek, as my family loves to travel, visiting 46 states, 38 countries and 6 continents, but there is no place like our little old Delaware home, even if none of our kids still live here.

Born in post war suburbia, I believed I was a living the dream, but looking back most people would regard those roots as quite modest.  To me though, those days were idyllic.  We had tons of kids in the community and organized all our sports and activities independent of adult oversight and were able to account for diversity of age, gender, and race.  Our 1,500 s.f. house was modest, but we felt like we were blessed because we were the first ones on the block to have central air and to leave the party line phone (look that up) for a direct line.  Cell phone? Come on.  That would have been regarded as the stuff of The Jetsons.

As a first-generation college student, I attended the University of Delaware (7 miles from my original home) and earned my BE in structural engineering. We didn’t prep for the SATs or explore college options in my neighborhood and guidance counseling was pretty much – good at math, go into engineering, go to the local school – a 10-minute conversation. The University of Delaware was the feeder school for us and fortunately for me, a solid engineering school.  A good but unmotivated student, I was never into memorization and feel fortunate to be able to live in an age where you can now look everything up instantly from a cell phone. Free from memorization, continuing education fuels my drive as a later stage voracious learner.

My engineering career began as a construction/drafting technician at Duffield Associates in Wilmington (4.5 miles from my original home). Following graduation, I continued with Duffield as a structural engineer largely working on designs for foundations and earth structures, and found that geotechnical engineering was more interesting, sparking a return to school and a master’s degree. As part of a small but growing firm, Duffield offered many prospects to evolve and I enthusiastically pursued opportunities in varied structural, geotechnical, environmental, and civil projects, progressing to project management and practice management. I was ecstatic to become a partner in the firm, and from there, eventually advanced to the CEO.

Always an active participant in engineering organizations, I’ve had the pleasure of serving as President of the Delaware Engineering Society, Delaware Association of Professional Engineers and American Society of Civil Engineers – Delaware Section and met great new people and learned new things in each of them. A faithful and engaged Blue Hen resulted in opportunities to serve as an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware – College of Engineering, its ABET Accreditation Committee, Engineering College’s Advisory Council and now, as a Trustee of the University. I am grateful for this opportunity to serve on the GBA board to promote and help pass along best business practices and manage risk.

We make our own communities with our passion and efforts and I have tried to stay active in little old Delaware. Appointed by two Governors to serve on the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council, a bi-partisan commission to set the state’s spending and revenue estimates for the legislature, the Senate  to the Delaware Compensation Commission, which sets compensation for elected and  appointed officials.  I was also legislatively confirmed to the Delaware Environmental Appeal Board and serve on the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors and a number of other business group boards. As Delaware Chair of the American Heart    Association, we brought awareness to our nation’s number 1 and number 3 (stroke) killer. As current President of Delaware’s Jefferson Award Board (recently rebranded as Multiplying Good), we inspire youth to develop their full self by giving back.
 
My wife and I are super proud of our kids, all engineers.  One is now an  enterprise sales rep with Microsoft, one a literal rocket scientist with SpaceX and the last one still in university and doing great.

As of January 1, Duffield Associates combined with Hull Engineering of Dublin, Ohio and HSW of Tampa, Florida to start an exciting new chapter of my life as part of a larger and more geographically diverse geoscience organization.  Can’t wait and excited about 2021!

GBA Nominating Committee

GBA’s Nominating Committee has announced its slate of officers and directors for the May 1, 2021-April 30, 2022 fiscal year.

GBA President-Elect and Board Chair-Elect, Thomas W. “Tom” Blackburn, P.E., G.E., F.ASCE (Blackburn Consulting) will become President and Chair of the GBA Board of Directors.

Those nominated for the other two officer positions are, for President-Elect and Board Chair-Elect, Leo Titus, Jr., P.E. (ECS, Ltd.), and Christopher Matthew “Matt” Moler, P.E. (S&ME, Inc.) for Secretary-Treasurer.

Those nominated to serve as Directors-at-Large are: Martin LaRoche, P.Eng., M.Sc.(Kiewit Engineering, Inc.); Guy Marcozzi, P.E., LEED AP BD+C, F. ASCE (Duffield Associates, Inc.); Bradley M. Melocik, P.E., P.H.(DOWL); Teresa L. Peterson, P.E., C.M.E., LEED AP O&M, ENV SP (Gannett Fleming); Matthew R. “Matt” Poirier, P.E. (Sanborn, Head & Associates, Inc.); and Steve Wendland, P.E., R.G, D.GE (GeoEngineers, Inc.).

GBA’s Current Board of Directors

Mark Kramer, P.E., F. GBA, (SME)

You can say I grew up with GBA (formerly ASFE). My father attended early ASFE meetings and I was fortunate to attend many meetings growing up. I still remember skiing at Keystone while attending an early ASFE meeting in the late 70’s. I enjoyed the resorts and I really had no idea what was going on at the meetings. From these experiences, it seems natural for me to now lead  a geoprofessional firm and actively support GBA.

I was born in Detroit in 1967, shortly after my father moved to Detroit to run Soil and Materials Engineers Inc. I spent many Saturdays running around the office and lab in Detroit while my dad put in the extra effort on weekends. SME (Soil and Materials Engineers Inc.) was founded in 1964 as a joint venture between STS Consultants Ltd of Chicago and Knoerle Bender and Stone from Baltimore to pursue projects in Detroit. My father was the first general manager of the office after working for STS in Chicago. He worked with Mr. Gerry Olson at STS who later founded Terracon, was a good friend of my father and another GBA supporter. My first lesson in how small our world is. And, he worked at STS with my future boss at the other S&ME in Charlotte, NC. In the early 70’s my father bought out the other shareholders (STS) and led the company until he became ill in 2001. SME and my father were early supporters of GBA and Terra Insurance.

After high school, I went to Arizona State University and received a BSE in Civil Engineering. I worked the summer after my freshman year for SME as a field technician/intern. When I went to school, I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do but Engineering seemed to make sense. It was not until late Junior year when I took a soils class and an environmental class, and I connected with the two professors that I really decided what I wanted to do. My future wife Judy joined me at ASU to finish her degree in Computer Science. She graduated before me and was offered a position to teach and get a masters at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill which led us to North Carolina.

I worked at S&ME (at the time Westinghouse Environmental and Geotechnical Services) in Charlotte, North Carolina for three years and then worked for Woodward-Clyde Consultants (now part of AECOM) in Gaithersburg, Maryland for another three years. I rejoined SME in mid-1995 after we had three children and decided to leave Washington DC for home. As it turns out, the timing of this decision was fortunate.

I began attending GBA meetings again in the fall of 1995 shortly after joining SME and have attended almost every meeting since. I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to attend GBA early in my career. Over the last 20 years, I served on the Business Practice Committee and the Emerging Issues and Trends committee. I served a short time as the Business Practice Committee Chair before being asked to join the ASFE Board in 2008 – where I served the board for 5 years.

I rejoined the GBA Board of Directors as the Terra Insurance liaison in 2018 after joining the Terra Board in 2013. In 2016 I was honored to be recognized as a GBA Fellow by the Council of Fellows.

At SME, I worked as a project engineer and then led the geotechnical team in our Plymouth office. I also got involved with the environmental team to assist during a transition in leadership. In the late 1990’s my father asked me to be COO of the company as part of a long-term (10+ year) transition plan.                      Unfortunately, shortly after in October 2001, he was diagnosed with a form of dementia, he quickly retired,  and I took over the role of President in early 2002. Reflecting, our return to Michigan was fortunate for our  family and my connection to GBA was instrumental early in my leadership career. I have led SME since that time, helping grow our team to over 350 of the most passionate people I know, helping build and revitalize our world. We operate from 14 offices in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and  Kentucky, and help our clients in the region, across the US and internationally when needed. I now have the            title of Chairman and CEO and spend much of my time growing the future leadership of SME.

I could write a novel on the last 19 years, as I was challenged with stepping into my father’s shoes at age 34, while trying to help raise 3 young kids and taking care of my mother and my father until his death in 2008. I learned many difficult lessons trying to run the business before I was ready and during the economic depression in Michigan from 2002-2010.

GBA had a huge impact on my success, helping me and SME thru some difficult days. The network of friends and valuable knowledge I gained at the meetings was instrumental. The brief relief from the stress attending the meetings and seeing old friends also helped me through. As a leader, spending time with our peers and being able to reach out and ask questions or talk with peers from across the country about current concerns and issues at meetings or between meetings was extremely valuable to me and all the SME team who have been involved with GBA.

Over the years, I have also been able to work with many fellow GBA peers and their firms on projects across the country. GBA has been a great source when we have clients that are looking for assistance in areas that we do not operate in. We have worked with several great firms, across the country including Puerto Rico and Hawaii. I look forward to meeting you at a future GBA meeting!!

Resource Collaboration Committee

GBA just published a Best Practices document titled Avoiding Absolutes. This is an update from a Practice Alert of the same name that was published  many years ago to help our members improve technical writing and verbal communication skills in managing their risks. It is not lost on us that there is irony in using the term “Best Practices” for a document addressing the risks of using absolutes. Please view GBA “Best Practices” as a collection of wise practices that adapt and grow to keep up with the times. They can always be improved and we invite your related input. It is in this spirit that we offer this update.

Absolutes are words that connote an extreme condition; e.g., absolutely no exceptions. They are most commonly thought of as modifiers – adjectives and adverbs – but also occur as nouns, pronouns, and verbs. In common or colloquial parlance, they usually are harmless. However, when they are used by professionals within an instrument of professional service, correspondence, or other written communication (electronic or otherwise), or when they are spoken by professionals while acting in a professional capacity, absolutes are almost always inappropriate.

  Caution when using absolutes should extend beyond client relations and project work to include communications with staff. The best strategy to avoid the pitfalls of absolutes is to not use them, even in casual conversation, unless you are willing to be held to the “highest” standards of professional scrutiny.

Download GBA BEST PRACTICES – AVOIDING ABSOLUTES

Emerging Leaders Class 4

GBA has a tradition of collaborating on issues that impact the geoprofessions. One of the ways we work together is by providing lessons learned through GBA Case Histories.

GBA Case Histories provide unprecedented real-world learning examples related to project and business management. Learn where others went wrong, how they handled their problems, and how you can learn from their experiences to avoid the same problems in the future.

Case Histories have been written and read for more than 30 years. Now, they are available as podcasts so you can download, listen, and learn from anywhere. Follow along as our narrator shares the highlights, engages with subject matter experts, and delivers the lessons learned to your headset.

Case History #61 – Don’t Lie to Yourself About the Risk of Small Projects
This episode in the series explores Case History #61, which stems from an environmental site assessment conducted as part of a property transfer, and that highlights the importance of strong contract language, report limitations, diligent information gathering, professional liability insurance, adequate training, and much more. It also highlights the risk of small projects for all geoprofessionals.

A special thanks to Jennifer Sanborn, PE (Sanborn Head) for hosting this episode and to Andrew Batson, Esq. (Sanborn Head) for his legal insights. Technical support was provided by Tiffany Vorhies, NACE CIP-2 (SME), Carrie Foulk PE, GE (BSK Associates), and Ryan White PE, GE, (PBS Engineering and Environmental).

Listen and Subscribe: HERE

GBA is excited to announce its new Project Award of Excellence. With this prestigious award, GBA will recognize the most outstanding projects by its members as they demonstrate the vision of GBA to  great accomplishment. Winners of this award will have a platform to showcase their project excellence and contributions to society in front of their peers, clients and other geoprofessionals in North America.

“This is an opportunity to celebrate the great efforts of our members as they utilize GBA best practices to manage risk and optimize performance on notable projects.” said President-Elect Tom Blackburn. “We welcome all members to apply for these prestigious awards.”

Application Deadline: March 8, 2021

Winners will be recognized and in addition to the award, will receive free registration and lodging to GBA’s 2021 Fall Conference in Henderson, Nevada.
Read more about the application requirements, selection process, and winner awards: HERE

GBA provides hundreds of highly effective resources  developed to satisfy the unique needs of geoprofessionals,  giving members essential tools for achieving success.  However, we also know that it can be overwhelming to sort through them all. To help, we have compiled a list of the top 10 GBA resources by numbers ordered in 2020. This is a great place to start your exploration of GBA’s resources, or to get acquainted with a publication loved by your peers and “new to you”.

The list below is the top 10 GBA resources, in order by popularity. Topics cover a wide range of geoprofessional business issues, so there is certain to be something on this list that could help your business succeed. Select a title to learn more and order it today.

CONTRACT REFERENCE GUIDE, FOURTH EDITION
This new edition not only provides significant updates from the prior editions, but also includes important new topics, such as Climate Change, Indemnities and Hold Harmless Provisions in Favor of the Consultant, and Instruments of Professional Service.

GBA BUSINESS BRIEF FINANCIAL SURVEY: FISCAL YEAR 2019-2020 FINANCIAL-PERFORMANCE-SURVEY
The newest GBA Business Brief — available only to members and free of charge – comprises the GBA Business Practices Committee’s 2019-2020 Financial-Performance Survey report, covering key financial-performance issues surveyed firms reported. These include pre-distribution profit, discretionary-profit distribution, net multiplier, utilization rate, pre-distribution overhead, marketing costs, group insurance, collections, and fee backlog.

PRACTICE ALERT 05: TABOO WORDS
This Practice Alert focuses on six “taboo words”: certify, inspect, monitor, supervise, safety, and represent. The six are not necessarily dangerous in and of themselves. How they are used and their context are important.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THIS GEOTECHNICAL-ENGINEERING REPORT
This report transmittal cover sheet identifies limitations in geotechnical engineering reports and stresses the need for the geotechnical engineer’s involvement throughout the course of the project.

FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS FOR PROJECT MANAGERS
Effective Project Managers are key to the success of all geoprofessional businesses. GBA recognizes development of highly effective Project Managers requires training, experience, and mentorship in numerous areas. GBA has developed, with support of member-firm volunteers, a Project Manager essential skills training course to support and augment training available by member-firms.

GBA BUSINESS BRIEF: FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE – SURVEY REPORT
The GBA Business Brief — available only to members and free of charge – comprises the GBA Business Practices Committee’s 2018-2019 Financial-Performance Survey report, covering key financial-performance issues surveyed firms reported. These include pre-distribution profit, discretionary-profit distribution, net multiplier, utilization rate, pre-distribution overhead, marketing costs, group insurance, collections, and fee backlog.

GBA BEST PRACTICES: E-COMMUNICATION

This GBA Best Practices replaces Practice Alert 46 which focused on e-communications. It is revised to address recent usage and offers more suggestions to the problems. As its title suggests, covers e-mail, instant messaging texting, and the use of Facebook, Skype, Twitter, and so on. It is organized as a series of five problems, each accompanied by suggested solutions. The five problems are:

GUIDE TO THE IN-HOUSE REVIEW OF REPORTS
This 20-page guide was created to help GBA-Member Firms review their proposals and reports internally. It provides guidance to report writers, including a definition of an effective report, a list of elements that should be attached to a report, and recommendations for communicating with the reviewer once the report has been submitted. It also relates instruction to reviewers, including recommendations for conducting the initial review, revising comments, keeping a report control log, and communicating with the report writer throughout the review process.

GBA GUIDE TO THE IN-HOUSE REVIEW OF GEOPROFESSIONAL REPORTS
The publication provides step-by-step instructions – as well as overarching concepts – for report writers and reviewers. Organized into three principal content areas to help reviewers consider major issues and to give report writers a clear framework for preparing reports and considering reviewers’ comments, the guide addresses a report’s ability to satisfy the contractual obligations it was intended to fulfill; the quality of its technical and risk-management content; and the clarity of presentation.

LUNCH & LEARN: Risky Language
Words can kill, or at least create a great many difficulties, especially when they are the wrong words, like taboo words whose legal meanings may be far different from what they seem to imply. This well-crafted Lunch & Learn seminar discusses the U.S. legal system and why geoprofessionals need to avoid it as a dispute-resolution forum, then addresses a variety of taboo and other words and phrases that can result in formal dispute resolution and litigation becoming unavoidable, time-consuming, costly, and frustrating.

Review 2020’s Top 10 Resources and Top 10 Case Histories: HERE

Don Roberts’ experience as a consulting civil and environmental engineer, for over 60 years, was a great asset to the geoprofessionals. He was a past ASFE president (1985-1986) and contributed in many ways, for many years, to ASFE/GBA.

Mr. Roberts was responsible for major geotechnical investigations and environmental studies for 500 projects located in 20 countries. He was a pioneer
in developing methods to analyze the environmental impacts of projects prior to the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). He also managed programs to investigate and clean up nuclear waste sites for the US Department of Energy.

ASCE is establishing the Donald Van Norman Roberts Global Sustainability Award to honor Don Roberts for his significant contributions to the profession and his leadership in sustainability. Once established, the award will consist of a cash prize awarded annually to engineering professionals or to engineering students for papers on sustainability or climate change that are published in a peer reviewed ASCE journal.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Donald Van Norman Roberts Global Sustainability Award.

Call for Abstracts: GBA 2021 Spring Conference

If you are a dynamic, engaging speaker with valuable content to share with industry leaders, the  Geoprofessional Business Association invites you to submit an abstract for GBA’s 2020 Spring Conference. Our members gather at GBA conferences to network, share best practices, learn how to improve their business performance and elevate the industry.

Conference Theme:

Successfully Navigating Emerging Risks

Emerging risks result from events occurring suddenly and are often characterized by uncertainty in terms of probability, expected loss, and potential impact. Over time, these risks develop and evolve requiring review and proactive actions to be taken in order to manage and mitigate the impact to the business.

Abstract Submission Form: HERE

Read more HERE

This is a great honor for me to be on the Board of Directors for the Geoprofessional Business Association and share my background and why GBA is so important to me.

I was born and raised in Quebec City, Province of Quebec, Canada. The history of Quebec City extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants being the First Nations peoples of the region. The arrival of French explorers in the 16th century eventually led to the establishment of Quebec City, in present-day Quebec, Canada. The city is one of the oldest European settlements in North America, with the establishment of a permanent trading post in 1608. Today, Quebec City is a beautiful place located by the St-Lawrence River with a European architecture and lifestyle. If you want to experience Europe, French language, and great cuisine, without a long flight overseas, please consider visiting Quebec City!

As I reflect on my professional career, I think of an exciting list of opportunities to learn and grow. I studied geological engineering and received my master’s
degree in geotechnical engineering at Laval University in 1990, in my hometown. After I graduated, I worked 23 years for Dessau, which grew from 400 employees in 1990 to 5,000 in 2012. While at Dessau, I worked in five very different, positions and earned great experience without changing companies. Dessau was a great firm that gave me an opportunity to grow professionally. After starting as a young geotechnical engineer between 1990 and 1994, I was nominated to be the manager of the geotechnical department at 29 and became the youngest shareholder of the company. Over the years I took on positions a manager of the Geotechnical and Environment division , Vice-President of Environment ,  Vice President in for the Algeria division and the Ontario division. In 2012, I joined AMEC (now WOOD) to manage the Geotechnical Engineering team in Montreal and learned about the mining business while starting an infrastructure group. Three years later, I was selected to lead a 600-employee division at SNC-Lavalin that included geotechnical engineering, materials engineering and testing and environment. I recently joined Kiewit in to lead their geoprofessional growth goals in Canada.

Overall, my 30-year career has been one of opportunity and growth. Thus, I managed projects and people, instituted cultural change, led acquisitions and integrations, and participated in numerous strategic planning workshops driving operational change and enhancing business development.

I have been married since 1993 ; my wife and I  are parents of three great young adults who have many different interests, but they all have one thing in common. Each of our children want a healthier and more sustainable planet and we are proud that each is taking steps to make a difference.

            Personally, I enjoy many hobbies and activities including jogging (about 40km a week), biking, fishing, skiing, hunting, cooking, and playing hockey. In fact, I only stopped playing  competitive hockey a year ago recognizing the healing process from falls and collisions was taking longer and longer.

I am not a natural leader. Like any others, I have had to work very hard to be an effective leader by learning from my mistakes, observing other leaders. I like to ask people what they think and why. I rarely think I have the answer to all and I don’t think there is one answer to all things. I embrace diversity and differences, and I think this helped me in my life and my career.

I joined GBA four years ago to meet and exchange ideas with industry leaders about our common challenges. I appreciate how GBA members are open and transparent about sharing lessons learned, business mistakes and successes, and collaborating on ways we can all elevate the geoprofessional business. Today I can say that, because of GBA, I became a better leader and implemented new initiatives that helped me to be more successful. Being able to meet peers and talk about our common issues in a very open-minded way is priceless and this is one of the many great advantages offered by GBA.

GBA AWARDS RECIPIENTS

GBA is a volunteer organization. Almost all the resources we produce for our members, our contributions to the geoprofessional community, and these conferences are mostly driven by volunteer leaders.

Each Spring, during our conference we recognize those that have contributed to GBA in a significant way. We were not able to hold our annual awards ceremony as we pivoted to the new virtual reality last Spring and we presented the awards during the 2020 Fall Conference.

CERTIFICATES OF APPRECIATION

Each year we ask our Committees and Councils to provide us with the names of people that have contributed to our Association during the past year. Based on this list, we have more people contributing to GBA at a level higher than ever before.

Recipients of Certificates of Appreciation for 2019-2020.

All recipients received a certificate and a letter of appreciation from GBA. Thank you all for your dedication to the association. We get stuff done because you all get stuff done!

MEMBER FIRM ENGAGMENT AWARDS

For the past 4 years, GBA has been tracking the engagement of member-firms through 5 measurements that we found to be most important indicators of the value members were receiving from membership. Ultimately, engagement also indicates the value of membership to your employees which we feel is paramount to delivering our mission.
Last year, for the first time, we presented awards to those firms who have the highest measured engagement in GBA during our fiscal year. We are proud to be able to recognize winners again this year. There are four award winners, one from each category based on firm size for Fiscal Year 2019-2020.

They are:
                                                                                                    Blackburn Consulting
                                                                                             Sanborn Head & Associates
                                                                                                              SME
                                                                                               Terracon Consultants

Congratulations to all our FY 2019-2020 Engagement Award Winners

RECOGNITON FOR BOARD PARTICIPATION

In April, Saiid Behboodi, P.E., G.E. completed his term on the GBA Board of Directors. Saiid is one of the most passionate Ambassadors of GBA and we learned, he can provide details of conferences that he attended over 25 years ago. While he was on the board, he brought his passion for celebrating and even past his term, serves as the Chair of the Awards committee, bringing new ways we can celebrate and award those that contribute to this Association.
GBA recognized Saiid Behboodi for his time on our Board while also knowing he will continue contributing to the association for years to come.

PRESIDENT’S GAVEL AWARD

PRESIDENT’S AWARD 

Each year, our current President has the opportunity to select one of our members for the contributions they made to our Association during the year of his/her presidency.

Immediate Past-President, Art Hoffmann presented our 2019-2020 President’s Award to Doctor James Withiam for his years of service to the Association and for his contributions to publishing new and updated publications and his ambassadorship of GBA during the fiscal year.

Congratulation Jim on this well-deserved honor.

During the 2020 Fall Conference, President Ken Johnston (GZA GeoEnvironmental) shared his review of the first 6-months of GBA’s fiscal year with our members. In his address, President Johnston shared his personal challenges and the challenges facing our members today. He highlighted GBA’s response to the COVID crisis and emphasized the value GBA brings to our members, especially during these challenging times.

Mr. Johnston thanked all our members for their continued support and said that we will recover the challenges of 2020 and be prepared for the future. Please take a minute to review GBA’s accomplishments and the plan to move forward for the remainder of the fiscal year and beyond.

Read Letter from the President: HERE