Please Help Us Explore How D+I Initiatives Impact Employee Engagement
Diversity + Inclusion (D+I) is used frequently 
in business today but is often not well defined.
The Geoprofessional Business Association’s (GBA’s) D+I Task Force joined forces with the Emerging Leaders Committee to survey its membership and the broader geoprofessional community to learn what D+I initiatives member firms employ, the landscape of participants, and the perceived success of these programs in employee retention.
Information from this brief survey will be used to support future GBA programs on D+I, business brief or best practices documents, podcasts, and potentially development of affinity groups. The information will also support an article GBA is preparing for GEOSTRATA magazine later this year as part of a special issue on D+I.
The brief survey is being provided to GBA Members and others in the geoprofessional community for voluntary response, Your involvement will take less than two minutes to complete and the information you provide will be extremely important to understanding D+I within the geoprofessional community!
Please take GBA’s Diversity & Inclusion Survey HERE
or its parts are mentally viewed; the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.
first Peer Group (5 executives from firms with little competitive overlap) was launched and remains engaged.
is quite different from my fellow GBA Board Members. The first indication is that I don’t share the P.E, P. Eng, or P.G. designations that the majority of my GBA friends and business colleagues share. In fact, when I will become GBA’s 51st President in April 2020, I believe I will be the only GBA President to date without any of these designations after my name. This has been the story of my life, as I have always chosen the road less traveled.
udly, Norwich University has a 200-year history and it is where Reserve Officer Training (ROTC) was founded. I wanted to study at an institution that offered mental, physical and disciplinary challenges while living as part of a Corp of Cadets but was not accepted at my first choice which was the United States Naval Academy (Annapolis). I am grateful for the education and leadership training that Norwich University provided me and being part of the University’s long history. Additionally, my Dad was a Captain in the United States Navy and former fighter Pilot who fought in WWII and the Korean Conflict; I know succeeding at Norwich University made my parents proud.
being involved in most of GZA’s administrative tasks including the negotiation and execution of all real estate related activities and major acquisitions.
parts of my life. When I am not working, I enjoy all sports and could be considered a sport junky. I have been fortunate enough to have traveled the country and attended numerous sporting events including Superbowl’s, an NBA championship, World Series, and Stanley Cup games. I am also an avid bicyclist, having pedaled over 81,505 miles (as of 4-15-2020: Did I mention I am a type A compulsive personality) in the past 30 years. My lifetime goal is to bike along more roads less traveled reaching 100,000-miles before unclipping my cycling shoes and retiring from cycling. As motivation to ride, I annually focus my training on the Pan Mass Challenge (PMC), a 192-mile bike ride from Sturbridge, Massachusetts to Provincetown, Massachusetts. This annual ride has become a tradition as I have completed the PMC 30 consecutive years, helping to raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in the country’s single largest charity fundraiser. I am proud to have raised over $215,000 for cancer research, while the PMC has raised over $717 million since its inception 40 year ago.
times. Family, loved ones, friends, employees, co-workers, neighbors,society are foremost in our minds at this time. We’re also very concerned about our livelihoods, our firms and the economy. I realize that GBA is a very minor item in a world in which such important things are brought into such sharp focus.
the latest of its widely acclaimed Crystal Ball Workshop (CBW) series in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 2 and 3, 2019 and their efforts have been published. The CBW confronted the exponential rate of technology-driven change in what has been termed the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Central to this revolution are the roles of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. EIT expects that these technologies will forever change the nature of how geoprofessionals will deliver their services.
GBA Case Histories are being used by our members for loss prevention discussions in support of professional development and mentoring. That is why GBA case histories are so valuable, and why GBA is updating them all, while adding new ones, too. Five more Case Histories have been re-issued.
after contamination was discovered. The site’s owner was willing to pay for additional services, however, so the project moved forward. But that was a serious mistake,the Member Firm learned. If only the firm had spent 30 minutes inquiring about the new client’s reputation, $84,000 worth of litigation could have been avoided.
in the anticipated engagement, so it just forgot about it.But not only had the estimate been used as a final report, it was applied to a project whose size was changed. The GBA-Member Firm learned what it should already have known: The size of a risk is often inversely proportional to the size of the project. In this case, a hoped-for $50 profit cost the firm well over $2.5 million, not including the value of the time it had to spend or the opportunity cost.
back filling of utility lines in a housing subdivision. Ten months after completion of the infrastructure, the ground surface and sidewalks settled over the sanitary lines in three areas. The principal-in-charge reviewed test data, spoke with the resident engineer on the project, and learned that his firm’s responsibility was slight. Nonetheless, he provided $6,000 worth of remedial services to fix the problem and convinced the contractor to contribute even more. By doing so, he avoided litigation and gained a “client for life.”
at the Marriott Sawgrass Golf Resort and Spa.
bikes, jumped on the trampoline, played roller hockey,basketball, tennis and baseball. I also spent as much time as possible on my grandparents’ farm hunting,fishing and working hard. My passion for being outside drew my interest toward becoming a forest ranger but my Dad, who owned a small construction company, recommended that I become a civil engineer and eventually take over the family business. Although I did not join that family business, his example planted a seed in my mind that eventually bloomed into a family business of our own.
Member-Firm Alpha Testing. Although my Dad was disappointed that I didn’t come home and run the family business, my parents were proud that I was working hard and enjoying my new career. I started in the field, then moved into the office and worked for long hours. After working for three years, I was given the opportunity to open an office for Alpha in Fort Worth. I am grateful to the Alpha folks for teaching me about the technical work and fueling my desire to grow a consulting business.
worked for us, and in 20-years we’ve gradually built an outstanding team and a firm with a reputation as a high-quality consultant. We have been blessed to work with wonderful people on challenging projects, and I consider it an honor to work in our profession.
My father planted the family business seed many years ago. My passion for soils engineering and our desire to provide high-quality consulting services provided a platform for Grace and me to build our family business. Loss prevention and GBA’s resources around that topic helped us to grow our business and continues to be integral to Blackburn Consulting’s success.
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reflecting on the past year and those who have helped to shape our Association. It’s been quite a year for us all as we celebrate our 50th anniversary!
was discovered, the assistant state’s attorney general handling the case read the report. He interpreted ASTM “references” in the standard to mean “incorporated by reference,” and so proceeded to read each of the 15 referenced standards. One of the 15 feasibly could have been interpreted to have placed a burden of performance on the geotechnical engineer which, if fulfilled, might have prevented the problem. Although the lawyer’s interpretation was unrealistic, it was realistic enough to stand up in court, the geotechnical engineer assumed, and so settled.
Construction Industry Disputes and pointed out that the plaintiff’s expert had not established the standard
“had based his opinions on his vast experience; inquiry into the methods used by others was unnecessary.” the Member Firm’s expert explained that in developing her opinion, she had followed recommendations for establishing the standard of care, as set forth in Recommended Practices for Design Professionals Engaged as Experts in the Resolution of Construction Industry Disputes. The client’s expert admitted he had not. The judge, swayed by the thoroughness and professionalism of the Member Firm’s expert, upheld the contractor’s claim.
needed to complete the work and it was performed. When the client refused to pay the engineer, the engineer refused to pay the contractor, because a written change was not obtained. The engineer learned that sometimes the clearest, most explicit language might not be binding.
not be done. The Member Firm learned the importance of dealing with OSHA via an attorney who understands the issues.
German Mom. They came to the U.S. after World War II to make a new life and found each other in the land of opportunity. Our extended family was eleven with 5 from Europe and 6 born in the U.S. As a mixed heritage family, we did not have rich traditions from Europe or the U.S. but developed our own over time.
I followed my father’s footsteps and began studying electrical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Lissajous figures were not exciting to me and frankly, made no sense. My father’s warnings about becoming a “ditch digger” echoed in my head and I changed course to civil engineering like my roommate. It was through civil engineering that I found my true calling as a geotechnical engineer.
I could not have predicted my career path when I changed courses from electrical engineering to geotechnical engineering. I never imagined that I’d have the chance to do the things I’ve done, develop relationships with all the people I’ve met, and regularly been amazed by our vast world. I’m so lucky that I have been accompanied on this journey with my wonderful wife of 35 years, Lisa, and my amazing, accomplished daughters Amy and Holly. And now I am a Grandpa!