Meeting Schedule
16 June 2009   Post Board Meeting

Location: Room 709
Mazzoli Federal Building
600 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Place,
Louisville, KY

Time:10:00 a.m.

 

16 June 2009   Post General Membership Meeting

Presenter: Mr. Mickey Wilhelm, Dean, Speed School of Engineering
Topic: “Cohn Center for Renewable Energy Research and Environmental Stewardship”

Location: Federal Building Cafeteria, (Lower Level)
600 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Place, Louisville, KY

Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

 

21 July 2009   Post General Membership Meeting

Presenter: Dr. Mike Evans, Evans and Associates
Topic: “Leadership Starts And Stops With The Leader”

Location: Federal Building Cafeteria, (Lower Level)
600 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Place, Louisville, KY

Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

 

18 August 2009   Post General Membership Meeting

Presenter: COL Jeffrey Ogden, U.S. Army
Topic: “MILCON Transformation at Fort Knox”

Location: Federal Building Cafeteria, (Lower Level)
600 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Place, Louisville, KY

Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

 

15 September 2009   Annual SAME Golf Scramble

Quail Chase Golf Course, Louisville, Kentucky
Additional information TBD.

     
***  Regular Post meetings are scheduled for the third Tuesday of the month unless otherwise noted.  ***

 

May 2009 General Membership Meeting
The May meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held at noon on 19 May 2009 at the Cardinal Hall of Fame Café on Crittenden Drive. Thirty-two (32) members and guests were in attendance. Past-President Clay Kelly opened the meeting by leading in prayer.

Scholarship Co-Chair Erin Hall welcomed everyone and gave a brief overview of the mission of SAME. She said this is the twelfth year the Kentuckiana Post has assisted engineering students in pursuing their dream of an engineering degree; and the Post has provided over 50 scholarships. Before recognizing the 2009 scholarship winners, Ms. Hall recognized and thanked all those from the Kentuckiana Post who have worked hard over the years to make it possible for the Post to be in a financial position to support engineering students in their pursuit of an engineering career. She also thanked Scholarship Co-Chair Adam Connelly.

Ms. Hall said that this year there were more applicants than ever before. Sixteen total applicants represented seven different schools; and four schools were represented among the five students selected to receive scholarships. She then introduced the five recipients and gave a short biography for each. Scholarship winners were:
 
bullet Sarah Bertke is a Junior at Western Kentucky University, who expects to receive her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering in May 2010 and plans to obtain a graduate degree from U of L in May of 2011.
bullet Shawn Kenney is a Junior at the University of Louisville, majoring in Civil Engineering. He expects to receive his undergraduate degree in May 2010 and his graduate degree in May 2011.
bullet Steven Shifflett is a graduate student at the University of Louisville, majoring in civil and environmental engineering. He received his undergraduate degree in May of 2008 and plans to obtain his graduate engineering degree in May of 2010.
bullet Jeremiah Gill is currently a sophomore at Purdue University. He plans to obtain a degree in Nuclear Engineering in May of 2011.
bullet Matthew Dobbertien is a junior at the University of Notre Dame, who is pursuing his degree in Civil Engineering and expects to graduate in 2010. He intends to pursue and obtain a graduate degree by May 2012. (He was unable to be present at the ceremony.)

Following the presentation of scholarships, Ms. Hall introduced the program speaker, Christie Allgeier, who is the current U of L ASCE/SAME student chapter vice president. She is a Civil Engineering graduate student with a concentration on Structures and Geotech. She talked about the activities of the student chapter and their plans for the future.

President Marilyn Lewis then offered some closing remarks. She said the next regular membership meeting, in June, will be held at the Federal Building. Mickey Wilhelm, Dean of the Speed School of Engineer, will speak on the “Cohn Center for Renewable Energy Research and Environmental Stewardship.” The July speaker will be Dr. Mike Evans of Evans and Associates who will present a program entitled, “Leadership Starts and Stops With the Leader”. She said reservations will not be required for these meetings.

President Lewis congratulated the scholarship winners. And she closed by announcing that the Post has received official notice of being awarded all four streamers with distinction for 2008.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 1300.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

April 2009 General Membership Meeting
The April meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held at noon on 21 April 2009 in the cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Ninety-Five (95) members and guests were in attendance. Marilyn Lewis, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and leading the group in a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Lewis offered a few comments. She reported that the Post has selected five engineering students to each receive $3,000 scholarships, which will be awarded at the May meeting. She encouraged attendance at this meeting to support the students.

President Lewis said the Post selected one individual out of three applicants for support to attend the Air Force Academy Engineering and Construction Camp. She said the Post is looking for individuals to apply to attend the Seabees Camp, which has a 15 May deadline for submittal of the application.

President Lewis discussed upcoming activities. She said the June membership meeting will include a presentation by Mickey Wilhelm, Dean of the Speed School of Engineering, who will speak on the “Cohn Center for Renewable Energy Research and Environmental Stewardship.” The July speaker will be Dr. Mike Evans of Evans and Associates who will present a program entitled, “Leadership Starts and Stops With the Leader”. President Lewis said the national SAME Conference will be from 12 to 15 May in Salt Lake City. And, the national MathCounts competition will be from 7 to 10 May in Orlando, Florida. She said there are four students representing the state of Kentucky who will be advancing to the national competition. She said SAME is one of the sponsoring organizations for MathCounts.

Programs Co-Chair Ray Frye then introduced the guest speaker for the luncheon meeting, Mr. Jim Host, Chairman of the Louisville Arena Authority, gave a presentation on the Louisville Downtown Arena. Mr. Host is one of fifteen people who serve on the authority on a “strictly volunteer basis.” He showed a video of a computerized fly through of what the arena will look like when it is finished. It will have the largest plaza, at 1-1/2 acres, of any arena in the United States. The lobby area will be 14,000 square feet – large enough to host banquets for up to 1,000 people. The arena will also house a Norton’s Emergency Care Center. There will be 22,000 seats, with 11,000 downstairs and 11,000 upstairs. There will be a 650 seat restaurant and sports bar facing the river open to the public during all events and rented to private groups to use at other times. There will also be lounges on each end of the arena.

Mr. Host continued his presentation by showing the various configurations that the arena could be arranged for basketball, arena football, concert setup, indoor soccer, and ice hockey. He also showed a typical suite that seats 16.

The NCAA was so impressed with the planned facility, according to Mr. Host, that they selected the arena as the site for the 2012 final NCAA volleyball championship. Additionally, he said, they have already booked two national conventions that will use the arena hospitality rooms for some of their meetings in conjunction with their events at the Convention Center. He said the arena includes a lot of space that can be used for other events to generate income. He then showed renderings of what the outside of the arena would look like, including a fountain with changing colors at night.

Mr. Host concluded his formal presentation and opened the floor to questions and answers. One individual said he was concerned about the downtown traffic and asked how this was being addressed. Mr. Host compared the situation to Rupp Arena in Lexington which seats 24,000 and is also located in a downtown area. He said because of the number of available options for parking, the Rupp Area can be cleared in 20 minutes. He said there are 15,000 parking spaces within two blocks of the proposed Louisville arena. He said the Arena Authority has a traffic committee and they are currently working with various local agencies on the best approach for handling traffic. He said the City is already knowledgeable about handling traffic in the downtown area through their experiences with Thunder Over Louisville and the Derby.

Mr. Host discussed the financing process and the complexities of getting the bond issue. He also talked about the sustainable, or “green”, aspects of the project. He said he wanted the arena project to be LEED certified but the certifying agency doesn’t certify arenas; and it would cost $4.5 million to get it certified. So they went the route of making the facility Energy Star compliant with everything they have done. He said that even the site of the arena was a Brownfields redevelopment site. He said if they were to pursue LEED certification, they would obtain at least 32 points with what they have planned, and it takes a minimum of 26 points to get certified. He said the project will be the first ever arena to be an Energy Star partner. Mr. Host concluded his remarks by discussing the selection process for the arena’s designers. He said HOK was selected as the lead architectural firm.

After Mr. Host’s presentation, Programs Committee Co-Chair Ray Frye provided Mr. Host will a small speaker gift and thanked him.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 1300.
 

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

April 2009 Board Meeting
TThe Board meeting was called to order at 1000 Tuesday 21 April 2009 in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building. President Marilyn Lewis chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster. The meeting followed the attached agenda.

Due to several new faces that have joined the Board this year, introductions were made.

President Lewis noted that the minutes of the 17 February 2009 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The sign-in roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated.

John Allison presented the Treasurer’s report. Currently there is $17,807.85 in the Post checking account, with no outstanding bills. However, the Post will have upcoming expenses for an accountant to complete the IRS 990 form and for air fare for the sponsored attendees to attend the Engineering and Construction Camp. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

Clay Kelly clarified that any committee co-chair or member of the Board can make a motion and vote at Board meetings.

President Lewis said she is still looking for a co-chair for the Education and Training Committee. She also reported that Anne Black, co-chair of the Small Business Committee, has resigned.

Scholarship Co-chair Erin Hall presented the names of five students that the Scholarship Committee was recommending for receipt of the Post’s $3,000 scholarships. She said there were a record number of applicants (fifteen). She said the committee evaluated the applications and chose the five individuals with the highest evaluation scores. She said the scholarships would each be awarded in two $1500 installments. The recommended individuals were: Sarah Bertke, Matthew Dobbertein, Jeremiah Gill, Shawn Kenney, and Steven Shifflett. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Scholarship Committees’ recommendation of the five individuals to receive $3,000 scholarships. Motion passed.

It was decided that the Scholarship Committee would be responsible for scheduling and coordinating the May regular membership meeting at the University of Louisville for the presentation of scholarships. President Lewis said she wanted to encourage attendance, because sometimes it is difficult to get a good turnout when reservations are required. Some discussion followed on what else should be on the program for the remainder of the May meeting.

President Lewis provided the Board with an update on the Post’s involvement with the Engineering and Construction Camps. She said there have been three applications for the Air Force Camp. She said she asked the Board’s elected officers and the members of the Scholarship Committee to evaluate the applications and help in the selection of an individual for the Post to support. She notified the two who were not selected that they could follow-up and apply through national SAME or could apply for the Seabees Camp. She said the Post is looking to recruit a candidate for the Seabees Camp. In the future, President Lewis said she would like to have the Scholarship Committee take the lead in evaluating applications for the camps.

President Lewis said the Post pays the registration fee and the air fare for the sponsored student. She explained that there is a concern that a student might purchase a high-price airline ticket and submit that cost for reimbursement. She asked the Board if there should be a limit on the amount of the air fare that the Post would reimburse. After some discussion, a motion was made and seconded that conditions for reimbursement of airline tickets for both camps should include the stipulation that the ticket be a ‘coach fare’ rate obtained with at least a 14-day advance purchase. Motion passed. President Lewis said she would notify the selected students of this requirement.

President Lewis told the Board that she had received a request from the Young Member Council of National SAME to support their efforts toward a Silent Auction to be held at the 2009 Joint Engineer Training Conference & Expo to raise money for the SAME Education and Mentoring Fund. The Council was requesting that each Post provide an item for the Silent Auction with at least a $100 value. Janet Skees offered to have someone in her office put together a Kentucky-themed basket, similar to what was donated at the Regional Conference last year. A motion was made and seconded that the Post could spend between $100 and $150, including shipping costs, toward providing a gift basket to support the Silent Auction. Motion passed.

President Lewis asked for volunteers to make award presentations to graduates of the ROTC Leader’s Training Course at various ceremonies to be held at Ft. Knox from July 4 through August 9.

The Board then spent some time reviewing the Post By-Laws to update them, since they were last updated in December 2004. The revisions suggested were primarily associated with updating committee names. Additionally, it was decided that the best means for announcing the slate of officers and elected directors prior to the election would be to publish those names in the Post newsletter prior to the meeting when the votes would be taken, and the by-laws should be edited to reflect this. Secretary Janet Skees will make the recommended edits and distribute updated by-laws to the Board for approval at the next Board meeting.

President Lewis asked the elected Directors to review the Streamers and determine the progress the Post has made toward meeting their criteria and report the status at the next Board meeting in June.

Committee Reports:
 
bullet Programs Co-Chair Ray Frye passed out a list of the topics and speakers for the upcoming regular membership meetings and discussed each planned program.
 
bullet Education and Training Co-Chair Barry Dixon said he is working on a half day workshop on Sustainability. He said it would possibly be held in October before or after the regular membership meeting.
 
bullet Membership Co-Chair Lisa Wilson passed out a report on the status of the Post’s membership numbers. Total Post membership is at 569.
 
bullet National Security Co-Chair Luke Leising said he is working on contacting various agencies to see how the Post can assist them with emergency operations. He is also working on putting together an updated list of Post members and the types of services they could provide in an emergency.
 
bullet Small Business Co-Chair Linda Hunt-Smith reported that Anne Black resigned from the committee. She also said that she and Rachael Haunz have met with Webmaster Troy Mays to discuss what needs to go on the Post’s Small Business web page.
 
bullet Young Members Co-Chair Aaron Steele said that he has talked with ASCE to see if the Post’s Young Members could participate in some of their young member activities. He is also trying to get student members to be involved in Post activities.
 
bullet Education and Mentoring Fund Co-Chair Tony Marconi requested via email on March 10 that the Board vote to approve the Committee’s recommendations for 2009 Grant Applications. All of the applicants had requested support in the same amounts that had been approved by the Board for previous years. The Committee’s recommendations were to provide the following grants:
bullet Leadership PE 2009 - $3,000
bullet Louisville Regional Science Fair 2009 - $1,000
bullet Kentucky State and Louisville Mathcounts 2009 - $6,500 ($5,000 State, $1,500 Louisville)
bullet Governor’s Scholars 2009 - $2,500
bullet On March 23, Mr. Marconi reported the results of the e-mail vote as 11 votes “for” and none “opposed”. Therefore, the motion to approve the grants as recommended by the Committee passed.

Old Business:

Past President Kelly discussed the Investing in our Own proposal. He said it is important to get people engaged in more than just the local Post so they can get the big picture of what the SAME organization is all about. He has developed a proposal of the things the Post could support to help people get involved on the national level. Copies of the proposal were provided to the Board. A motion was made and seconded to approve the goals of the Investing in Our Own proposal, with the President assigning responsibility for each item to the appropriate Director and Committee Chair responsible for the Streamer under which the item falls. The motion stipulated that associated costs for activities would be paid for out of the Post checking account, as a first choice, or out of the Education and Mentoring Fund, if necessary. Motion passed.

Director Rosemary Gilbertson brought up the topic of renting a post office box to use for Post activities requiring money to be collected, since money is not to be sent to the Corps’ address. President Lewis said it would be okay to wait to rent a box until the Post has an activity that requires collecting money.

New Business:

Director Gilbertson discussed the Armed Forces Ticket Operation. She said it is a service to the military to provide unsold tickets for various events to the military. She said the Post might want to serve the military through this type of activity. She asked if anyone knows someone in the arts community that could support the operation.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1130.

The next Board meeting date is scheduled for 16 June at 1000 in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes.


Janet S. Skees, PE
Post Secretary – Kentuckiana Post

 

March 2009 General Membership Meeting
The March meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held at noon on 17 March 2009 in the cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Ninety-Three (93) members and guests were in attendance. Marilyn Lewis, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and leading the group in a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Lewis offered a few comments. She reported that the Post has heard that we were successful in our streamer submissions; and she said she is looking forward to the announcement of awards. She said the Post scholarship applications were due on 16 March. Additionally, applications for this summer’s Construction Camps will soon be due, with the Air Force camp application being due to the Post on 31 March to meet the 24 April deadline for submission to National SAME. The Navy camp applications are not due to National until 15 May.

President Lewis said that the Math Counts competition was held last month in Louisville, with the winners advancing to the state competition on 28 March to be held in Lexington at the Holiday Inn North. She asked for volunteers to help at that event. President Lewis reported that the National SAME Conference will be in Salt Lake City 12-15 May. She said that anyone interested in getting involved in SAME could contact committee chairs, whose names are listed on the Post web site.

President Lewis then introduced the guest speaker for the luncheon meeting, Mr. Terry Sullivan, a structural engineer with the Louisville District, who gave a presentation on “Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina I-Wall Failures and Applications to Louisville District’s Flood Protection Projects”.

Mr. Sullivan gave an overview of the flood protection system in New Orleans, discussed the basics of I-wall design and construction, and summarized the modes of failure of I-walls. He said the damage from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina included 50 major breaches in over 300 miles of flood protection for New Orleans. Four of these breaches were caused by foundation-induced failures at the I-Walls. The Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) developed a sequence of reports. It was determined that about 45 of the 50 failures were caused by overtopping and scour.

Mr. Sullivan continued by discussing I-Wall remediation in New Orleans. He said that from September 2005 to June 2006, the Corps had to work fast to make repairs. The decision was not to use I-Walls. He said they used T-base walls with sheet pile cutoff that sometimes went 70 to 90 feet below grade to penetrate all the way through the sand.

He explained how Katrina affected the Corps’ operations. He said that Post-Katrina, the Corps had to evaluate all of the I-Walls in the country. Geotechnical and structural engineers performed visual inspections of the I-Walls. Reports were sent to local sponsors stating that I-Walls in excess of six feet in height actually provided a level of protection less than what was previously specified. For the Louisville District, there are 27,600 lineal feet of I-Wall. The Phase II evaluation required all I-Walls greater than six feet to be evaluated. They have evaluated all of the Louisville District I-Walls and are awaiting guidance for Phase III, which is expected in October 2010.

Mr. Sullivan continued by showing a map of plans for full protection all the way around New Orleans. After a period of Q/A, President Lewis thanked Mr. Sullivan for his presentation, and provided him with a speaker gift.

Programs Co-chair Ray Frye summarized the topics for the upcoming meetings. He said that the 21 April meeting will feature speaker Jim Host, Chairman of the Louisville Arena Authority, who will discuss the progress on the construction of the downtown arena. The May meeting will include presentation of scholarships and will be held at the University of Louisville. In June, Dr. Mickey Wilhelm, Dean of the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering, will give a presentation on the Cohn Center for Renewable Energy and Environmental Stewardship. In July, Dr. Mike Evans, a leadership consultant to the Louisville District, will speak on the topic of Leadership. In August, Col. Jeff Ogden, Ft. Knox’s Garrison Commander for Milcon Transformation, will discuss Ft. Knox’s progress in this area. And the Post’s Golf Scramble will be held again in this year in September.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 1300.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

February 2009 General Membership Meeting
The February meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held at noon on 17 February 2009 in the cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Seventy (70) members and guests were in attendance. Marilyn Lewis, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and leading the group in a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Lewis offered a few comments. She reminded everyone to sign in for the meeting as proof of attendance and as a backup for verifying PDH’s earned. She reported that the Corps’ Open House and SAME’s Small Business Workshop held in January were successful. She said the presentations from the Small Business Workshop are now on the Post’s web site.

President Lewis thanked Past President Clay Kelly for spearheading the effort to submit the streamer submittals to National SAME. She reminded the group that the Louisville Chapter of Math Counts will be held on Saturday 28 February at the University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering; and she asked for volunteers to help with that event.

President Lewis reported that the 2009 Post scholarship applications are now available and are due to be submitted in mid March. They are available on the Post website. She said the Post will award up to five $3,000 scholarships.

President Lewis reminded everyone that Post membership meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month, and said that next month’s meeting, on 17 March, will be a presentation by Terry Sullivan on the Corps’ levee work.

President Lewis then introduced the guest speaker for the luncheon meeting, Mr. Doug Pohl, a registered architect, who gave a presentation on “USACE Implementation of LEED”. Mr. Pohl’s presentation was based on a document created by the Corps entitled, “USACE Army LEED Implementation Guide” dated 15 January 2008. Some of the aspects of his talk included information on: the Corps’ policy, Army and Air Force requirements, Military Transformation, LEED registration and certification, reporting, the project manager’s responsibilities, engineering responsibilities, and construction administration responsibilities. He said that LEED Silver is the minimum design standard for Army projects scheduled for FY 08 and beyond.

While the Corps is required to do LEED design for any project, Mr. Pohl said that LEED Silver may not be achievable for all projects because some projects may not be able to obtain enough points, due to the nature of the project. Documentation is required for all projects; and for those that are not able to achieve LEED Silver, backup is prepared both for the points obtained and for those that were not obtainable.

Mr. Pohl said the Air Force is now on board with the LEED program. Beginning in FY 09, all new construction and major innovation will have to be designed to achieve LEED Silver.

Mr. Pohl explained that the Corps’ Centers of Standardization (COS’s) develop LEED points for individual facility types and the Geographic Districts develop the LEED points associated with the specific project site.

He explained that the government will validate the projects for LEED compliance, but the certification comes through the US Green Building Council (USGBC). Although all projects are not taken through the USGBC certification process, a number of projects are selected to be certified primarily because it makes the Corps accountable.

Mr. Pohl talked about the importance of educating the end users of a facility to make sure they operate it as it was intended in order to see “true results.” Following a period of questions and answers, he pointed out that a link to the Implementation Guide is on the Corps’ web site.

President Lewis thanked Mr. Pohl for his presentation. In addition to providing him with a traditional speaker gift, she presented a bright yellow booklet entitled “Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies.”

President Lewis reminded everyone that next month’s meeting on 17 March will include a presentation on levees; and she asked for topic ideas for future meetings. Prior to closing, she mentioned that several members have let their memberships lapse and encouraged those individuals to take care of renewing.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 1300.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

February 2009 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 1000 Tuesday 17 February 2009 in Room 216J of the Mazzoli Federal Building. President Marilyn Lewis chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster. The meeting followed the attached agenda.

Due to several new faces that have joined the Board, introductions were made.

President Lewis noted that the minutes of the 2 December 2008 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The sign-in roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated.

John Allison presented the Treasurer’s report. Currently there is $16,358.69 in the Post checking account, with one outstanding bill in the amount of $31.80 and a few checks to deposit that are receipts from the Small Business Workshop held in January. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President Lewis reported that the Corps’ Open House on 27 January had a good turnout; but there were somewhat smaller numbers in attendance than expected due to the ice storm. She asked for feedback or suggestions that could be helpful in planning for future Open Houses. She said her group in Engineering Division will be responsible for planning the Open House next year. For this year’s Open House, SAME partnered with the Corps by providing the refreshments through sponsorships from Sustaining Member firms.

President Lewis said the Post needs to consider getting a post office box so that money for SAME activities is not collected using a Corps address. Rosemary Gilbertson offered to investigate the cost of a box.

Previous Small Business Co-Chair Steve Skaggs reported on the results of the Small Business Workshop held on 28 January. There were 130 in attendance. He passed out a draft financial statement and reported that the event should earn about $7500 in net revenue. (Note: Final accounting subsequently showed a $7,660.04 net profit.) He said the return would have been greater but there were several registrants, who had not yet paid, that didn’t attend due to the ice storm. Mr. Skaggs said the receipts included $3350 in sponsorships to cover the cost of the breakfast and break. The proceeds of this event have traditionally been used to support the troops.

Past President Clay Kelly provided the Board with an update on the streamer submittals. He described the process for the benefit of the new Board members. The submittal that was made in January covered the Post’s activities for the previous year. If a Post is awarded all of the streamers with distinction, then it becomes a Distinguished Post. Mr. Kelly encouraged the Board members to become familiar with the streamer guidelines. He said he will forward a copy of our submittal to the Board once he gets an updated roster. He thanked the Directors for pulling together all the information that went into the submittal.

Kristen Crumpton reported on the Post Leader and Student Workshop that she and Marilyn Lewis attended in February. Ms. Crumpton had prepared a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the information they learned from the sessions they attended. Because the meeting room was not equipped to view the presentation, she passed out a printout of the slides and said she would email the presentation to the Board. The information garnered from the workshop focused on tips for improving a Post’s operation.

President Lewis recognized Rosemary Gilbertson and John Allison for their receipt of SAME Outstanding Service Awards that were presented at the Engineers Week Banquet on 13 February.

President Lewis deferred the review of the Post’s By-laws until the next Board meeting, due to the meeting running short on time. She asked everyone to review the By-laws for any needed updates, since they are supposed to be a “living document”.

Committee Reports:
 
bullet Programs Co-Chair Ray Frye reported that the March regular membership meeting will feature Corps employee Terry Sullivan discussing the Corps’ work with levees. In July, a Corps consultant will speak about leadership. He encouraged the Board to submit ideas for future meeting programs.
 
bullet Education and Training Co-Chair Barry Dixon discussed an email received from National SAME suggesting that training opportunities be held in conjunction with lunch or dinner meetings. One Post was successful offering two-hour seminars, where they could go into more depth than what can be presented by a lunch-hour speaker and two PDH’s could be awarded.
 
bullet Director Rosemary Gilbertson has been working with Mr. Dixon on evaluating a workshop on Sustainability and the DOD’s Guidelines. She discussed that the Corps’ Environmental Conference was no longer being held annually. However, Cathy Knudsen, with Planteco Environmental Consultants, who had worked on that conference, has been looking at developing the sustainability workshop. Ms. Gilbertson said the Board needs to decide if the Post should offer a whole day or a part-day workshop. Some discussion followed on potential options. Mr. Dixon and Ms. Gilbertson will have a conference call, this afternoon, with Ms. Knudsen to discuss possibilities.
 
bullet Tony Marconi, Chairman of the Education and Mentoring Fund Management Committee, reported that as of 31 December 2008, the fund balance was $426,771.55. He said they are due to have a committee meeting to discuss upcoming grants and investment choices. He has received several grant requests that closely match what has been supported in past years.
 
bullet Past Membership Chair Kristen Crumpton reported that the Post roster has seen a heavy drop in individual numbers primarily due to members letting their memberships lapse with the new calendar year. She said there has been a loss of 42 individual members (from 158 to 116) since the last report on December 1. She printed a list of individuals with lapsed memberships and asked if some of the Board members would help her to follow up with those people. The Post, however, did gain four Sustaining Member firms that renewed their memberships after letting them lapse.
 
bullet Past President Kelly reported for the Scholarship Committee. He passed out the final version of the scholarship application. He said that typically they are due the first Monday in March, but the committee decided to push out the deadline a couple of weeks to 16 March. The application will be posted to the Post’s web site and will be included in the next newsletter. Information will also be sent to schools. The number of applicants has dropped in recent years. Mr. Kelly encouraged Board members to let others know of this opportunity. Additionally, he said that anyone interested in serving as a grader for the applications should respond to an email that Erin Hall, Scholarship Committee Co-Chair, will send requesting assistance.
 
bullet Small Business Co-Chair Linda Hunt-Smith told the group that presentations from the Small Business Workshop will be on the Post’s web site.
 
bullet Webmaster Troy Mays said the Post’s website was down for a period of time but is back up with a new ISP (Internet Service Provider). Currently, the Post’s website is tied to the National SAME website. He said he is investigating changing the Post’s ISP to allow more flexibility with regard to how the web site can be used. Currently, the site can only be used to post information, but he would like to be able to add capabilities, such as permitting on-line registrations for events. Mr. Mays also reported that the Small Business web page is now on-line.

Old Business:

bullet Past President Kelly discussed the Investing in our Own proposal. He said National SAME has presented several ideas for the Posts to consider. He asked the Board to review the proposal and prepare for discussion at the next Board meeting. One of the items in the proposal is related to sending a young member to the National Conference. Director Steve Bickel discussed that if we wait until next Board meeting, it will be too late to plan for this. A motion was made and seconded that the Post will send one young member to the National Conference, with a preference to send either a Board member or a young member who has been involved in Post activities. Motion passed.

Future Board meetings will be in Room 709 of the Federal Building, unless the Board is notified otherwise.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1130.

The next Board meeting date is scheduled for 21 April at 1000 in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

January 2009 General Membership Meeting
The January meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 28 January 2009 at the Holiday Inn Airport South on Fern Valley Road in conjunction with the luncheon during the Post’s Third Annual Small Business Workshop. There were One Hundred Thirty (130) people in attendance at the event and Twenty-Three (23) exhibitors. Attendance was down from the numbers registered, but seemed to be remarkable in light of the ice storm and electric outages that plagued the state that week.

Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and leading in a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. President Kelly offered a few comments. He encouraged people to be pro-active about getting involved in the Post, and not to wait until someone asks them. He mentioned that the proceeds of the Small Business Workshop are being used to support the troops, one of SAME’s missions. He said the Post gives away about $30,000 annually toward SAME’s primary mission - to support national defense.

President Kelly thanked those who had “mentored him along the way” during his year as President of the Post, and then introduced Mercedes Enrique to install the Post’s new officers for the coming year. Ms. Enrique serves on the National Board as Chair of the SAME Small Business Council. She read SAME’s mission and reviewed the five goals of the organization. Ms. Enrique then introduced the Post officers and proceeded with the installation of the following individuals:
 
Frank Terak, 1st Vice President Rosemary Gilbertson, Director
Steve Skaggs, 2nd Vice President Steve Bickel, Director
Janet Skees, Secretary Gerard Edelen, Director
John Allison, Treasurer Mickey Jones, Director

Clay Kelly then transferred the post By-Laws and Mission Statement to incoming President Marilyn Lewis, and Ms. Enrique installed Ms. Lewis as the Post’s new President.

Newly-elected President Lewis then recognized Clay Kelly’s leadership throughout the past year and presented him with a plaque in appreciation of his service. She told the group that during the coming year, she is committed to encourage Corps employees to be more involved in SAME.

President Lewis then introduced the guest speaker for the luncheon, Mr. Anthony Bell, Chief of Small Business Programs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Bell acknowledged that this was his second year in a row speaking to the Post’s Small Business Workshop attendees. He said he was happy to be able to support the Louisville District and Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Coordinator Linda Hunt-Smith, who he said “is on the A Team.” Mr. Bell thanked Louisville District Commander Col. Keith Landry for reaching out to the small business community. He also thanked Ms. Enrique for her work with the national Small Business Conference this year in Memphis, which had a record 1200 in attendance.

Mr. Bell shared that he plans to work with Ms. Hunt-Smith to see where projects can be broken out into smaller projects to allow more small business participation. But he said he recognizes that this is not always possible. He discussed the importance of teaming and said that it takes a team effort to be successful – both industry with the Corps and small businesses with large businesses – what he called “a three-pronged approach.” Mr. Bell discussed a GAO (Government Accountability Office) recommendation regarding language in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) about parity as it relates to contract set-asides. As a result, he explained, contracting officers may be reluctant to offer Service-Disabled Veteran (SDV) set-asides. However, Mr. Bell said he would not instruct contracting officers to not offer SDV set-asides, because, he said, there is still a 3% contracting goal for this category.

Regarding the proposed economic stimulus program, Mr. Bell said that while it is not known what the final bill will look like, he could share some items from the various versions that have been offered. He mentioned how small business has always played a strong role in bringing the country out of a recession. He said the stimulus package is going to be so robust that he believes there will be something in it for everybody. Mr. Bell discussed the various types of projects that will come under the stimulus program and the types of projects that could come through the Corps of Engineers. He said the Corps is taking a pro-active approach to work with contracting to be able to handle the anticipated volume of stimulus projects and to reach out to small businesses. Mr. Bell then took several questions from the audience. At the conclusion, Clay Kelly presented Mr. Bell with a token of appreciation.

The meeting continued with the presentation of awards to three small businesses. Mr. Kelly, Ms. Hunt-Smith, Mr. Bell, President Lewis and Col. Landry jointly presented the awards in three categories. The recipients were as follows:

bullet For Construction Services – TJC Engineering
bullet For Engineering Services – Government Services IPT
bullet For Environmental Services – Terrain/Ensafe

Mr. Kelly recognized the nine sponsors for the workshop. He mentioned that the proceeds of this year’s workshop went to provide VISA cards to support the troops at Christmas, to help with their additional expenses at that time including travel to come home. He thanked Brittany Ford of the Corps of Engineers and Lindsay Phegley of QEPI for their organizational efforts toward the workshop. He also thanked the Post’s Small Business Committee members Linda Hunt-Smith, Steve Skaggs and Anne Black.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 1400.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

December 2008 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 1015 Tuesday 2 December 2008 in Room 951 of the Mazzoli Federal Building. President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster. The meeting followed the attached agenda.

President Kelly noted that the minutes of the 21 October 2008 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The sign-in roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated.

John Allison presented the Treasurer’s report. Currently there is $15,185.43 in the Post checking account, with no outstanding bills. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President Kelly spent some time discussing ideas for “investing in our own”, which has been a theme for this year. Specifically, he would like to encourage members to attend SAME events outside the Kentuckiana Post and to sponsor Post leaders to attend these events. He said he would like the Post to sponsor both public sector and private sector employees, although it was recognized that private sector employers often are willing to cover their employees’ expenses to attend SAME events. Some ideas would include sponsoring the Post President to attend the National SAME Conference, sponsoring a young member to attend the National Conference or a Regional Conference, supporting a Vice President to attend one of the two annual Post Leaders Workshops (preferably the one in February so the knowledge gained could be put to use throughout the year), sending a young member to a Post Leadership Workshop, and optionally supporting one other member to attend a Post Leadership Workshop. President Kelly said that SAME National has determined that these types of expenses would qualify as acceptable expenditures associated with the Education and Mentoring mission. He asked that the Board consider sponsorships for further discussion and possible action at the next Board meeting.

Incoming President Marilyn Lewis will be going to the Post Leaders Workshop in February. The only Post expense is her airline ticket, since National SAME covers the cost of meals and lodging. Nominations for a young member to attend are due to National SAME in mid December. Kristen Crumpton has been asked if she could attend in this role. A motion was made and seconded to support sending one regular member and one young member to the February 11th and 12th, 2009 Posts Leaders Workshop. Motion passed.

President Kelly said the transition of Post officers is traditionally accomplished at the January regular membership meeting, which has been held in conjunction with the Corps’ Open House. This year, since the Small Business Workshop is to take place the day following the Open House, it was suggested that the regular membership meeting be held during the luncheon for the workshop and the officers be installed at that time. The logistics of getting people from the Seelbach Hotel where the Corps’ Open House is held to the cafeteria meeting room of the Federal Building in time for lunch can pose some problems. Additionally, the attendance at the Small Business Workshop luncheon is expected to be much larger. Therefore, it was decided that the January Post regular membership meeting would take place on January 28 during the luncheon of the Small Business Workshop at the Holiday Inn Airport on Fern Valley Road. Regarding installation of 2009 officers, President Kelly noted that an individual still needs to be recruited for the 2nd Vice President position.

Committee Reports:
 
bullet Tony Marconi, the Chairman of the Education and Mentoring Fund Management Committee, passed out the Fund’s Annual Report for fiscal year ending 30 June 2008 (copy attached). He reported that the net asset value of the Fund as of 30 June was $519,893. During the fiscal year, the Fund distributed $28,471, including five $3,000 scholarships. Since 1997, he said, $281,221 has been given away. The report will be submitted to the Kentucky Engineering Foundation where the Fund resides. Mr. Marconi said that as of 1 December 2008, the net asset value of the Fund had dropped to $402,559.75. A large portion of the Fund’s assets are invested in the S&P 500, and the Fund’s value has taken a hit due to the current recession. A motion was made and seconded to accept the Annual Report. Motion passed. Mr. Marconi noted that grant applications to request money from the Fund for the coming year should be submitted in January.
 
bullet Kristen Crumpton, Chairman of the Membership Committee, reported that the management system is “up and running”. She said the Post’s membership numbers are looking good for individual memberships, with a gain of 13 new members in the past three months. However, numbers for Sustaining Member firms have declined. Since her last report, the Post has lost four firms, but Ms. Crumpton said these are likely to be firms who have just inadvertently let their memberships lapse and will come back.
 
bullet National Security Co-Chair Brian James said their committee has increased to five members since the last Board meeting. He is going on active duty with the Naval Reserves on 5 December and has recently been working to transition committee responsibilities to others. He said they have been meeting with several agencies to address one of the Streamer requirements to see how the Post can assist organizations with emergency operations. He said they also have had several people complete IS100 and IS200 Emergency Management on-line courses through FEMA. Additionally, Mr. James reported that he and Mickey Jones participated in a seminar on the guidelines for a post to receive the National Security Streamer. He said they provided a lot of input to National SAME that they felt would affect future requirements for obtaining this Streamer. Mr. Jones said that the agencies they have met with all have indicated that SAME could be a valuable resource for accessing support in an emergency.
 
bullet Program Co-Chair Ray Frye requested suggestions for topics and speakers for future Post meetings. He said two potential ideas include addressing “green” issues and presenting the mission of the Post’s National Security Committee. There was some discussion on whether the Post would have a regular membership meeting in February, since last year there was no meeting due to the Engineer’s Week Banquet. It was decided that a February meeting should be held, since there will not be a December 2008 meeting. There was some discussion on trying to have a joint meeting with the University of Louisville Student Chapter. Mr. Frye said he would go ahead and reserve the cafeteria meeting room in the Federal Building for the third Tuesday of each month throughout 2009.
 
bullet President Kelly reported for the Scholarship Committee. He said for 2009, Erin Hall will move into the committee chairman position.
 
bullet Small Business Co-Chair Steve Skaggs gave an update of the status of the Small Business Workshop to be held on 28 January. He said they were able to maintain the same prices as last year with the hotel. He said they have confirmed the speaker - Mr. Anthony Bell, Chief of the Small Business Program for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Bell spoke at the last workshop in December 2007. Mr. Skaggs said the registration form for the workshop will be included with the next Flyer newsletter. Anne Black and Linda Hunt-Smith will attend the National Small Business Conference in December and will pass out flyers at that event advertising the Post workshop.
 
bullet President Kelly reported for the Young Members Committee. He said Ryan Tinsley has been working in the field a lot this year and the Post should try to find another person to serve on this committee.

Old Business:

President Kelly asked Brian James what he found out since the last Board meeting regarding a suggestion to support the troops by helping to defray costs for some to get home for the holidays. Mr. James reported that there are about 50 individuals in his Naval Reserves unit at a grade of E-5 or below. These individuals would be the ones who could benefit the most from assistance. Some discussion followed and a consensus was reached that a VISA gift card could provide the most flexibility for recipients to spend it on travel costs. A motion was made and seconded for the Post to spend up to $50 per person to defray holiday travel costs for up to 50 service members of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 24. Motion passed.

President Kelly reported that he had not yet heard from Webmaster Troy Mays regarding whether the Post’s web site could serve as a means for connecting Corps of Engineers retirees with potential employment opportunities. Mr. Mays is in the process of investigating whether there are limitations on what can be done through the company that currently hosts the Post’s web site.

New Business:

President Kelly said there are some committee openings for Membership, Scholarship, National Security, Education and Training, Student Chapter, and Young Members.

President Kelly said that at the February Board meeting, the group would look at the Post By-laws to make sure they are up-to-date. It was pointed out that some committee names have changed.

A motion was made and seconded for the Post to provide $250 toward the cost of construction materials for a wheel-chair ramp for a newly disabled member of the Louisville engineering community. Motion passed.

For the remainder of the meeting, Board members discussed the various Streamer criteria and how they had been met throughout 2008. This information will go into a report to be submitted to National SAME for their use in evaluating which posts should receive Streamers.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1400.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for 17 February 2009 at 1000 in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

November 2008 General Membership Meeting
The November meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 18 November 2008 in the cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Sixty-three (63) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and reminding them that although the advertised start time for the Post meeting is 1130, the actual business meeting does not start until noon to allow attendees to eat their lunch and spend some time networking. He reminded the group to sign in as a record of their attendance, which will serve as backup should they not obtain or lose their PDH certificate for the day’s meeting.

1st Vice President Marilyn Lewis shared that ASCE will be offering a tour of the McAlpine Locks construction site on Friday 21 November at 1600; and anyone interested in participating should let her know. President Kelly then led the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Small Business Committee Co-Chair Steve Skaggs reported that the Post’s Small Business Workshop will be held on Wednesday 28 January at the Holiday Inn Airport South on Fern Valley Road. The program portion will start at 0800, after breakfast. Mr. Tony Bell, Chief of the Small Business Program for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C., will be a featured speaker. Mr. Skaggs said those interested in more information can find it at the Post web site.

Fred Grant, with the Louisville District Corps, said that the District’s Open House will be held on 27 January at the Seelbach Hotel starting at 0800, with registration beginning at 0700. Lunch will then be either on your own or with the Kentuckiana Post’s General Membership Meeting to be held that day in the Federal Building cafeteria meeting room. The afternoon will offer opportunities to schedule individual meetings with various Corps of Engineers representatives.

President Kelly reported that because National SAME moved their Small Business Conference to December, the Kentuckiana Post decided to move the Small Business Workshop from December to January to coincide with the Corps’ Open House. He said the Workshop should finish up on Wednesday afternoon early enough for attendees to make afternoon flight arrangements.

President Kelly said there will be no December regular membership meeting, but the Board will meet to finalize Streamer submittals.

President Kelly then introduced Ben Myser, a Senior at the University of Louisville, who was part of the Engineers Without Borders group that the Post supported, in part, to go to Belize in May. Mr. Myser shared some of the accomplishments of the trip. He said that Belize is a former British colony in Central America with a population of 300,000. He said it is an ecologically diverse area with problems with water distribution. During their trip, the students worked to fix leaks in pipes, worked on septic tanks, and addressed developing a water purification system using salt and electrolyses to make chlorine. They also identified possible future projects. Mr. Myser said the cost of the trip was $1340 per person, including airfare, lodging and food. The group is looking to increase in the future: student involvement, professional involvement, sponsor donations, faculty involvement, capstone projects, and collaboration with engineering programs at UK and WKU. He thanked SAME for sponsoring the trip.

Then, President Kelly introduced program speaker David Dickey, a structural engineer and project manager with Mason and Hanger, who spoke on “Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection Challenges in Renovation of Existing Military Facilities.” Mr. Dickey said that the DoD Mininum Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings is the UFC4-010-01. He said that not all renovations have to comply with the standards and discussed the triggers that would require compliance. He talked about the importance of the information gathering process including the site visit and consideration of possible unforeseen conditions. He gave examples of aspects of the civil/site, architectural, mechanical, electrical, and structural design issues. He said one of the biggest issues with existing facilities is obtaining the required standoff distance and getting a controlled perimeter. He said one of the more pricey aspects of a project is window replacements. Mr. Dickey finished by emphasizing that every project is different.

President Kelly encouraged the many guests in attendance to consider SAME membership and discussed briefly the organization’s mission. The meeting concluded at approximately 1300.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

October 2008 General Membership Meeting
The October meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 21 October 2008 in the cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Forty-four (44) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by leading the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Kelly reminded the group to sign in as a record of their attendance, which will serve as backup should they not obtain or lose their PDH certificate for the day’s meeting.

President Kelly reviewed the September meeting. He reminded everyone that regular membership meetings are the third Tuesday of each month, with the next meeting being scheduled for 18 November. He said that because the National SAME Small Business Conference is being held in December, the Kentucky Post Small Business Workshop that is normally scheduled for December is being moved to January. And, there will be no regular membership meeting in December.

President Kelly said the Corps Open House is scheduled for Tuesday 27 January; and the Small Business Workshop will be held on the following day – Wednesday 28 January. He said the topics at the workshop will be geared toward small businesses but there will be opportunities for large businesses to participate and interact as well.

President Kelly then introduced Jim Fitzhugh, AIA, NCARB, who spoke on “Building the Perfect Design/Build RFP Tool”. Mr. Fitzhugh, who has 20 years experience with military design and construction, is a principal of RSP Architects and the managing principal of its Government Studio. He has overseen the development of more than 60 projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Army Reserve. He has led the RSP team in their efforts to develop, update and maintain Army Reserve criteria and standard documents. Working closely with the Army Reserve and the Louisville District, RSP has updated the Army Reserve’s Design Guide, developed its RPX Manual, developed and updated its D/B RFP Instruction Manual, and developed its IT Manual.

Mr. Fitzhugh talked about the history of the Army Reserve’s procurement. He explained that the mission moved to Design/Build (D/B) in the mid 80’s because of the challenge to get contracts awarded sooner. In 1998, the goals with D/B were set as: Consistency, Quality, Image, Functionality, and Success. In 2002, the focus changed from very tight specs in the RFP to less design by the RFP preparer to allow some leeway for innovation. At that time, the RFP went out with a 15% design, an outline spec, and a Statement of Work. In 2003, a standard Statement of Work was built that provided 80% of the information on what was needed for typical Army Reserve facilities. In 2005, the manual and templates for developing an RFP were updated. And, goals focused on Faster/Cheaper/Better. To reduce the cost of RFP preparation and the construction contract, the direction moved to minimal design in the RFP, using industry standards and allowing more innovation so that the RFP would be more attractive to potential bidders.

Mr. Fitzhugh discussed lessons learned. They talked to users of the RFP process and then revised the RFP model. The result was that they are now issuing RFP’s with 5% design, an outline spec and a standard Statement of Work.

He said the RFP model put the Army in a good position to address BRAC. He said, “Having the tool in place and already in use allowed the Army to move forward quickly with their BRAC execution.”

Now, in 2008, there are six to eight A/E firms using the model to develop RFP’s. The current update will provide a little more guidance to obtain more consistency among those preparing RFP packages. In terms of success of the approach, Mr. Fitzhugh said that the Army Reserve continues to have a high rate of success in having projects awarded on time and within budget.

After a period of questions and answers, the meeting concluded at approximately 1300.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

October 2008 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 1010 Tuesday 21 October 2008 in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building. President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster. The meeting followed the attached agenda.

President Kelly noted that the minutes of the 19 August 2008 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The sign-in roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated.

John Allison presented the Treasurer’s report. Currently there is $14,385.58 in the Post checking account, with no outstanding bills. He reported that the Post Golf Scramble netted $1,190.28. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President Kelly noted that $3,000 will come from the Education and Mentoring account to support the student chapter’s Engineers without Borders trip to Belize. A representative from the students who participated in the trip will speak about that trip at the Post’s November regular membership meeting. Next year, the Post will coordinate through the Student Chapter Committee to get the application for support in earlier in accordance with the Post grant application process.

President Kelly reported that the Kentuckiana Post was represented at the Regional Conference in Huntington in August by him, Steve Bickel, Stephen Scott, and Anne Black, and that it was a good conference overall.

President Kelly reported that the date for the Corps’ Open House has been set as Tuesday 27 January 2009; and the Post’s Small Business Workshop will be held on Wednesday 28 January. Small Business Committee Co-Chair Anne Black said the committee hopes to have a networking session on Tuesday evening before the workshop to shorten the time investment required of attendees on Wednesday. 1st V.P. Marilyn Lewis said she would try to find out the location of the Corps’ Open House to help the Small Business Committee on coordinating the two events.

1st V.P. Lewis discussed a potential topic for the Small Business Workshop. She said that the Corps is developing a new electronic reporting system that will track where the small business dollars are going. Currently, she said, it is not easy to track the dollars going to small businesses that are spent through large business contracts.

President Kelly discussed the upcoming officer transition that will take place in January, typically at the January regular membership meeting. He said he would like input if anyone knows of someone who would like to serve on the Board.

President Kelly reported that Streamer submittals are due 30 January 2009. The Board will meet on 2 December in Room 951 of the Federal Building at 1000. After a brief Board meeting, members will work on the Streamer submission. The meeting is expected to last until 1300 or 1400; and lunch will be provided. Secretary Janet Skees will bring a hard copy of all the minutes for the year for reference.

President Kelly said that the Post Leaders and Student Leadership Workshop will be held in Los Angeles on 11 and 12 February 2009. He said Marilyn Lewis will attend; and a young member will also be invited to attend.

Regarding supporting the troops, President Kelly said that traditionally the Post has addressed this by providing deployed troops with phone calling cards toward the end of the year. However, he said, he hasn’t heard if anyone at Ft. Knox is continuing to support this initiative. Rosemary Gilbertson explained that when the Post was at Ft. Knox for the August meeting, some people there told her that the phone cards were sometimes difficult to use because phone service vendors in the areas of deployment change from time to time. A suggestion was made for providing coffee gift cards.

Board member Brian James, who is a Seabee being deployed in December, suggested supporting the Seabee’s. He said he will be in Huntsville the coming weekend, and will get some ideas for providing support. 1st V.P. Lewis suggested a VISA gift card with a SAME logo which could be used for coffee or phones without being limited to one vendor. President Kelly will ask Ken Besser, who previously had made corn hole boards for deployed troops, if he would be available to make some more.


Committee Reports:
 
bullet National Security Co-Chair Brian James said he is coordinating with Mickey Jones to prepare the Streamer, since he will be deployed on 5 December. He said he will try to meet with FEMA next week to address one of the Streamer requirements to see how the Post can assist organizations with emergency operations. 1st V.P. Lewis suggested that Brian also meet with the Corps Emergency Operations personnel Steve Rager or Marcella Denton. Additionally, the Board needs to find Brian’s replacement to serve on the National Security Committee.
 
bullet President Kelly reported that programs have been lined up for Post meetings through January; and there will be no regular membership meeting in December. He said that scholarship applications will be released in January.
 
bullet Small Business Committee Co-Chair Anne Black reported that the committee is working on launching a web site.
 
bullet Webmaster Troy Mays said the Post website had a lot of hits this past year when it was approaching time for both the Small Business Workshop and the Corps’ Open House. He wants to make sure he has information on these events posted before the events are announced through email blasts so that visitors to the website can find the information they need. He also wants to coordinate the timing to make sure the newsletter is posted just before the email blast announcing that it is available.

New Business:

President Kelly said he would like to see the Post play a role as a job resource center linking Corps retirees to businesses looking to hire. He said the National SAME website has a job center on their site. 1st V.P. Lewis asked if this benefit could be used as an incentive to encourage membership. Webmaster Mays said there may be some limitations on what can be done through the company that hosts the Post’s web site; but he will investigate options. President Kelly will check with National SAME on this issue, as well.

Brian James asked the Board to consider if the Post might be willing to help defray the cost for troops to get home for the holidays. Brian is going to check on how the Post could support the Seabees in this regard through his connections with his Reserve unit.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1120.

The next Board meeting date is scheduled for 2 December 1000 in Room 951 of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Meeting is expected to last until 1300 or 1400.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

September 2008 General Membership Meeting
The September meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 16 September 2008 in the cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Forty-three (43) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by leading the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Kelly reminded the group that they can receive PDH certificates for the day’s meeting, which can be used toward meeting the new requirement in Kentucky for continuing education for professional engineers.

He reported that the 9 September golf outing at Quail Chase was successful with more than half of the participants being Corps of Engineers employees. He said the University of Louisville Student Chapter raised $430 selling mulligans to support their activities; and the Post raised about $1,000 from the event.

President Kelly said SAME had a good Regional Conference. The event was held from 26-28 August in Huntington, WV.

President Kelly introduced Thomas Solinger, the high school student who the Post sponsored to attend the Seabees Engineering and Construction Camp at Port Hueneme, California. Thomas is a student at Dorothy Sayers Classical School. He gave a presentation on his camp experience. He said there were 40 campers there from across the country. He discussed some of their projects including: designing a concrete beam, building a popsicle stick bridge, and building a cardboard boat with duct tape. Thomas said they also visited engineering firms. And they had a Seabee’s Olympics consisting of construction and strength events. Events included: Cross-Cut Relay (cutting 2x4’s), Nail Relay, Pull Humvee, “Grenade” Toss, and Litter-Bearer Relay. Thomas reported that his squad won the Seabee’s Olympics. He said he was inspired by the camp and now knows that when he goes to college, he wants to study engineering.

President Kelly then introduced Captain Hans Probst, PE, who spoke on “Engineering and Construction Operations in al Anbar Province, Iraq”. Capt. Probst, a past Post president, is the Commander of the 7th Naval Construction Regiment (NCR), which is a Reserves unit, and is also an engineer with the Louisville District Corps of Engineers. During his deployment to Iraq, he was Commander of the 30th Naval Command Regiment.

Capt. Probst discussed the global mission of the naval construction regiments. He said the mission of the 30th NCR in Iraq was to support general engineering and construction and facilitate achieving Iraqi control. He discussed how his Command was organized. He said they moved about quite a bit with projects throughout the province. Sixty-seven percent of their operations were performed outside the base, but there would be force protection set up to keep them safe while they worked.

Capt. Probst discussed the projects they worked on including: runway repairs, road repairs, sanitation (including grating culverts so explosive devices could not be hidden in them), demolition support (including demolishing bridges that were unsafe because of damage), moving rock where needed for construction (Rockhounds), bridge assessments and repairs, bridge emplacements, water distribution, key infrastructure, electrical upgrades, force protection, and other areas. He said they used pre-fabrication whenever possible since it was safer to work inside the walls before moving outside. He discussed the logistics of getting the materials to the theater and managing them.

Regarding the surge, Capt. Probst said he could see, by being there, that the surge was working. He discussed the importance of gaining the trust of the Iraqi people, which was accomplished through developing relationships with the sheiks who were over the tribes.
“The surge worked. There is no doubt in my mind, whatsoever,” Capt. Probst said. He emphasized the importance of telling the story of the successes, which he said has not been in the Press. He said the news media has had a negative bias.

Before closing, Capt. Probst thanked the Kentuckiana Post for supplying golf equipment and corn hole toss boards to his deployed command. He said those items were very well received.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1:00 p.m.


Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

August 2008 General Membership Meeting
The August meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 19 August 2008 at the Leaders Club at Ft Knox, KY. Sixty two (62) members and guests were in attendance including 32 NCOs and Jr Officers from the 19th EN BN. Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by leading the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Kelly reported that the Post has provided PDH certificates for the day’s meeting, which can be used toward meeting the new requirement in Kentucky for continuing education for professional engineers. He encouraged everyone to sign in as the sign-in sheets will be used as back-up in the event that someone looses their certificate and needs proof of attendance for a continuing education audit.

President Kelly reminded the attendees of the SAME Regional Conference from 26-28 August to be held in Huntington, WV. He said the SAME.org web site has more details on the event.

President Kelly encouraged participation at the September 9th golf outing at Quail Chase. He outlined future programs to be held at the Mazzoli Federal Building which include – September 16th, Hans Probst, former Kentuckiana Post President, who will speak on “My Experiences as an Engineering Brigade Commander in Iraq”; October 21st, Jim Fitzhugh who will speak on the USAR RFP Instruction Manual; and November 18th, David Dickey will speak on ATFP Challenges in Renovation of Existing Military Facilities.

President Kelly then introduced the featured speaker, LTC Heath C. Roscoe, 19th Engineer Battalion Commander who spoke on “Engineering to Fight Insurgents”. LTC Roscoe opened the meeting with an overview of the 19th EN BN and then introduced CPT Robert R. Fairel, CPT Kerrie Second and MAJ Jeffrey D. Hall who each presented information regarding the mission and deployment to Iraq of the 19th EN BN. Their presentation was accompanied by pictures that showed the work they preformed and the conditions they encountered in their missions.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1:00 p.m.

Respectively Submitted,
Marilyn W. Lewis, P.E. for the Post Secretary

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

August 2008 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 10:10 AM Tuesday 19 August 2008 in the Leaders Club at Ft Knox, KY. President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster. The meeting followed the attached agenda.

President Kelly thanked Matt Rathsack for traveling from Michigan to attend the meeting.

President Kelly noted that the minutes of the 17 June 2008 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The sign-in roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated.

John Allison presented the Treasurer’s report. Currently there is $11,918.44 in the Post checking account, with no outstanding bills other than the bill for today’s luncheon where the Post will cover the cost for the NCO’s lunches and subsidize the cost of the Jr. Officers lunch. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President Kelly renewed the discussion on a donation to the U of L Student Chapter for their Engineers Without Borders trip in May. Tony Marconi, Chair of the Education & Mentoring Fund had recommended a donation amount of $3000. The Student Chapter had 7 students participate in the trip at a cost of approximately $1900/student. After discussion a motion was made and seconded to approve the $3000 donation to the group to offset expenses incurred. Motion passed.

President Kelly read an email from the student who attended the Seabee Construction Camp. The student expressed his appreciation for the Post’s support and indicated his willingness to speak at a future meeting about his experience at the camp.

President Kelly thanked the Board members who made presentations at the ROTC Leaders Course graduation ceremony at Ft. Knox. President Kelly gave a brief explanation of how the award is determined and the history of the Post’s involvement in the ROTC award. Based on the information that some awards presented by other organizations included cash a discussion was held on ways to upgrade the KP Post award. The discussion centered on adding a cash prize, a SAME coin, and a prepaid SAME membership. A motion was made and seconded that a cash prize be awarded in the amount of $250 in the form of a prepaid VISA, MC or AE card. Motion passed. 1st Vice President Lewis offered to investigate purchase of the cards and inclusion of the SAME logo on the cards.

President Kelly inquired about whom from KP planned to attend the Regional Conference in Huntington the week of 25 August. A gift basket has been prepared as a door prize and will be delivered to the conference by Stephen Scott.

President Kelly reminded the Board of the Post Leaders Workshop to be held September 5-6 in Washington DC and the fact that attendance by a young member was a streamer requirement. KP had two members attend the workshop held in January, including a U of L student chapter member. It has now been determined that a student chapter member will not count as the young member. President Kelly will talk with Erin Hall about the possibility of attending.

A reminder was given about the USACE Small Business Conference to be held December 8 -10 in Memphis.

President Kelly noted that traditionally the four elected directors of the KP Board had each taken responsibility for one of the streamers. President Kelly passed out copies of the criteria and noted that committee members would be a good source of information for filling out the criteria. He encouraged the Board to be proactive in collecting the information. Some Board members requested electronic copies of last year’s streamer submittal.

Committee Reports:
 
bullet In a review of the committee reports, President Kelly noted that the Committee Chairs names have been updated and are current.
bullet President Kelly passed out a summary of the Education and Mentoring Fund report that was provided by Tony Marconi prior to the meeting.
bullet Special thanks were given to Rachael Haunz for the set up of the meeting at Ft Knox.
bullet The membership report was noted as having 10 sustaining member firms that have dropped from the roles, 3 new firms who have joined making a total of 80 sustaining member firms to date. Individual membership has increased from 140 to 145.
bullet John Storm noted a change in how the newsletter is being distributed. The email now provides a link to the website.
bullet A review was provided of the remaining programs for the year.
bullet The golf scramble is scheduled for 9 Sept. with a registration deadline of 5 Sept.
bullet President Kelly suggested the December Board meeting serve as a working session to review the streamer submittal that had been prepared by the assigned board directors and include a catered lunch. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 2nd.
bullet Anne Black reported on the new SB website initiative. The SB Committee plans to post relevant articles, highlight firms, note upcoming events, post current year presentations, include contact information and have a statement of KP-SAME’s commitment to SB on the web page. She indicated a decision was being worked to hold the annual SB Workshop adjacent to the LRL Open House in January since the USACE SB Conference is now scheduled for December 8-10.
bullet The Student Chapter will add Board members to their newsletter distribution list. The students are again planning to sell mulligan’s at the golf scramble for a fund raiser.
bullet The next Regional Conference will be held in Detroit in 2009.
bullet President Kelly noted that we needed to identify a replacement for Ryan Tinsley as the Young Member Co-Chair. He also encouraged the Board members to invite young members to the meetings and to get them engaged in the activities of the Post.
bullet Rosemary Gilbertson reported on the success of the KP-SAME sponsored Governors Scholars session and thanked the Post for their support. Funds from the Post provided the students with lunch, transportation and portfolios. Rosemary and John Allison led the 56 students who chose the engineering track on an excursion to Cave Run Lake. Rosemary shared that the USACE Louisville District has committed to hire 2 of those students for summer work to maintain the thread of connection to these students.

The meeting concluded at approximately 11:15 AM.

The next Board meeting date is scheduled for 21 October at 10:00 a.m. in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes.


Marilyn W. Lewis, PE
1st Vice President

 

July 2008 General Membership Meeting
The July meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 15 July 2008 in the cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Twenty-seven (27) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by welcoming to the Louisville District the new District Commander, Colonel Keith Landry, and the new Deputy Commander, Major Stephen Bales, who will be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in October. President Kelly introduced Major Bales, who was in attendance, and shared that he is a Kentucky native from London, KY and a graduate of the military academy at West Point. President Kelly then led the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Kelly reported that the Post will start providing certificates of attendance, which can be used toward meeting the new requirement in Kentucky for continuing education for professional engineers. He encouraged everyone to always sign in when attending a Post meeting. The sign-in sheets will be used as back-up in the event that someone looses their certificate and needs proof of attendance for a continuing education audit.

President Kelly reminded the attendees of the SAME Regional Conference from 26-28 August to be held in Huntington, WV. He said the SAME.org web site has more details on the event.

President Kelly encouraged everyone to put the upcoming Post meetings on their calendars. He said the 19 August meeting will be held at Ft. Knox, and the topic will be “19th Engineering Combat Battalion – Engineering to Fight Insurgents.” 9 September is the Post’s golf outing at Quail Chase. 16 September will feature Hans Probst, former Kentuckiana Post President, who will speak on “My Experiences as an Engineering Brigade Commander in Iraq.”

President Kelly then introduced the featured speaker, Marcella Denton, the Emergency Operations Manager with the Louisville District. She gave a presentation on “The Corps of Engineers’ Role in the Recent Midwest United States Flooding.”

Ms. Denton explained that the District’s mission statement includes Disaster Relief. She discussed the Corps’ Preparedness Responsibilities that includes natural disaster. She said the Corps of Engineers can respond as a DOD component under the Corps’ Statutory Authority or through the Stafford Act that established FEMA and gives authority to the Corps.

Ms Denton said the Corps’ tasks associated with its mission for Flood Fighting Assistance includes providing sandbags and pumps, technical assistance, GIS products, and emergency contracting. She discussed the Corps’ relationship with an area’s Local Levee Sponsor, the State EOC, and the local communities.
Ms. Denton explained that the Corps is the lead agency for Emergency Support Function #3 (ESF#3) - Public Works and Engineering. She discussed that the Corps’ mission under ESF#3 includes providing various items/tasks such as: ice and water, emergency power, debris management, temporary housing/roofing, and infrastructure assessment (water/wastewater).

For the June 2008 floods that hit the Midwest, the Louisville District provided direct support to the state of Indiana during the flooding by providing: an individual to serve as a liaison to the state EOC, technical assistance teams, and pumps. Now, after the flood, the Corps is providing support to Indiana for levee rehabilitation. The Corps also provided support to FEMA. During the flood, this support included appointing an individual to serve as a liaison to FEMA Region V and providing a team leader for a joint field office. After the flood, the Corps’ support to FEMA includes: safety assessment of dams and bridges, and testing and installation of temporary housing (mobile homes).

Ms. Denton showed the group various photos of the flooding, illustrating the types of support the Corps provides, associated with disaster relief efforts.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1:00 p.m.

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

June 2008 General Membership Meeting
The June meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 17 June 2008 in the cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Fifty-six (56) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by leading the group in prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Kelly welcomed the numerous visitors and encouraged them to provide their email to the Post so they could receive the newsletter. He said the www.SAME.org website provides information on the organization from a national prospective and has a link to the Kentuckiana Post website. President Kelly gave a brief overview of the organization and its purpose, as an introduction to the guests in attendance. He mentioned that involvement in SAME can be used to help meet the continuing education requirement for professional licensure, and that individual membership is only $55 per year. Membership forms were made available to those in attendance. President Kelly discussed that SAME does a lot to support engineering education, such as the Post’s effort to sponsor high school students to attend the military’s engineering and construction camps. This year, the Post selected a candidate to go to the Seabees Camp.

President Kelly introduced the guest speaker, David Cox, who is the Executive Director of the Kentucky State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. Mr. Cox gave a presentation on Kentucky’s new law requiring continuing education for engineers. He said the requirement is to obtain 30 professional development hours (PDH’s) over a two-year period. Individuals with last names beginning with “L” through “Z” will have to certify for their 1/30/2010 renewal that they obtained 30 PDH’s during the 2008 and 2009 calendar years. Those with last names beginning with “A” through “K” will have to certify for their 1/30/2011 renewal that they obtained 30 PDH’s during the period from the beginning of 2008 through the end of 2010. For this first renewal period, the A-K group will be allowed to count hours earned in 2008, as well as the two years before their license renewal is due.

Mr. Cox provided the following information:
 
bullet “What courses count?” Time spent listening to a presentation by a salesperson may not all count toward the requirement. The portion of the time spent trying to sell the product would not count, but any part where technical information is discussed could count.
bullet An engineer making a technical presentation gets double credit for the time of the presentation, for the first time the material is presented.
bullet An individual can not take the same class a second time and count it again, unless it is taken in a separate two-year cycle.
bullet A PDH (Professional Development Hour) is defined as 50 minutes of classroom attendance. A CEU is 10 PDH’s – for those courses that award CEU’s.
bullet A University semester hour is 45 PDH’s.
bullet Up to 15 hours can be carried over to the next two-year cycle.
bullet Individuals must keep records of their attendance for the purpose of future audits. Record-keeping can be a simple log showing the day of the course, the sponsoring organization, the course’s title, and the presenter. Proof of attendance should be a certificate from the presenter or a copy of the sign-in sheet.
bullet At the time of license renewal, there is no form to fill out regarding the courses taken. The applicant just has to certify that the requirements have been met. If a person is audited, they would then send to the Board information on the courses attended.
bullet The Board will initially audit about 5% of renewals. If the audit determines that an individual does not have enough credits, that person will then have six months to obtain the credits. This allowance is made in case some hours are disallowed. However, Mr. Cox said he does not anticipate that many classes will be disallowed.
bullet Two hours credit can be earned for an individual’s service as an officer or a committee chairperson in a professional society. The credit would be earned for each year of service, and would be applied to the year following the completion of a year of service.
bullet In-house training can count, as well, if it is offered through an organized program, is engineering related, and is taught by an individual who is knowledgeable on the subject matter.
bullet Deployed military or civilian personnel can obtain a waiver from meeting the requirements.
bullet If a problem is found during an audit, the licensee would continue to be audited until they are in compliance. The Board will work with an individual if they are being honest and are just short a few hours. But, this would not be the case if someone said they had the required hours, and they were not being honest on their renewal form.
bullet Engineers, who have been licensed continuously since 1/1/1972 and have not had a disciplinary problem, are exempt from the continuing education requirement.
bullet Newly licensed engineers do not have to meet the continuing education requirement the first year after receiving their license.

Mr. Cox provided the attendees with copies of the regulation and his business card to contact him if there are future questions.

A period of “Questions and Answers” followed. The information provided has been incorporated above. At end of the Q/A period, Mr. Cox shared with the group how the Board of Licensure works, its makeup and its function. He said the Board’s purpose is to protect the public and serve the state’s professional engineers in answering questions about their licensure.

Mr. Cox said the Board addresses about 120 to 160 complaints each year, with about two-thirds of them being related to land surveying and one-third being related to engineering. The Board investigates each complaint to determine if there has been a legal violation. Then a conference is held with the licensee and settlement terms are offered. If a settlement is not agreed to, the parties go before a hearing officer who makes a recommendation, and then the Board makes the final recommendation. This recommendation can be appealed in Franklin Circuit Court. However, the Board has never lost a case in Franklin Circuit Court. Penalties are worse if a case goes to a hearing than they would be if there was an initial settlement.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1:00 p.m.

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

June 2008 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 10:00 AM Tuesday 17 June 2008 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster. The meeting followed the attached agenda.

President Kelly introduced two new Board members – Ray Frye and Rachael Haunz.

President Kelly noted that the minutes of the 15 April 2008 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The sign-in roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated.

John Allison presented the Treasurer’s report. Currently there is $11,904.50 in the Post checking account, with an outstanding bill to the Post’s accountant for completing the IRS 990 form. Additionally, Clay Kelly presented Mr. Allison with a bill in the amount of $763.50 to pay the airfare for the individual the Post is sponsoring to attend the Seabee’s Engineering and Construction Camp. John Allison reported that he will be receiving a check in the amount of $2500 to be deposited in the Post checking account, which will be reimbursement from the Education and Mentoring Fund for the Governor’s Scholars grant money paid out by the Post. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President Kelly reported on the status of the Post’s involvement with supporting students to attend Engineering and Construction Camps this year. He said the Post will be sponsoring one student to attend the Seabee’s Camp at the end of July. The student is Thomas Solinger, who is a rising Junior at Dorothy Sayers Classical School. He will give a presentation on his camp experience to the general SAME membership at a future meeting

President Kelly indicated that he wants to put a grading process in place for the Post to use to rank applications of students wishing to attend the Engineering and Construction Camps. Each Post is allotted one slot at each of the camps. He presented a sample rating form that is used by the Pikes Peak Post. He said he would like to see one of the rating factors address their affiliation with the Kentuckiana Post, with some preference being given for a close affiliation, such as having a parent who is a member. Other factors could include GPA, extra curricular activities, and engineering interest. Discussion among the Board members ensued. The consensus was that preference should be given to applicants who are affiliated with the Kentuckiana Post. Additionally, there should be a requirement that a sponsored student would give a presentation to the general membership after returning from the camp. There was some concern about the GPA being rated so heavily on the sample form. One idea presented was to use a general Academics factor that could take into consideration aspects beyond GPA, such as the number and type of Advanced Placement classes taken. President Kelly asked the Board to think about this for future discussion. 1st Vice President Marilyn Lewis stated that she would like to see the Post sponsor a student to attend the Army camp at Vicksburg, in addition to the two that are currently supported –the Seabee’s and Air Force Academy camps.

1st Vice President Lewis said she is still looking for volunteers to go to Ft. Knox to make an award presentation at the ROTC graduation ceremonies. She said the Post recognizes the top graduate in each class with a certificate. She has four of the six dates filled with a volunteer, but has two dates in July available. The volunteer would just need to show up at 8:30 for a 9:00 ceremony.

Rosemary Gilbertson discussed the upcoming SAME Regional Conference in Huntington from 26 August through 28 August. She said she has been asked to help find a speaker for a military topic. Brian James suggested that she asked Hans Probst to discuss his experience as a Commander in Iraq. President Kelly said he would not be able to go to the Conference the first day, and needs to find someone who is going to the Conference to deliver the Kentuckiana Post’s flag.

President Kelly said that the Post Leaders’ Workshop is coming up in September. He said there is a Streamer requirement for the Post to send one member and a student or younger member. The requirement was met for the 2008 year, since John Allison attended in January. However, the Post still would like to send someone to the September conference. The cost is limited to transportation, since SAME National covers all of the other costs to attend.

President Kelly said that the Small Business Conference is planned for December in Memphis.

President Kelly reported that he is working on ideas focusing on “investing in our own”, by talking to other Posts to see what they are doing. This is a concept that is being encouraged by the current SAME National president, Maj. Gen. Del Eulberg.

Committee Reports
 
bullet Co-Chair Ray Frye reported for the Programs Committee. He said the June program would feature David Cox, of the Kentucky State Board of Licensure of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, who will discuss the new continuing education requirements for licensed engineers. For the July 15 meeting, he was hoping to have Hans Probst give a presentation on his experiences in Iraq. However, he is unable to do so on that date; and will have to schedule for a future meeting. 1st Vice President Lewis suggested that a topic on the flooding that has recently occurred would be of interest.

The August membership meeting will be held from 11:30-1:00 at Ft. Knox. Committee Co-Chair Rachael Haunz is working on putting that meeting together. The topic will focus on engineering to fight insurgents, and will be presented by Captain Clay McVay at the Leaders’ Club. The Board members discussed lunch options and decided that a buffet set-up would be preferable to having everyone go to the building’s cafeteria, because of their typically long lines. After some discussion, a motion was made and seconded for the Post to pay for the lunch cost for NCOs from the 19th Engineer’s Battalion to attend the meeting. Motion Passed.

Mr. Frye reported that the Post golf outing is being moved up to September 9 due to the Ryder Cup that will be held in Louisville at the time of the regularly scheduled meeting. There is anticipated to be a large number of people in Louisville at that time playing golf.

The October 21 membership meeting will feature Jim Fitzhugh of RSP Architects who will discuss the “USAR RFP Instruction Manual”. And, on November 18, Jon Miller will give a presentation on “ATFP Challenges in Renovation of Existing Military Facilities”. Both of these meetings will be held at the Mazzoli Federal Building.

A suggestion was made to have a general membership meeting in September, in addition to the golf outing earlier in the month, since the Post may not have a December meeting. The normal December meeting in conjunction with the Post’s Small Business Workshop is being moved to January in order to avoid conflict with the National Small Business Conference. With the addition of a September meeting, it is possible that Hans Probst would be available to speak on Iraq at that time.
 
bullet President Kelly reported for the Education and Mentoring Fund Committee. He said he has spoken to a group of students who went to Belize in May as an engineering team to address the area’s problems. The group has requested support from the Post to sponsor their trip. Although the group did not ask for a specific amount, the Committee had proposed support in the amount of $3,000. President Kelly said the cost per person to make the trip is $1,900; and the donations that the group of seven has received so far amounts to $5,000. A decision on amount was not settled upon by the Board since the meeting had to adjourn due to time limitations. Further approval can be accomplished through e-mail to the Board members.
 
bullet President Kelly reported for the Membership Committee. He said the Post has gained nine Individual and four Sustaining members between April and June.

The meeting concluded at approximately 11:15 AM.

The next Board meeting date is scheduled for 19 August at 10:00 a.m. in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes.

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

May 2008 General Membership Meeting
The May meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held Tuesday, 20 May 2008 at the University of Louisville Alumni Center. Twenty-four (24) members and guests were in attendance. Marilyn Lewis, 1st Vice President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting by leading the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. She encouraged everyone to go ahead and serve themselves for lunch, and then the meeting continued.

1st Vice President Lewis recognized Hans Probst, a Past President of the Post who had recently returned from serving in Iraq. 1st Vice President Lewis continued with several announcements. She said that the SAME Regional Conference was going to be held in Huntington from 26 to 28 August. Secretary Janet Skees shared that the theme would be “Managing Risk”, and said that more information could be found at www.samehuntington.com.

1st Vice President Lewis discussed that the Post had received three applications for SAME to support high school students to attend the Seabees Engineering and Construction Camp. The Post has forwarded one of the applications to SAME National with recommendation for the student to attend the camp.

1st Vice President Lewis requested volunteers to present awards to ROTC Cadets during their graduation ceremonies at Ft. Knox. She said she needs one presenter for each of six dates. Each ceremony lasts about an hour. There are five dates in July and one date in June. She said the volunteers do not need any preparation. They just need to show up prior to 9 a.m. on the day of the ceremony.

1st Vice President Lewis reminded everyone that the next general membership meeting will be on Tuesday, 17 June at the Federal Building. The presenter will be David Cox from the Kentucky State Board of Licensure for Engineers and Land Surveyors. He will discuss Continuing Education Requirements for Professional Engineers.

The program was then turned over to Veronica Rife and Erin Hall, Scholarship Committee Co-Chairs, who presented five engineering students each with a $3,000 scholarship. Ms. Rife gave an overview of the Post’s scholarship program, and explained that the program has assisted over 50 engineering students since its inception. She said the program was started in 1996, when the Kentuckiana Post was responsible for hosting the national conference. The Post was able to set up an endowment fund from the conference proceeds.

Ms. Hall announced the recipients and read a short biography on each. Awardees were Kent Coombs, Rebecca Mitchell, Mat van der Meer, Isaiah
Weilbaker, and Matthew Dobbertien.

Following the scholarship presentations, those in attendance heard from Student Chapter President, Mathew van der Meer who talked about the work of University of Louisville students, with the support of our Post; would be going to Hattiesburg, Mississippi during their Spring Break. They worked with Habitat for Humanity as a part of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. They spent five days working on a residence and building sheds. He showed photos of the trip and thanked the Post for the support.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1:00 p.m.

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

April 2008 General Membership Meeting
The April meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held Tuesday, 15 April 2008 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Twenty-five (25) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. He then led the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Kelly made several announcements. He said that the SAME national conference would be 20 to 23 May in Minnesota. He reminded the group that the regional conference would be in Huntington, W.V. in August, and registration is now open.

President Kelly discussed the Engineering and Construction camps for high school students that the Kentuckiana Post has sponsored. He said there are three camps – the Air Force Camp at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the Army Camp in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the Seabees Camp at Port Hueneme in California. He said the deadline to apply for the Seabees Camp is 15 May, and encouraged the attendees to get the word out to eligible students.

Chris Ackard spoke on behalf of Mercedes Enrique, the SAME national Small Business Council President. He said there is a scholarship opportunity for small business members to attend the national SAME conference and receive up to $500 toward the cost of the conference. He also said there will now be a national award for a Post Small Business Liaison officer.

President Kelly introduced the guest speaker, J.B. Williams of Michael Baker Corporation, who gave a presentation on the Louisville bridges project. The presentation was entitled “Two Bridges, One Project” Mr. Williams gave an overview of the six sections of the project and discussed the bridge selection process. He described the public involvement aspect, whereby the design team obtained input from the public by creating images of various types of bridges and getting feedback on what characteristics the public liked. From the results of polling on the downtown bridge, it was determined that there was not “overwhelming support” for any one alternative. But generally the public liked the bridge types with lower height and simpler configuration. Mr. Williams said of the three alternatives (single-tower cable stayed, three-tower cable stayed, and
three-span thru arch), the three-tower cable stayed alternative has been selected to go forward to final design. He said the construction for the downtown bridge is currently scheduled to start in the year 2015.

The next Kentuckiana Post meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 20 May at the University of Louisville, with presentation of scholarships and a report from the U of L Student Chapter on their work during Spring Break in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which was supported by the Post.

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

April 2008 Board Meeting
The April meeting of the Kentuckiana Post Board was called to order at 10:10 a.m. Tuesday, 15 April 2008 in Room 951C of the Mazzoli Federal Building. President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting.

President Kelly noted that the minutes of the 19 February 2008 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

John Allison presented the Treasurer’s report. Currently there is $11,636.53 in the Post checking account with no outstanding bills. The Education and Mentoring Fund has reimbursed the checking account for expenses paid out associated with supporting University of Louisville students to work on a Habitat for Humanity project in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, during their Spring Break. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President Kelly discussed revisions to the Board roster, addressing new committee assignments. He also reported on the status of the Post’s involvement with supporting students to attend Engineering and Construction Camps this year. The application due date for the Air Force Academy Camp was 15 April. He said there were some leads for potential students to attend, but a candidate did not materialize from those leads. President Kelly expressed hope that the Post would be able to send two students to the Seabees Camp. Eligible applicants should be rising high school sophomores or juniors (class standing for upcoming school year). Students need to have expressed an interest in pursuing engineering as a career. He said that he would like to see a greater level of the Post’s involvement in the future in this program. President Kelly informed the Board that he has asked Chris Ackard with CMS, of Bloomington, if he would help the Post develop a process for evaluating candidates. Mr. Ackard has been in the Air Force for eight years and is familiar with the camps. Applications for the Seabees Camp are due to SAME National by 15 May, and camp dates are 20 July through 26 July.

President Kelly highlighted the concept of “Investing in Our Own.” He said SAME’s national President, Maj. Gen. Del Eulberg, has been focusing on this topic, which encourages that resources going outside of the organization be channeled so that there will be some return. One way to address this would be to encourage recipients of support to become involved in the local Post. President Kelly said that one of the streamer criteria is related to “investing in our own.” The criteria is for a Board member and a younger member to both attend the Post Leadership Workshop. President Kelly said one way to invest in people is to plug members who are active at the local level into national-level involvement. For example, the Post could support an individual to attend a national conference. He said he would send out a white paper with related ideas to Board members via email, and would like feedback from the Board.

Committee Reports

bullet Tony Marconi reported for the Education and Mentoring Fund Committee. At the end of the second quarter (12/31/07), the fund had a balance of $596,540.92. A contribution has not yet been made to Leadership PE 2007. A contribution to the 2006 program was made retroactive. This is the second time this contribution has “fallen through the cracks.” As one of the three founding organizations, SAME has contributed $3,000 each year in support of this program. President Kelly asked Mr. Marconi to coordinate with George Binder and Marcie Fisher at the Kentucky Engineering Center to submit a written request to the Board annually for funding support, and at the same time to re-evaluate the financial needs of the program and provide SAME feedback on their needs. The Board discussed paying to support the 2007 event, retroactively. It was decided that since SAME already has received promotion through the 2007 program, it is a debt owed as a prior commitment. A motion was made and seconded to approve the 2007 Leadership PE grant of $3,000 that would be retroactive and posted to the fiscal year 2007 books as a liability. Motion passed.

As a Leadership PE alumnus, Steve Skaggs agreed to take on the responsibility of making sure their grant request application gets turned in each year in a timely manner.

Mr. Marconi reported on the fund’s make-up. He said the fund is still in the range of its investment goals to have 60 to 80% in stocks (Vanguard 500 Index Fund) and 20 to 40% in cash (Money Market).
 
bullet Gerard Edelen reported for the Programs Committee. He said the cafeteria meeting room is not available for the August meeting, so he would explore having the Post meeting at Ft. Knox that month. President Kelly said it might be possible to have the troops who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan share about their work while deployed.

The May meeting will include presentation of student scholarships and a report from the University of Louisville students who were supported during their Spring Break trip to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to work with Habitat for Humanity.

At the June meeting, David Cox, of the Kentucky State Board of Licensure of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, will discuss the new continuing education requirements for licensed engineers.
 
bullet Kristen Crumpton reported for the Membership Committee. She said the Post roster includes 131 individual members, which is nine more than shown on the previous report. She said this is due to the Post gaining back some members that had previously let their memberships expire. She said she still needs to follow-up with 38 members who did not renew at the end of 2007. The number of Sustaining Members remains steady at 83. President Kelly mentioned that the dues structure will be changing, and it will be interesting to see if the numbers are affected. Ms. Crumpton informed the group of the Post Management System that is now up and running. She described the Chapter Leader Access System (CLAS), where information can be updated on-line, including information on committee management, financial management, Post rosters, etc.
 
bullet Anne Black reported for the Small Business Committee. She said the national SAME Small Business Conference is going to be later this year and will conflict with the Kentuckiana Post’s plans to hold a small business workshop in December. The national conference is scheduled for 8 December through 10 December in Memphis. The move to December appears to be a permanent change. The Board discussed various options for scheduling the Post’s workshop. One possibility would be to hold the workshop on the same day as the Corps’ Open House in January, so that businesses would not have to travel to two separate events. Gerard Edelen said he would find out who is coordinating the Corps’ Open House so that the Board can discuss options with them. The Board discussed targeting another activity in 2008 for small businesses since the workshop is being moved to 2009, possibly a networking activity in conjunction with the golf scramble.

The Board asked Tony Marconi to coordinate this year’s golf scramble, which is to be held in September, so that it doesn’t conflict with the Ryder Cup activities that will be occurring in Louisville that month.
 
bullet Erin Hall reported for the Scholarship Committee. She said the committee would meet that afternoon to review cumulative scores from the evaluation of applications and to select recipients. She said the committee would then notify those selected to make sure they can attend the May meeting for the presentation of the scholarships. President Kelly explained that Board members would first receive an email recommending the recipients for their approval.

President Kelly reported on the Student Chapter. He said the group is active. They are heading back to Belize to install septic systems, as a part of a combined medical, dental and engineering team, addressing the region’s problems.
 
bullet Troy Mays reported for the Web Site Committee. He shared that the Student Chapter has started it’s own web site. He also said he wants to continue posting Power Point presentations from the speakers at the monthly meetings to the Post web site. And he would like to obtain information on Leadership PE to post to the site, as well.

New Business

President Kelly said he will email the 2007 submittal for streamers to the Board, so the Board is aware of what applies to each committee for meeting the streamer goals. During the next few Board meetings, he will discuss one streamer at a time to encourage awareness.

President Kelly said the National Conference will be held 20 May through 23 May in Minneapolis, and several Board members have planned to attend, including himself.

President Kelly informed the group that the new Colonel for the Louisville District, Colonel Keith Landry, will be installed on Wednesday, 9 July.

The next Board meeting date is scheduled for 17 June at 10:00 a.m. in the cafeteria of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

March 2008 General Membership Meeting
The March meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held Tuesday, 18 March 2008 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Eighteen (18) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. First Vice President Marilyn Lewis then led the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Kelly made several announcements. He said that scholarship applications are currently being graded; and the May regular membership meeting will include the presentation of scholarships to the recipients. Additionally, in May, attendees will hear from University of Louisville students, supported by the Post, who went to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. During their spring break, they worked with Habitat for Humanity in support of the Hurricane Katrina efforts.

President Kelly shared excerpts from a presentation entitled “Strategic Perspectives” by Major General Del Eulberg, national president of SAME. He said that throughout the year, he would share with the Post nuggets of information from this presentation. For the March meeting, President Kelly provided an historical perspective of the SAME organization. He said the roots of the association go back to 1909, when the Army Corps of Engineers first published the Professional Memoirs, a service journal. Following World War I, which saw civilian engineers as a part of active duty forces, a group of officers wanted to maintain the spirit of cooperation between the military and private sector engineers. This resulted in the founding of SAME in 1920, initially to publish The Military Engineer magazine. Since then, membership has grown to over 20,000.

President Kelly discussed Century House, SAME’s Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. He also reviewed the organization’s mission, “To promote and facilitate engineering support for national security by developing and enhancing relationships and competencies among uniformed services, public and private sector engineers, and related professionals.” Additionally, he discussed the association’s goals, which are: National Security and Emergency Response, Education and Training, Relationships, Relevance, and Recognition. President Kelly encouraged the attendees to get involved as a leader in the organization.

President Kelly mentioned that the SAME Great Lakes and Ohio Valley Region is working on developing a unique coin for the regional organization. He said this is following the lead of the national organization, which already has a coin.

Program Co-Chair Ray Frye introduced the guest speaker, Nick Schmitt, PE, Senior Principal Engineer with MACTEC, who spoke on Remediation of an Unnatural Disaster: Catastrophic Failure of Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir Dam and the Ensuing Rebuilding of Johnson Shut-ins State Park.

Mr. Schmitt discussed the failure of the dam on 13 December 2005, when one side of the upper reservoir failed and more than a billion gallons of water rushed down the mountain, heading toward the state park. The deluge totally wiped out two miles of stream between the upper and lower reservoirs and destroyed the park. Ameren UE, the power company which maintained the dam, accepted responsibility and embarked on an aggressive program to restore the stream and the park. The Johnson Shut-Ins State Park was considered the “jewel” of the Missouri State Park System, and was the most highly visited park in the state. The dam that failed was 700’ wide and 84’ high with an additional 10’ high concrete wall atop the dam, for a total of 94’. The failure was equivalent, hydrologically, to a 10,000 year flood event. In addition to restoring the park, the lower reservoir had to be restored because of the large amount of sediments that were deposited during the disaster. Amazingly, there was no loss of life.

The next General Meeting for the Kentuckiana Post is scheduled for Tuesday, 15 April, with a presentation on the Ohio River Bridges. The May meeting will be on Tuesday, 20 May at the University of Louisville, with presentation of scholarships and a report from the U of L Student Chapter on their work during Spring Break.

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

February 2008 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 10:10 AM Tuesday 19 February 2008 in Room 951C of the Federal Building. President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster.

President Kelly noted that the minutes of the 4 December 2007 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as electronically circulated. Motion passed.

The roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated to verify attendance and review for updates.

Treasurer John Allison reported that there is currently $11,590.67 in the Post checking account and the only outstanding bill is to SAME National for $127.00. Treasurer Allison also reported that a financial statement will be submitted at the end of the month and will be reviewed by Rosemary Gilbertson. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President Kelly started off the President’s Report by stating the importance of building young member involvement in the Kentuckiana Post. Each member of the Board should be thinking about a young person to encourage involvement on committees, as there are many co-chair positions vacant at this time. Involvement in the Regional and National conferences also presents great opportunities and benefits for young members.

A major portion of the Board meeting focused on discussion of committee positions that need to be filled for the 2008 calendar year. The Directors positions have been filled and installment of new leaders occurred at the general membership meeting on January 29.

It was agreed that terms would be left as-is for Elected Directors and collateral assignments and streamer responsibilities were agreed to by all Elected Directors, with the exception of Mickey Jones who was not present at the Board Meeting. It was suggested that the Post keep track of activities and accomplishments throughout the year for streamer submissions to avoid cramming at the last minute. Reviewing the newsletter is a good reference source for keeping track of these activities. Rosemary Gilbertson suggested the Board add streamer updates to the agenda.

Other items to note re: Streamer submissions:
 
bullet John Allison informed the group that the format for streamer submission forms are changing for 2008
bullet Including pictures with submission is a good idea

Possible names for committee positions were mentioned to fill some of the openings and several Board members committed to discuss the opportunities with these individuals.

The Education & Training Co-Chair position would be responsible for managing PDHs for technical training

Announcements and Committee Reports

bullet John Allison gave a report on the Post Leaders Workshop he attended in February. Some key points he brought back from the workshop include:
bullet New requirements state that a young member and a member are to attend the Post Leaders Workshop
bullet The mission of SAME should be stated at all general meetings
bullet Should consider helping local boy scout troop with engineering badges
bullet High school teachers should be informed of Engineering and SAME
bullet Only 37/115 Posts submitted streamer applications for National Security and this presents concerns all-around
bullet Steve Skaggs reported that $7341.00 profit was made from the Small Business Workshop in December
bullet Kristen Crumpton reported that 12 new individual members and 5 new sustaining members have recently joined the Post. However, 38 individual members did not renew their memberships after the first of the year. She will send out an invitation to join the Post to non-members who attended the Open House in January and will contact those who did not renew their memberships after the first of the year.
bullet Free memberships sponsored by the Kentuckiana Post should be considered for young members who join a committee and Fort Knox/NCOs – this supports the motto “investing in our own” – National SAME President Bob Wolfe supports this.
bullet Scholarships due 1st week of March – need volunteers to help grade applications
bullet The Post needs to invite the young man who attended the Construction camp last summer to an upcoming general post meeting to make a presentation on what he learned
bullet Louisville District employees agreed to spread the word about the Air Force and Construction camps – the website will also be utilized to spread the word

The meeting concluded at approximately 11:30 AM.

The next general membership meeting of SAME will be on Tuesday, March 18th, in the Federal Building Cafeteria meeting room. The presentation, by Nick Schmitt of MACTEC, will be on “Remediation of an Un-Natural Disaster: Catastrophic Failure of Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir Dam and the Ensuing Re-building of Johnson Shut-ins State Park”.

The next Board meeting will be on Tuesday, April 15 at 10:00.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes. Minutes are also available on the Post’s web site.

Respectively Submitted,

Janet S. Skees, P.E.
Secretary, Kentuckiana Post

 

January 2008 General Membership Meeting
The January general membership meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 29 January 2008 in concert with the Louisville District Corps of Engineers’ Open House. The meeting was held in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Eighty-five (85) members and guests were in attendance. The meeting was called to order at 12:30 p.m. by Colonel Raymond Midkiff, 2007 Post President. Col. Midkiff welcomed Ernie Drott, from the Cincinnati Corps of Engineers, who serves as the SAME Ohio Valley Regional Vice President.

Steve Bickel, KP Past President, presented the Post with an American flag that flew in Iraq on 22 November 2007 in honor of the Kentuckian Post SAME. The flag was a gift in appreciation for the Post sending golf equipment and corn hole boards to the 30th Naval Construction Regiment in Iraq to give them recreational opportunities. The regiment is the command of former Post President Hans Probst.

1st V.P. Clay Kelly led the group in prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Col. Midkiff made several announcements. He said the scholarship applications are due March 3. Scholarship Committee Co-Chairman Veronica Rife said that anyone wanting to help get the word out to colleges regarding the scholarship opportunity should contact either her or Erin Hall. Col. Midkiff mentioned that the major fund-raising activity for the scholarship initiative is the Post’s annual golf outing.

2nd V.P. Marilyn Lewis requested assistance for the February 2 Math Counts event.

Regional V.P. Ernie Drott presented Regional Vice President medals and accompanying certificates to Janet Skees and Gerard Edelen for their service to the Post since January 2005. Ms. Skees’ award was associated with her work with the Small Business Committee and the December 2006 Small Business Workshop. Mr. Edelen’s award was for his work for the past two years planning and facilitating the Post’s programs every month.

Mr. Drott proceeded to induct the 2008 Post officers. He first thanked outgoing President Col. Midkiff. He emphasized the goals associated with SAME’s national strategic plan, which include: national security and emergency response, recognition and relationships, education and training, outreach and communication, and making the society relevant to the profession. He asked each of the new officers to support the plan and then inducted them for the 2008 calendar year. Then Col. Midkiff transferred his leadership role as President to Clay Kelly by passing to him the Post’s charter document.

Newly inducted President Kelly offered several comments. He discussed the feeling of accomplishment one gets by giving back to an organization such as SAME. He said this year he wants to share, “a nugget at a time,” the vision that is going on at the national level. “We are all teaming to accomplish national security,” he said. “We can have a global impact through the Kentuckiana Post.” President Kelly went on to encourage everyone to “invest in our own.” He said others outside the organization do not understand what SAME does. He explained that a lot of the outreach programs through the society are to educate the public.

President Kelly encouraged the group to “invest in our people” such as “sending a young member to attend a national conference so they can see the synergy” of the society. He encouraged the members to get more involved and asked them to step forward for service. “I invite you to ask how you can help,” he said. President Kelly pointed to ways to get membership information, such as through the Post’s web site. He explained that the Post newsletter can be obtained directly from the web site, and members should now be receiving an e-mailed link to the site when the newsletter is available. In his closing remarks, President Kelly said, “As we go through this next year, I want us to be relevant; and we are going to need your help for us to do it.”

President Kelly closed the meeting by presenting outgoing President Col. Midkiff with a plaque as a memento and in appreciation for his service to the Post over the past year.

The Post will not have a separate February meeting due to participation in the Engineer’s Week Banquet on Friday night February 15 at the Olmsted.

 

December 2007 General Membership Meeting
The December meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 4 December 2007 at the Holiday Inn – Airport South on Fern Valley Road during the luncheon of the Post’s 2nd Annual Small Business Workshop. There were 202 attendees at the event and 30 exhibitors. Clay Kelly, 1st Vice President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting leading the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

1st V.P. Kelly introduced the guest speaker for the luncheon, Mr. Anthony Bell, Chief of the Small Business Program for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Bell was complementary of the information that had been provided during the morning sessions of the workshop. He discussed contracting with the Corps, and emphasized the importance of carefully reading the RFP. He said respondents should not hesitate to contact a contracting officer for clarification, if needed. He mentioned the importance of obtaining debriefings on proposals submitted.

Mr. Bell went on to say that there is “going to be a tremendous push, more so than ever, for the Service Disabled Veteran Contracting program.” He said the Corps is currently not meeting contracting goals in this area. He also encouraged small businesses to respond to announcements for Sources Sought. He said if enough small businesses indicate an interest in a project, the project can be advertised as a small business set-aside.

Mr. Bell encouraged small businesses to keep their initial capability statements submitted to the Small Business Office short and concise. He said that within three or four pages, a business should discuss what services they are providing that the agency really needs and include “discriminators that make your company different.” Financial information should also be included that shows that the business has an appropriate line of credit. Mr. Bell advised attendees to be “slow to marry in business”; because, he said he hears many stories about some business relationships that “have gone awry because they didn’t understand each others’ businesses and their cultures.” But, he said, when it does work, “it works really well.”

Following Mr. Bell’s presentation, Col. Raymond Midkiff, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, recognized the success of the initiative over the past couple of years to strengthen relationships between the Louisville District and small businesses. He thanked Steve Skaggs, Anne Black, and Linda Hunt-Smith for their work in putting together this year’s Small Business Workshop. Then, Col. Midkiff presented awards recognizing small businesses in three categories. The award recipients were as follows:
 
bullet For Construction Services – Veteran-Pacific Joint Venture
bullet For Engineering Services – H.A. Spalding Engineers
bullet For Environmental Services – Environmental Quality Management (EQM)

A drawing for a Bass Pro Shops gift card was held for those who donated toys or cash to the Toys for Tots program. The Post has supported the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots during the December program for many years. Forty toys and $45 cash were collected.

Small Business Co-Chairman Steve Skaggs thanked SAIC for sponsoring the breakfast during the workshop, and Mickey Jones and Mason & Hanger for underwriting the cost of the color-coded identification badges. He also offered a special thanks to Brittany Ford of the Louisville District Corps for her work helping the Small Business Committee organize the workshop.

The January program for the Post will be the Louisville District Corps’ Open House, for which the Post is a co-sponsor.

 

December 2007 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 2:00 PM Tuesday 4 December 2007 in the Winners Circle Room of the Holiday Inn – Airport South. 1st Vice President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster. The meeting followed the attached agenda.

1st V.P. Kelly noted that the minutes of the 16 October 2007 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated to verify attendance and review for updates.

Treasurer John Allison reported that there is currently $14,409.10 in the Post checking account and all outstanding bills have been paid. However, the bill for the Small Business Workshop, held on the same day as this meeting, has not yet been received and paid; and the checks received this day have not yet been deposited. Small Business Co-Chairman Steve Skaggs reported that the bill for the hotel facilities will be about $7,800; and the workshop event should clear over $7,000 after expenses are paid. Steve reported that there were about 220 people registered for the workshop (note: final attendance count was 202). A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

1st V.P. Kelly showed the Board members a certificate of appreciation received on December 3 from the 19th Engineer Battalion during a Welcome Home ceremony he attended at Ft. Knox. The certificate was presented in recognition of the Post’s providing phone cards for the deployed troops.

A major portion of the Board meeting focused on discussion of Director and committee positions that need to be filled for the 2008 calendar year. Two of the four current Directors have retired from the Corps of Engineers and may not wish to maintain the same level of involvement with the Post; and a third Director has transferred within his corporation to an office across the country. Various committee openings were also discussed. Possible names were mentioned to fill some of the openings and several Board members committed to discuss the opportunities with these individuals. It was also decided to send an announcement to the Post membership to encourage involvement at a higher level for those who have been regularly involved in attending Post meetings and may wish to step up to a position on the Board. The Post leadership positions need to be filled prior to the regular membership meeting on January 29, when the leaders will be installed for 2008.

Treasurer Allison discussed that the Board will need to obtain the services of a tax professional to complete the IRS Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax). The filing of this form is required because the Kentuckiana Post is a non-profit organization that will have received in excess of $25,000 in gross receipts for the year. It was decided that Treasurer Allison should discuss this with the accountant who provides services for the Kentucky Engineering Foundation in Frankfort and obtain a price for completing the form.

The Board decided to hold the January membership meeting on the day of the Louisville Corps’ Open House on January 29. During that meeting, Col. Midkiff will discuss the Post’s “Year in Review”; and the Board members for 2008 will be installed. An announcement to this effect will be sent to the membership.

The Board decided that the Post should coordinate to provide refreshments for the morning session of the Corps’ Open House. The Post is a co-sponsor with the Corps for this event. Secretary Janet Skees will send an email to the membership to request corporate sponsors for the refreshments. An estimated 400 persons are expected to attend.

Scholarship Co-Chairman Veronica Rife reported that the application for the Post’s scholarships to be awarded during 2008 have been distributed in the newsletter. Webmaster Troy Mays will be asked to place the application on the Post’s web site. After the first of the year, there will be a web blast to notify the Post’s membership of the scholarship program and to encourage participation. Director Marilyn Lewis said she wants to promote the program stronger within the Corps, by distributing more announcements, than has been done in the past. Ms. Rife said that she and Scholarship Co-Chairman Erin Hall will be contacting various universities to advertise the scholarship program, as well.

Webmaster Mays shared that he has added analytics to the Post web site and can now obtain statistics on how often the web site has been “hit” and how the viewer was directed to the site, as well as other information.

It was decided to continue to hold the Board meetings during 2008 on the same day as the regular membership meetings. Therefore, Board meetings, beginning with February 19, will continue to be held on the third Tuesday of the even months at 10:00 in room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building, unless otherwise announced.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn. Motion passed.

The meeting concluded at approximately 3:00 PM.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes. Minutes are also available on the Post’s web site.

 

November 2007 General Membership Meeting
The November meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 13 November 2007 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Twenty-four (24) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, 1st Vice President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. He then led the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

1st V.P. Kelly made several announcements. He said that the Kentuckiana Flyer newsletter will now be delivered via an emailed hyperlink tying to the Post’s web site, instead of sending the newsletter as an email attachment. This is to avoid having to use a third party to send the mass emails, which has resulted in emails being blocked by spam filters. He said the email with the hyperlink to the November newsletter should go out in a day or two. If anyone does not receive the email, they should contact one of the Post’s leaders.

Anne Black, Small Business Committee Co-Chairman, discussed plans for the second annual Small Business Workshop to be held at the Holiday Inn on Fern Valley Road. She said the all-day workshop would have informational sessions in the morning and networking in the afternoon. She said they are expecting a “big turnout.” 1st V.P. Kelly mentioned that the agenda for this year’s workshop is different than last year; and the proceeds will be used to support the troops overseas. He said that phone cards have been sent to the 19th Engineer Battalion that is deployed to Afghanistan. And, he said, the Post also has sent recreational items to Iraq for the benefit of the 30th Naval Construction Regiment, under the command of former Post President Hans Probst. Items sent included golf equipment and cornhole boards with the SAME logo, which were made by Post member Ken Besser.

1st V.P. Kelly announced that scholarship applications should be coming out later this month.

1st V.P. Kelly reminded attendees that individual Post memberships are due to expire at the end of the year, and members should be watching for renewal information.

Next month’s regular Post membership meeting will be held during the luncheon of the Small Business Workshop on December 4. The January program will be the Louisville District Corps’ Open House, for which the Post is a co-sponsor.

Programs Co-Chairman Gerard Edelen introduced the guest speaker, Larry Cozine, AIA, who is Chief of the Louisville District Corps’ Design Branch. He spoke on the status of the Corps’ Centers of Standardization, as it applies to the USACE MILCON Transformation.

Mr. Cozine said there are MILCON Transformation goals and objectives that are “very real expectations”. And a part of those objectives is the implementation of Centers of Standardization (COS) to “build better, faster, and cheaper”.

Mr. Cozine explained the different responsibilities between the COS and the local geographic districts. He discussed the planned evolution of the program from FY ’07 through FY ’09. He said the COS will be fully operational by 30 September 2008, with the standards and standard operating procedures being in place. By FY ’09, additional facilities will be built re-using designs that had been developed for initial projects. 3-D BIM models will be developed and re-used.

Mr. Cozine talked about some of the challenges with making the transition to COS. He said that a major challenge is when a COS works with a different Geographic District, and people do not know each other. Since the COS is designing the building and the Geographic District is responsible for designing the building site and overseeing the construction contract, working relationships have to be developed.

Another challenge is related to architectural compatibility. Different types of facilities need to look compatible since they will be located together on the same complex. Mr. Cozine’s presentation demonstrates the effort needed with conceptual designs created for Fort Bliss. The link to his presentation can be found here.

The next KP-SAME meeting is scheduled for December 4 during the luncheon of the Small Business Workshop at the Holiday Inn on Fern Valley Road.

 

October 2007 General Membership Meeting
The October meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 16 October 2007 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Eighteen (18) members and guests were in attendance. Clay Kelly, 1st Vice President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. He then led the group in the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

1st V.P. Kelly provided an update on the Post’s activities. He mentioned that there have been problems with the Kentuckiana Flyer newsletter email being blocked by spam filters. He said they are looking at ways to avoid the problem, and that future newsletters may be sent as a link to the newsletter on the Post web site.

1st V.P. Kelly reported that the Post raised $2200 for operating expenses and scholarships from the golf outing in September. He mentioned that the golf outing, which had previously been held in July, was moved this year to September. He thanked Tony Marconi, Jimmy Stahl, and the U of L Student Chapter for organizing the event.

1st V.P. Kelly provided an update on the phone cards the Post is sending to the 76th Engineer Company of the 19th Engineer Battalion that is deployed to Afghanistan. The 19th Engineer Seahorse Association was working toward a goal of raising enough money to send 150 phone cards to the troops. They had enough money to send 55 cards, and the Post provided the funds for the remaining cards.

1st V.P. Kelly reported that part of the 19th Engineer Battalion will be returning to Ft. Knox in November; and there will be a welcome home celebration in December. Kentuckiana Post members will be invited.

The Post will be sending some golf equipment and cornhole boards to the 30th Naval Construction Regiment in Iraq to give them recreational opportunities. The regiment is the command of former Post President Hans Probst.

The University of Louisville will be hosting a networking event on November 1. The Post and the Corps of Engineers plan to participate. The Post’s scholarship program for 2008 will be launched at the networking event. Applications will be due in the spring. 1st V.P. Kelly explained that Post scholarships are cash awards in the amount of $3,000 to help students in engineering continue on that path.

Next month’s regular Post membership meeting will be held on November 13; and Larry Cozine will give an update on the Corps’ Centers of Standardization. December 4 will be the Small Business Workshop. A registration form is attached to the October Kentuckiana Flyer newsletter. The Corps’ Open House will be held in January.

Tony Marconi introduced the guest speaker, Gerald Hollinden, PhD, Sr. Vice President of the Power Business Sector of URS Corporation. He spoke on “Technologies to Reduce or Capture and Store Carbon Dioxide Emissions”, as it applies to the use of coal for energy. Dr. Hollinden’s presentation was recently given to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He said by 2030, there will be an additional two billion people on the earth, and there will be a huge explosion in energy requirements in the next few years. He said that India and China will grow the most, and they will use coal as their source of energy. He explained that the significant challenge with coal is that “managing carbon dioxide must be met to maintain sustainability in the world.” Coal consumption will increase from 5.4 billion tons to 10.6 billion tons per year by 2030; and China will account for 60% of the growth. Dr. Hollinden said that China is not likely to worry about global warming and develop the technology necessary to address the carbon dioxide emissions. He said we have to have the technology ready for China, which will be emitting half of the carbon dioxide emissions in the entire world by 2030.

Dr. Holliden went on to say that the United States has reduced our carbon intensity in the last ten years by more than any other country in the world. The U.S. doesn’t belong to Kyoto; but the countries that do have badly missed their Kyoto targets.

Dr. Holliden discussed the technologies for capturing carbon dioxide, including coal combustion and gasification plants. Carbon dioxide that has been captured can be injected in deep geological formations. When injected into old fuel beds, it can force fuel out of the ground that could not be acquired before.

Dr. Holliden discussed the U.S. energy policy, and its focus on gas. He said that gas is not really “clean”, since it emits 43% of the amount of carbon dioxide that coal does. But, he said the many new gas plants being built are not accommodating carbon dioxide storage. Because of the requirements being put on new coal plants, he said another “Inconvenient Truth” is that coal will be the “cleanest burning fuel in 2020, and the contrary, natural gas will be dirty.”

Dr. Holliden closed by saying there is more coal in the United States than there is gas in the world. He said we have a supply of fuel that is there for 200 years, and we have oil in the “worst possible countries we could have it in.”

The next KP-SAME meeting is scheduled for November 13 at 1130 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

 

October 2007 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 10:00 AM Tuesday 16 October 2007 in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building. 1st Vice President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached roster. The meeting followed the attached agenda.

1st V.P. Kelly noted that the minutes of the 21 August 2007 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated for updates.

Rosemary Gilbertson presented John Allison’s Treasurer’s report. Currently there is $8,426.37 in the Post checking account; however the bill for the calling cards for the deployed 76th Engineering Company of the 19th Engineer Battalion has not been paid ($3,750). Golf equipment and postage for the 30th Naval Construction Regiment (Hans Probst’s command in Iraq) has been paid. The September Golf Scramble made approximately $2,200. The final amount is pending receipt of two checks. The treasurer’s report stated that if the Kentuckiana Post receives for the year gross revenue in excess of $25,000, the Post will have to file with the IRS a Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax). The Board discussed that the Post may want to consider going through the Kentucky Engineering Foundation (KEF) for administering the Golf Scramble in the future to reduce total cash received through the Post. Anyone who has a good contact with a tax professional with whom the Post could work should contact John Allison.
A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

1st V.P. Kelly reported that an email from Steve Bickel had been circulated to Board Members to seek feedback and/or approval about the possibility of the Kentuckiana Post providing golf equipment to the 30th Naval Construction Regiment to give them recreational opportunities. The regiment is the command of former Post President Hans Probst, and is currently deployed to Iraq. The equipment would be set up in a secure enclosed yard and would include two frames with nets, mats with rubber pegs, several inexpensive drivers, pitching wedges, and balls. The equipment would cost between $800 and $1000. Email comments from the Board members, which were received prior to the Board meeting, were favorable. A motion was made and seconded to approve the purchase of the equipment. Motion passed.

1st V.P. Kelly noted that after Bruce Murray’s retirement luncheon Rosemary Gilbertson was encouraging Ken Besser to remain active with the KP. Through that conversation, Ken agreed to make a set of cornhole boards to be sent to the troops under Hans Probst.

1st V.P. Kelly provided an update on the phone cards the Board approved in August. Clay acknowledged the tremendous help of Charlene MacDonald at FMSM, who ordered the cards. He has been in touch with Candice Dietz, whose husband, CAPT Christian Dietz, is with the 19th Engineer Battalion. Candice and the 19th Engineer Seahorse Association is organizing a shipment of phone cards to be sent to the 76th Engineer Company in Afghanistan. The goal was to raise enough money to send 150 500-minute cards. When Clay contacted Candice, the Association had received enough money to send only 55 cards. She was very excited to learn that SAME-KP was basically going to cover the costs of the remaining 95 cards. Candice shared that the phone cards provide a lifeline for the troops back to their families and it’s typically the highlight of their week while they are deployed. Through Charlene’s efforts, SAME-KP will provide 300 125-minute cards (no 500-minute cards were available). The cards will be delivered to Candice within the week.

Committee Reports
 
bullet Clay Kelly reported for Erin Hall for the Scholarship Committee. The focus over the next few months will be to spread the word to universities and others to increase awareness and boost the number of applicants.
bullet Tony Marconi reported for the Education and Mentoring Fund Committee. He distributed the draft “Annual Report for the Year Ending 30 June 2007.” He asked for comments to be provided within a week (by 23 October 2007) so he can incorporate the comments prior to meeting with the Kentucky Engineering Foundation (KEF) on 25 October 2007. Highlights of the report include:
bullet The Fund net asset value (NAV) as of 30 June 2007 equals $595,660.
bullet 28,250 has been distributed in scholarships and grants during the fiscal year.
bullet $249,750 has been awarded since 1997.
bullet The equity portion of the Fund, currently at 64.5% of the total investments, is in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares (VFAIX); and has experienced a 20.5% increase over the year, while the S&P 500 index increased 18.4%.
 
bullet Gerard Edelen reported for the Programs Committee. Today’s speaker will be Gerald Hollinden, Sr. Vice President in the Power Business Sector of URS, presenting on the topic of “The Use of Coal in our Future.” Future meeting presenters and topics are as follows:
bullet November – Larry Cozine, USACE Louisville District, who will provide an update on the Centers of Standardization
bullet December – Small Business Workshop
bullet January – Louisville District Open House.

1st V.P. Kelly mentioned that the entire Post membership will be invited to a welcome home ceremony for the 19th Engineer Battalion some time in December; however the date has not yet been set.
 
bullet Rosemary Gilbertson reported for the Young Members Committee. She said they are still trying to get a date tied down for the work associated with the Portland Promise Center. This is a project supported by the Student Chapter to provide a boundary survey for a property that has been acquired for building a small business incubator. Ms. Gilbertson also reported that the Student Chapter is sponsoring Project Warm, a program to help low income residents with winterizing their homes. She said that anyone who wants to participate can contact her or Ryan Tinsley. Ms. Gilbertson said the committee will investigate having a booth at an upcoming networking event with the University of Louisville to use that as an opportunity to promote both the Post and the scholarship program.
 
bullet 1st V.P. Kelly asked for input if anyone knows of someone who might be interested in being active with the Post’s National Security Committee.
 
bullet Anne Black and Steve Skaggs reported for the Small Business Committee and discussed the Small Business Workshop to be held in December. The Holiday Inn on Fern Valley Road will be the location for the workshop to be held on December 4th. A draft agenda for the workshop and a list of estimated expenses and income were passed out to the Board. Confirmed and potential speakers were discussed. A contract with the facility was provided for signature; and the Committee obtained a check from the Treasurer for a deposit on the facility. A registration form was included in the October newsletter. Attendees and exhibitors will be encouraged to bring toys to support the Marines’ Toys For Tots and those who bring two toys will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card to Bass Pro Shop.

Discussion ensued regarding having a regular membership meeting and/or Board meeting on the day of the Workshop. It was decided to have an abbreviated regular membership meeting during the lunch at the workshop. The meeting would include: 1) highlighting the Post’s activities over the past year, 2) discussing the benefits of membership in SAME, and 3) presenting Post awards to small businesses.

It was decided to also hold the Board meeting the same day as the Workshop since December is a very busy month for everyone and so that Board members would not have to make an extra trip on a different date. The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn at 2:00 on December 4.
 
bullet Troy Mays reported for the Web Site Committee. He reported that the website is currently up-to-date.
 
bullet 1st VP Kelly reported that some Post members are having problems getting the newsletters, which can become trapped by spam filters. He said he will coordinate with FMSM to address the problem. It appears sending an email link to the Post’s web page where the newsletter is stored may be a good solution to address the problem.
 
bullet Kristen Crumpton reported for the Membership Committee. She said the Post has gained 22 new individual members this year since April (the beginning of the period for tracking membership). She said she wants to focus on retention of existing members. Eighty-four of the Post’s 97 individual members have memberships due to expire on January 1. A suggestion was made to add a banner to the top of the next newsletter reminding members to renew.

New Business

1st VP Kelly encouraged Board members to remain active with the Board for the next year; and asked that members let him know if they want to stay in their current positions or get involved in other areas. He also said he’d like to start looking at putting a succession plan in place for future Post leadership. Young Members Committee member Rosemary Gilbertson said she would like to see a “younger” member take the lead with this committee; and she would be willing to take on other responsibilities with the Board.

The meeting concluded at approximately 11:30 AM.

The next Board meeting date is scheduled for December 4, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn on Fern Valley Road. It will be held during the Small Business Workshop.

A file copy of these minutes and all of the attachments can be found in the Post file cabinet under Board Minutes.

 

September 2007 Annual Golf Scramble
The Annual Kentuckiana Post Golf Scramble was held at Quail Chase on Wednesday, 19 September 2007. The event was moved from July to September to take advantage of the cooler weather, although it was still quite warm. Sixy-four golfers thoroughly enjoyed a beautiful day on the course while raising approximately $3,000 for the SAME Education and Mentoring Fund.

First place went to the team of Nick Bibelhauser, Matt Watts, Terry Durham and Scott Hennig. We appreciate the tremendous participation by the Louisville District Corps of Engineers employees and the generous sponsorships from the private sector.

Thanks to everyone who participated and contributed to this great outing. A special thanks to Jimmy Stahl, Tony Marconi and Joni Pardue of URS for organizing the event, John Storm of FMSM for handling the sponsor signs, and to the University of Louisville SAME Student Chapter for their involvement and assistance. The student chapter raised over $200 selling mulligans and running the putting contest.

This year’s event was sponsored by:
 
bullet Barge, Waggoner, Sumner & Cannon
bullet FMSM Engineers
bullet Mason & Hanger
bullet Stanley Consultants
bullet Woolpert Inc.
bullet Burgess & Niple
bullet HNTB
bullet RSP Architects
bullet Tetra Tech
bullet Cornerstone Engineering
bullet Michael Baker Jr. Inc.
bullet Shaw E & I
bullet URS Corporation

 

August 2007 General Membership Meeting
The August meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held Tuesday, 21 August 2007 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Twenty-one (21) members and guests were in attendance. 1st Vice President Clay Kelly of the Kentuckiana Post opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. He then led the group in the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.

1st Vice President Kelly reminded everyone that the annual Kentuckiana Post golf scramble is in September this year in an effort to play in cooler weather conditions. The outing will be held at Quail Chase Golf Course on Wednesday, 19 September with a tee-off time of 0930. The golf scramble is the September program, so no meeting will take place in the Federal Building.

1st Vice President Kelly announced the October program as Jerry Hollinden, Vice President Power Business Sector, URS Corporation - Clean Coal Technologies. The meeting will be held in the Federal Building cafeteria.

1st Vice President Kelly reminded the attendees that the 2nd Annual Small Business Workshop would be held on Tuesday, 4 December at the Holiday Inn on Fern Valley Road. He described the 2006 workshop as a tremendous success and expects the same for the 2007 meeting. The topics will be different from last year’s program, but still focused on helping small businesses succeed in the federal market. As last year, proceeds will be used to send deployed troops phone cards with the SAME logo on them.

Steve Bickel, PE, PLS, Kentuckiana Post Past President, went on to say that the Board will work in conjunction with the 19th Engineer Seahorse Association to distribute the phone cards this year. This will allow us to leverage our support by joining forces with a group from Fort Knox very active in supporting deployed engineers.

Past President Bickel also updated the group on Captain Hans Probst, PE, former Kentuckiana Post President, who will soon be deployed to Iraq from Port Hueneme, where has been stationed for several months. Hans has been missed and we will continue to
think of him as he transitions to an active war zone. We look forward to his safe return.

1st Vice President Kelly highlighted the Kentuckiana Post’s support of two local participants to the Seabees SAME Engineering and Construction Camp in Port Hueneme, California. The two students had the opportunity to meet Captain Probst during their week-long stay. We will arrange for both students to present their experience at a future Kentuckiana Post program.

Gerard Edelen, Programs Chair, announced that the Kentuckiana Post would soon be able to offer professional development hours (PDH’s) to those who attend our programs. With the State of Kentucky recently passing legislation requiring engineers licensed in Kentucky to obtain 15 hours of PDH’s every 2 years, the Kentuckiana Post will offer PDH’s as a service to our members.

Mr. Edelen then introduced the guest speaker, Jeff Graham, PE, of Hydromax USA, who gave a presentation on Emerging Technologies In Underground Pipe Inspection. Mr. Graham started with Hydromax 4 years ago. Prior to Hydromax, he was a partner with GRW Engineers. He has been involved with the evaluation of more than 11 million feet of sewer and in the last
4 years he has been responsible for work in more than 20 states. Some of the communities he has worked in include: Louisville, Tampa, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Lexington, Houston, Atlanta, and Baltimore. Mr. Graham provided a comprehensive presentation on the latest methods for accurately determining the condition of underground pipe.

The next Kentuckiana Post, SAME event is scheduled for Wednesday, 19 September at Quail Chase Golf Course with a tee off at 0930. The programs will reconvene in the Cafeteria Meeting Room of the Mazzoli Federal Building for the October meeting.

 

August 2007 Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 10:00 AM Tuesday 21 August 2007 in Room 709 of the Mazzoli Federal Building. 1st Vice President Clay Kelly chaired the meeting.

1st Vice President Kelly noted that the minutes of the 19 June 2007 meeting had been circulated to the Board by electronic mail. Comments had been received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated. Motion passed.

The roster of Post Officers and Committee Chairs was circulated for updates.

The Treasurer, John Allison reported that $4,980.62 is currently the balance of the Post checking account. A deposit on the Golf Scramble has been made with proceeds and expenses from the scramble upcoming. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President’s Report

1st Vice President Kelly presented the President’s report in COL Raymond Midkiff’s absence. He thanked those who volunteered at the ROTC Cadet’s Leadership ceremonies at Fort Knox in early July. He reported that the two Kentuckiana Post sponsored students, Sheldon Albertson and Brandon Irby, attended the Seabee's engineering camp at Port Hueneme in California from 29 July to 4 August. Both will be coming to a Kentuckiana Post, SAME meeting in the future to share their photos and experiences with the Post.

1st Vice President Kelly started a brief discussion and recap of the Regional Conference held in Buffalo, NY, 15-17 August. Most attendees noted that the conference could have used more tracts and topics not specific to Buffalo Civil Works and Water Resources. There was little Military presence at the conference likely due to the lack of a Military Track. Next years Regional Conference will be held in Huntington, WV.

1st Vice President Kelly reported that the Post had been contacted by the 19th Engineer Seahorse Association asking for donations to send phone cards to the deployed 76th Engineering company and to sponsor a “Welcome Home” party for the 19th Engineering Battalion and their families. 1st Vice President Kelly noted that last year the Post used proceeds from the Small Business Conference were used to purchase 500 minute phone cards with the SAME logo on them. After much discussion it was determined that the best option for supporting the 19th Seahorse Association was to provide phone cards similar to those provided last year. 1st Vice President Kelly will follow up with Steve Bickel to get the details from last year and talk with the 19th Engineer Seahorse Association. A motion was made and seconded to approve a $4,000 donation from the Post checking account for purchasing a minimum of 100 phone cards for the 19th Engineer Seahorse Association to distribute.

Post Leaders Workshop - 1st Vice President Kelly shared that he will attend the Post Leaders Workshop in Minneapolis 24-25 August 2007, to participate and to give a presentation as the National K-12 Outreach Committee Chair. National SAME offers this workshop two times each year, typically in January and August, at varying locations. National SAME covers the registration costs, hotel expenses and provides the meals. The only expense to participants is travel. This will be the second PLW 1st Vice President Kelly has attended and he confirmed that it is very beneficial, with the opportunity to meet other Post Leaders and to meet SAME Headquarters staff, while learning about the details of running a Post. He introduced the idea of SAME Kentuckiana Post supporting the attendance of at least one of the members of the Kentuckiana Post leadership by covering the airfare to the PLW. He asked the Board members to think about this idea and to be prepared to discuss it at a future meeting.

1st Vice President Kelly noted that Kentuckiana Post annual golf scramble was coming up on Wednesday, 19 September and that the word needed to be spread at the District and among the sustaining members. The golf flyer was sent with the post flyer and in a separate e-mail blast but many members are not getting the flyers or e-mails from the Kentuckiana Post because of e-mail filters and security issues. Gerard Edelen and Steve Skaggs volunteered to distribute golf flyers at the District and have them posted throughout the building.

1st Vice President Kelly noted that Capt. Hans Probst left for the Middle East on Monday and would be stationed there for the next 6 months.

Committee Reports

Tony Marconi reported for the Education and Mentoring Fund Committee and stated that the end of Fiscal Year 2007 was 30 June and the fund balance was $598,660 at the close of the Fiscal Year. The Fiscal Year 2007 report is forth coming and will be presented to the Board upon completion.

Gerard Edelen reported for the Programs Committee. Today’s speaker will be Jeff Graham from HydroMax presenting on the topic of underground utility inspection techniques. Future meeting presenters and topics are as follows: September – Golf Scramble; October – Jerry Hollinden, V.P. Power Business Sector, URS Corporation - Clean Coal Technologies; November – Larry Cozine, USACE Louisville District; December – Small Business Workshop; January – Louisville District Open House.

Steve Skaggs reported for the Education and Training Committee. He said there will be no LEEDs training. He also said that the committee is still looking to provide Professional Development Hours (PDHs) at Kentuckiana Post general membership meetings. After discussion by the Board it was decided to shoot for providing PDHs at the November general membership meeting.

Anne Black reported for the Small Business Committee and the Small Business Workshop to be held in December. The Fern Valley Road Holiday Inn has been chosen as the location and the workshop will be held on Tuesday, 4 December. She said registration for the workshop will cost $50 and booth space at the networking event will be $200 for large businesses. The morning sessions will consist of technical sessions focusing on design-build, meeting USACE expectations, bonding issues, briefings, and upcoming small business opportunities. The committee is looking to schedule a keynote speaker and Mayor Abramson was suggested. Lunch will include a short Kentuckiana Post meeting with a Post awards ceremony. The afternoon will consist of a networking session with large businesses in the exhibit area. Attendees and exhibitors will be encouraged to bring a toy to support Toys For Tots and all proceeds from the workshop will go toward purchasing phone cards for the 19th Engineering Seahorse Association.

Mickey Jones reported for the Web Site Committee. He reported that the website has undergone some major changes and encouraged the Board to take a look at the website.

Kristen Crumpton reported for the Membership Committee. She said since April the Post has gained 16 individual members and on average the post has been gaining 10 members per quarter. Three new sustaining members (Rumford Industries Group Inc., McTech Corporation, and TMG Services) joined in June.

New Business

Several Board members expressed that the newsletter was not being received and was likely getting marked as spam by e-mail security filters due to the e-mail being sent out late at night. 1st Vice President Kelly said he would talk with Steve Bickel and Richard Petty regarding the newsletter e-mails.

There was discussion about the December Board meeting and it was decided to move the meeting to Tuesday, 4 December at the Small Business Workshop. Time to be determined.

The meeting concluded at approximately 11:15 AM. The next Board meeting date is scheduled for Tuesday, 16 October 2007 preceding the proposed general membership meeting.

 

July 2007 Regular Membership Meeting
The July meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 17 July 2007 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Fifteen (15) members and guests were in attendance. Col. Raymond Midkiff, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. He then led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Col. Midkiff reminded everyone that the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Regional Conference is being held in Buffalo, NY from August 15 to August 17. He said he will give a presentation on the Louisville District program for FY 08/09. He said it appears that the District’s strong military work load is going to stretch out beyond what was originally anticipated. Because the Reserves now have a larger construction effort, the work could continue past 2011 to 2013 or 2014.

Col. Midkiff announced that there are two upcoming events in Louisville. The Inland Waterways User Board meeting will be hosted by the Louisville District 31 July. And, the PIANC Smart Rivers 2007 conference will be 16-19 September. According to the conference flyer, the objective of the 2007 conference is to “share knowledge and experience, and to work for a better and more efficient integration of inland waterways (rivers and channels) into an integrated intermodal transport system.”

Rosemary Gilbertson, Young Member Affairs Co-Chair, discussed SAME’s participation in the Governor’s Scholars program that was held at Morehead State University from the end of June through July. John Allison and Ms. Gilbertson took 58 Scholars to Cave Run Lake on 27 June to show them about military engineering. The students were shown the dam and a construction site and then worked on a design project of a parking lot and boat ramp. Ms. Gilbertson and Mr. Allison took the opportunity to promote SAME during the program and also shared information on the Kentuckiana Post’s scholarship program with the participants. They encouraged the Scholars to sign up for SAME membership; and as a result, the Post now has about 35 new student members.

Gerard Edelen, Programs Committee Co-Chair, said the 21 August meeting will be at the Federal Building, and the topic will be “Emerging Technologies, Underground Pipe Inspection” presented by Jeff Graham of Hydromax USA. The 18 September meeting will be the annual golf outing at Quail Chase. Mr. Edelen asked for suggestions for presentation topics for the October and November meetings.

Col. Midkiff introduced the guest speaker, Dave Klinstiver, PE, the Corps’ Resident Engineer at McAlpine, who gave a presentation on the McAlpine Lock Replacement Project. Mr. Klinstiver explained that two older lock structures, one 600’ long and the other 360’ long, were demolished to make room for a new 1200’ chamber. With the completion of the new chamber, the site will have dual 1200’ chambers. He explained the early history of the locks going back to 1830 with the Louisville Portland Canal, which was constructed to navigate past the Falls of the Ohio. McAlpine currently processes tow traffic carrying 58 million tons of commodities per year. The presentation also addressed the project’s emphasis on recycling materials. For example, the sheet piling for the cofferdam was used for Olmstead’s construction and will be used again at Chickamauga Locks and Dam. Mr. Klinstiver described the historic significance of the old swivel bridge, which they tried unsuccessfully to give away. He discussed the roller compacted concrete construction method that was used to build the lock chamber walls. After discussing the chronology of the construction, he showed a digital rendering of the finished lock.

Following the technical presentation, six attendees continued the meeting with a tour of the McAlpine construction site. Mr. Klinstiver led them on a tour of the entire length of the lock from on top of the cofferdam and the existing lock wall.

The next KP-SAME meeting is scheduled for 21 August at 11:30 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

 

June 2007 Regular Membership Meeting
The June meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 19 June 2007 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Thirty-three (33) members and guests were in attendance. 1st VP Clay Kelly opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. Past President Steve Bickel led the group in the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance.

1st VP Kelly mentioned that the Kentuckiana Post has been excelling for a long time and pointed out a streamer award that goes all the way back to 1977. He said the Post was recently awarded the Distinguished Post designation for 2006, having received streamers in all categories.

1st VP Kelly announced that the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Regional Conference is being held in Buffalo, NY from August 15 to August 17. He said more information can be obtained at the SAME.org web site.

2nd VP Marilyn Lewis mentioned that the Corps has now put the “long awaited” environmental contracts “on the street.” The closing date for submittals is July 11.

The July 17 regular membership meeting of the Post will include a tour of the construction at McAlpine Locks and Dam. Rosemary Gilbertson said Dave Klinstiver, the Corps’ Resident Engineer, will first give a technical presentation at noon in the Cafeteria Meeting Room of the Federal Building, followed by a tour of the construction site. The tour is limited to the first 40 who sign up. She said those wanting to sign up can contact Gerard Edelen or can give her a business card at the end of today’s presentation. Ms. Gilbertson said that those who will attend the tour should bring a hard hat and safety glasses, since the equipment available at the lock may not be the right sizes. Additionally, she said women should wear slacks and everyone should wear sturdy shoes.

1st VP Kelly introduced Michael Earl, who was a camper at the Seebees engineering camp at Port Hueneme in California. Michael, who will be a junior at Christian Academy of Louisville in New Albany, was sponsored by the Kentuckiana Post. He plans to go into engineering at Purdue University. Michael showed slides of his camp experience and shared that some of their activities included building popsicle stick bridges and testing them, making concrete cylinders and conducting compression tests, viewing a demonstration on welding, learning a little about surveying, participating in a scavenger hunt, and taking part in the Seebees Olympics, a series of military exercises.

Secretary Janet Skees introduced Bob Draper, Federal Programs Manager with Burgess & Niple, who gave a brief Sustaining Member firm overview. After Mr. Draper’s presentation, he introduced the program presenter, Todd Henwood. Mr. Henwood, is Survey Manager for Burgess & Niple’s Cincinnati office. He gave a presentation on High Definition Surveying (HDS) using laser scanning technology. Assisted by Burgess & Niple’s Chris Lykins, they set up the LEICA HDS-3000 scanner and performed a detailed scan of the meeting room prior to the meeting. During the technical presentation, Mr. Henwood explained that this technology is “the future of mapping” and shared some of its advantages and capabilities. He highlighted applications utilizing this technology, and explained that not hundreds or thousands, but millions of surveyed points can be obtained in a relatively short time to create a 3-dimensional "point cloud" of data that literally brings the project from the field to the desktop. He also discussed several Burgess & Niple projects that have made use of this technology and shared with the group some of the various levels of deliverables that can be generated with the software. After his Power Point presentation, he and Mr. Lykins showed the results of the scanned room Ź taking measurements, panning and zooming, all in 3 dimensions.

1st VP Kelly thanked Mike Earl and those from Burgess & Niple for their presentations and presented each of them with a token of appreciation. The next KP-SAME meeting is scheduled for July 17 as noted above.

 

May 2007 Regular Membership Meeting
The May meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 15 May 2007 at the University of Louisville University Club and Alumni Center. Thirty-seven (37) members and guests were in attendance. Col. Raymond Midkiff, President of the Kentuckiana Chapter, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. 1st VP Clay Kelly then led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation.

Col. Midkiff made several announcements. He discussed the recognitions the Kentuckiana Post received at the 2007 Joint Engineer Education and Training Conference in Philadelphia the first week of May. The Post was recognized as successfully achieving the following streamers: Membership, Education & Training, National Security Programs (with Distinction), Outreach & Communication (with Distinction), and Relationships & Recognition. Additionally, the Post was awarded the Distinguished Post streamer.

Col. Midkiff announced that Col. Jeff Ogden will be leaving the Louisville District as Deputy Commander the middle of July and will become the Deputy Garrison Commander for MILCON Transformation at Fort Knox. Col. Ogden will remain with the Kentuckiana Post and will serve as the Post’s coordinator to Ft. Knox.

Col. Midkiff noted that a reception for Ken Besser, who is retiring from the Louisville District, will be held from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on May 31 in Room 856 of the Federal Building.

Col. Midkiff introduced a guest, Lt. Col. Tim Ward who is the Air Force Academy & ROTC Admissions Liaison Officer. Col. Ward spoke for a few minutes on the engineering camps that are offered at the Air Force Academy and other military schools. The Kentuckiana Post has supported these camps in the past by sponsoring students to attend. Col. Ward said he helps get the word out about the camps among students in the southern Indiana area, the region for which he is responsible.

The program portion of the meeting began with the award of Post scholarships in the amount of $3,000 each to five engineering students. Scholarship Co-Chair Veronica Rife explained that the Post’s hosting of the 2005 national SAME conference gave a big boost to the scholarship fund. Scholarship Co-Chair Erin Hall gave some background information on each recipient while Col. Midkiff presented the awards to Jacob Ball, Katherine Foston, Adam Meyer, Stephanie Sharp and Mark Taylor.

Jacob Ball is graduating this year from Nelson County High School and has been accepted to the University of Kentucky College of Engineering where he plans to major in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. Katherine Foston just graduated from the University of Louisville with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and plans to continue her studies in the graduate engineering program. Adam Meyer just graduated from the University of Louisville with an undergraduate degree in civil and environmental engineering and plans to continue with graduate studies in engineering. Stephanie Sharp is a senior at the University of Louisville in civil engineering and plans to graduate in August 2007. Mark Taylor is a sophomore at the University of Kentucky, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He plans to graduate in 2010 and continue with graduate school.

The program portion of the meeting continued with Tony Marconi introducing Clint Mattingly, President of the University of Louisville’s ASCE/SAME Student Chapter, to brief the membership on the chapter’s activities over the past year. Mr. Mattingly mentioned the students’ participation in the Ohio Valley & Great Lakes Regional Conference in Cincinnati in October 2006 and the National Student Conference in Denver in January 2007. He thanked the Post membership for their involvement with and support of the student chapter and for serving as role models. He noted that three of this year’s scholarship recipients are U of L students.

In closing announcements, 2nd VP Marilyn Lewis mentioned that the Post is sponsoring two students for engineering camps this year.

Upcoming general membership meetings include:
 
bullet June 19 - A program on High Definition Laser Scanning technology presented by Sustaining Member firm Burgess & Niple.
bullet July 17 – A presentation on the construction of the lock at McAlpine followed by a site tour. The tour is limited to 40, so people should sign up early. It was noted that it may be the last chance to see the de-watered lock, because it will be under water in August.
bullet A fall meeting at Ft. Knox is anticipated after the 19th Combat Engineer Battalion returns from being deployed.

 

April 2007 Regular Membership Meeting
The April meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 17 April 2007 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Forty-one (41) members and guests were in attendance. 1st VP Clay Kelly opened the meeting, welcomed everyone, and led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation.

1st VP Kelly stated that the minutes of the last meeting were published in the newsletter and asked for any corrections needed to be submitted. He then announced that a promotion ceremony for Col. Jeff Ogden would be held in the cafeteria at 11:00 on Friday, April 20. He mentioned that Col. Ogden has recently been assigned to the position of Deputy Garrison Commander for Transformation at Fort Knox.

1st VP Kelly announced that Ken Besser will be retiring on June 3 and a reception will be held on Thursday, May 31 in Room 856 of the Federal Building.

The May meeting of the Post will be a luncheon to recognize the SAME scholarship recipients and will be held at the U of L University Club. This meeting will require attendees to make reservations in advance.

Programs Co-Chair Gerard Edelen introduced the guest speaker, Mike Saffran, with the Louisville District USACE. Mr. Saffran served as Assistant Director for Task Force Hope for two months after Hurricane Katrina. He also served as project manager for the restoration in the fall of 2006. His topic was “Restoration and Improvement of the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System”. Mr. Saffran explained that the 350-mile protection system in the New Orleans area is really a dam system since most of the area is below sea level. The interior drainage system and network of pumps have to pump out all rainfall that falls within the area. Hurricane Katrina was a Category 5 strength hurricane when it was less than 12 hours away from landfall which generated the powerful surge, even though it was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane by the time it hit land. Forty-one miles of the system received significant damages. Seventy-five percent of the populated areas around New Orleans were flooded.

Mr. Saffran discussed the lessons learned in the aftermath. The IPET Forensic Investigations determined that the system wasn’t designed to withstand overtopping and erosion occurred on the backside of the levees causing undermining of the walls. Also there was an ignorance of the amount of regional subsidence that has occurred in the area. One recommendation was to provide erosion protection on the backside of the levees. Additionally, there were failures due to three canals running from Lake Ponchatran to the heart of the city that had levee walls that were breached. The canals existed before the hurricane protection system. Originally the Corps wanted closure structures at the end of the canals instead of walls around the canals; but the local authorities were more interested in interior protection from the more frequent rainfall events. The walls did not perform as designed and were breached on two of the three canals. Other problems included pump station flooding, the inability to deliver materials to seal the breaches, and problems with failures occurring at transition points between the earthen and concrete sections of the levees.

Mr. Saffran summarized that the “bottom line” was it was a “system” in name only. There were five different authorized projects in the New Orleans area; and he said there wasn’t a lot of thought that went into how the five projects would work together. He concluded his presentation by showing pictures of improvements including “T” walls to replace “I” walls.

1st. VP Kelly thanked Mr. Saffran for being a guest speaker and presented him with a token of appreciation. The next KP-SAME meeting is scheduled for May 15 at the University of Louisville University Club.

 

March 2007 Regular Membership Meeting
The March meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held Tuesday, 20 March 2007 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Forty-three (43) members and guests were in attendance. 2nd Vice President Marilyn Lewis opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. Past President Steve Bickel led the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation.

2nd Vice President Lewis stated that the minutes of the last meeting had been published in the March Flyer and requested any corrections to be submitted. She then called on Past President Bickel who shared communication he has had with Hans Probst, stationed at Port Hueneme in southern California. CPT Probst is having an exciting time but is working hard as he gets ready to ship out overseas with his command. Past President Bickel reported that CPT Probst had to relinquish his position as Regional Vice President and the new Regional Vice President is Ernie Drott of the Corps of Engineers in Cincinnati.

2nd Vice President Lewis recognized Derek Guthrie and Vicki Coombs who were in attendance representing the newest Sustaining Member Agency, the Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District. 2nd Vice President Lewis also recognized COL Jeff Ogden who was promoted to full Colonel on
Thursday, 1 March. She then reminded the attendees of the SAME National Conference in Philadelphia 1 May through 4 May.

2nd Vice President Lewis recognized Tony Marconi for his work on the Grants Application for the Education & Mentoring Committee. She mentioned that Veronica Rife is still looking for volunteers to evaluate applications for the Post scholarships.

2nd Vice President Lewis mentioned the three awards presented by the Kentuckiana Post at the Engineers Week Banquet in February. The SAME Young Member of the Year Award went to Kristen Crumpton in recognition of her efforts to increase Post membership. The SAME Past President’s Award went to Steve Bickel in recognition of his excellent year as the 2006 Post President. The SAME Outstanding Service Award went to Janet Skees in recognition of her leadership for the first Kentuckiana Post/Louisville District Small Business Workshop.

2nd Vice President Lewis then called on various committee chairs. Thefollowing items were noted:
 
bullet Program Co-chair Gerard Edelen mentioned upcoming programs. In April, the program will be presented by Mike Saffran of the Louisville District who will discuss Restoration & Improvement of the Hurricane Protection System in New Orleans. The Annual Golf Scramble will be in May, and for June Burgess & Niple’s Todd Henwood will provide a presentation on Surveying with High Definition Scanning Technology.
bullet Young Members Co-chair Rosemary Gilbertson reported working with the Student Chapter to provide surveying for the Portland Promise Center, a small business incubator.
bullet Janet Skees, past co-chair for the Small Business Committee, said the committee is looking for a co-chair to work on planning this year’s Small Business Workshop.
bullet Newsletter Co-chair John Storm stated that they are working to update the web site and asked for information to post on the web.

2nd Vice President Lewis then introduced the guest speaker, Steve Durrett. Mr. Durrett is Chief of the Civil Engineering Branch of the Engineering Division in the Louisville District and just recently finished a one-year assignment at Corps Headquarters in Washington as the Levee Safety Program Manager. His presentation was on the National Levee Safety Program. Mr. Durrett discussed how there currently is no national database for levees as there is with the Dam Safety Program. He said some of the planned tasks associated with the program are to develop a national levee inventory, perform technical assessments of the levees, and establish standard procedures for levee inspections, which would
then go into the inventory. The inventory would be a geospatial database and is being developed in a phased approach. The Louisville District is one of the five pilot districts and has 45 segments and 297 miles of levees. Also involved in the program are risk assessments, which will be consistent with dam risk methodology, and inspection of completed works that are in the Corps’ program.

2nd Vice President Lewis thanked Mr. Durrett for being a guest speaker and presented him with a token of appreciation. The next KP-SAME meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 17 April in the Federal Building cafeteria.

 

March 2007 ASCE/SAME Joint Membership Meeting

A joint meeting of the Louisville Chapter of ASCE and the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held on Friday, 9 March 2007 at the University of Louisville University Club and Alumni Center. Seventy-two (72) people were in attendance, of which approximately were 20 SAME members and 10 Student members. The U of L student chapter, which is a joint ASCE/SAME society, hosted the event.

ASCE Louisville Chapter President Beth Niemann opened the meeting. Clay Kelly, 1st Vice President, Kentuckiana Post clarified that this meeting was in addition to the Kentuckiana Post regular membership meeting that would be held on Tuesday, 20 March.

U of L Civil and Environmental Department Chair J.P. Mohsen introduced a new hire for the University. Dr. Mark McGinley is the Endowed Chair for Infrastructure Research. Dr. Mohsen reported that Dr. McGinley is a structural engineer with over 20 years experience in building systems. The university has now been able to offer classes in timber design, masonry design, non-destructive testing and case histories.

The program included a presentation by various students highlighting the student chapter’s activities over the past year.
 
bullet Randy Strunk began by discussing “Shaping our World through Creativity and Innovation” - an ASCE Leadership Workshop in Nashville, and the chapter’s participation in E-Expo which exposes high
school students to engineering.
bullet Clint Mattingly discussed the SAME National Student Conference in Denver.
bullet Nick Stolte discussed the students work on Project WARM, a program through LG&E to add insulation to winterize homes for low income families.
bullet Michael Lynch discussed the group’s work with Repair Affair, where a wheelchair ramp was built at one home, along with painting, and pruning and removal of shrubs.
bullet Derek Kinder discussed the School for the Blind Lake Project, which is just starting and includes a driving track around the lake.
bullet For the CANstruction project, in association with Dare to Care, students built a replica of the Eiffel Tower from 500 cans of sweet peas, that were then donated to Dare to Care.
bullet Nathan Chappall discussed that several students are getting ready to leave for the Spring Break Project in Hattiesburg, Mississippi where they will help Habitat for Humanity for three days.

Also, it was reported that 10 students participated in the 2006 SAME Golf Scramble hosted by the Kentuckiana Post. And students attended the SAME Ohio Valley & Great Lakes Regional Conference in Cincinnati.

 

February 2007 Engineer’s Week Banquet
The annual Engineer’s Week Banquet is always a very popular event, with attendance and support by members of numerous area professional engineering societies. This year’s affair, hosted by the Louisville Chapter of KSPE, was held on Friday night, 16 February at the Muhammad Ali Center, and
featured self-guided tours of the Center before the banquet.

The Kentuckiana Post was well-represented at the event, which was sold out with 300 in attendance. Justin Gray, banquet committee chairman, said if the room had been larger there would have been 350 in attendance. Perhaps that’s an encouragement to make reservations early next year for those who wish to
attend.

The striking view of the river from the center’s View Pointe Hall coupled with the wonderful music provided by accomplished pianist Wade Campbell set the mood for a relaxing and enjoyable evening.

The Kentuckiana Post presented three awards at the event. The SAME Young Member of the Year Award was given to Kristin Crumpton for her efforts to increase Post membership. The SAME Past President’s Award went to Steve Bickel after an excellent year as Post President in 2006. To recognize her leadership of the first ever Kentuckiana Post/Louisville District Small Business Workshop, the SAME Outstanding Service Award went to Janet Skees.

Raffle tickets were sold to raise money for the KSPE scholarship fund with the grand prize of a week at a Hilton Head resort going to Brandon Lucas. Justin Gray and the entire Banquet Committee are to be commended for their hard work in putting together such a successful event.

 

February 2007 Board Meeting Summary
An abbreviated Board meeting was held 7 February 2007 at the Mazzoli Federal Building in lieu of the previously scheduled 13 February 2007 meeting. Due to the fact that several key members would not be able to make the 13 February meeting, it was determined that this meeting would suffice as the February Board meeting. In attendance were President Ray Midkiff, Past President Steve Bickel, 1st VP Clay Kelly, and 2nd VP Marilyn Lewis. The following topics were discussed:
 
bullet Steve Bickel has reserved a table already for SAME for the 16 February 2007 Engineers’ Week Banquet. Clay Kelly will request payment to KSPE by the SAME Treasurer for one table.
bullet Officer and Committee Chairs and Assignments for 2007 were discussed. Officers were installed at the January regular society meeting. Suggestions were made for committee assignments with contact needing to be made to confirm several people’s willingness to serve.
bullet A discussion occurred about President Midkiff’s focus areas for 2007 including:
bullet Providing continued support for Small Businesses.
bullet Further developing the Kentuckiana Post’s relationship with Ft. Knox – the 19th Engineers Battalion and others. A committee was established to oversee this effort. Deployed troops should return this fall.
bullet Interaction with other Posts within the region – Clay has made contact with individuals interested in starting a new post called the Smoky Mountain Post.
bullet Membership growth – student, individual and sustaining.
bullet Programs:
bullet March, April and May topics are already established.
bullet If we’re going to focus a program on the McAlpine project, we would likely have to have it in June as the coffer dams will be removed soon thereafter, if not before.
bullet All agreed that the golf outing should be moved to a cooler month, likely in the Fall at this point. Also noted that the golf outing could be a revenue generator.
bullet A future “road trip” program could include an on-site meeting at Lock 52 or 53.
bullet Small business conference: it was suggested that even a small increase in fees could generate more proceeds to support deployed troops or other worthy causes.
bullet Grant Awards:
bullet The only pressing decision that needs to be made is related to the grant applications under consideration now by the Education & Mentoring Committee. Clay emailed Tony Marconi 2/7/07 to ask Tony if his committee could make their recommendation by email and request a Board vote electronically. Subsequent to the 7 February meeting, the recommendations were voted on by the Board electronically, and were approved as follows:
 
Grant Applications January 2007 Funding Requested Funding Awarded
Governor’s Scholars Program $2000 $2000
Louisville Regional Science Fair $1000 $1000
MathCounts $1,500 Louisville & $5,000 State $6500 $6500
Bataan Memorial Death March, US Military Academy Cadets $1500 $1500
International Service Learning Program, UofL CE Student $900 $750
Total Awarded   $11,000

 

bullet The group continued discussion from the December Board Meeting regarding the schedule of future Board Meetings. It was agreed that until further notice the Board Meetings would continue to be every even month. However, instead of the second Tuesday, the Board will meet at 10:00 a.m., just prior to the regularly scheduled programs on the third Tuesday. Therefore, the remaining 2007 Board Meetings are scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on 17 April, 19 June, 21 August, 16 October and 18 December.

 

January 2007 Regular Membership Meeting
The January 2007 general membership meeting of the Kentuckiana Post was held in concert with the Louisville District Open House on Wednesday 17 January. This allowed the Post to take advantage of the larger-than-normal attendance of sustaining members, Louisville District employees and guests. One hundred twenty five persons attended the lunch meeting which was held in the cafeteria conference room of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

The meeting was called to order at 12:15 pm by 2006 Post President Steve Bickel. President Bickel called upon Clay Kelly to give the invocation and lead the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance. The slate of 2007 officers had been circulated earlier to the membership. President Bickel read the slate and called for a vote approval. The Post members unanimously approved the slate as submitted. Next, President Bickel spoke briefly of Post accomplishments during the past year. He expressed appreciation for the opportunity of serving SAME and the strong support he received from the officers, committee chairs, and members. President Bickel called on Great Lakes Regional Vice President, James Hagan. RVP Hagan spoke for several minutes about activities at the national level of SAME. Afterwards, RVP Hagan introduced the 2007 elected officers and administered the oath of office.

Newly-inducted President COL Raymond G. Midkiff took the podium and was presented with the Post Constitution and Bylaws. He thanked Past President Steve Bickel, and spoke for several minutes about what SAME is all about – National Security. The general membership meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:50 pm.

 

October 2006 Meeting Summary
The October meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held October 17, 2006 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Thirty five (35) members and guests were in attendance. Post President Steve Bickel made a few opening remarks and welcomed everyone. Clay Kelly led the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation which was followed by introductions of guests and members.

President Bickel then called on various officers and committee chairs to address the business of the day. The following items were noted.
bullet President Bickel reported on the Regional Conference held in Cincinnati October 10 – 12, 2006. Many KP-SAME members were in attendance along with two UofL students sponsored by the Post. The Post was well represented and he thanked those who were able to attend.
bullet Janet Skees, Small Business Co-Chair reported that save the date flyers went out to KP-SAME sustaining members and small local small business for the Small Business Workshop being held at the Holiday Inn on Broadway December 12th. The KP-SAME regular membership meeting will be during the luncheon of the Workshop. Interested parties are encouraged to contact Janet Skees or Linda Hunt-Smith for more information.
bullet President Bickel reported that KP-SAME will be supporting the deployed 19th Engineer Battalion by purchasing telephone cards to support them and their efforts. These phone cards will be included in holiday packages being sent to the Battalion. Volunteers are needed to help prepare the baskets. Contact President Bickel for more information.
bullet President Bickel encouraged sustaining member firms to let the Post know if their company has published articles in the Military Engineer magazine or the SAME News in the past year. This is a streamer requirement for the Post. He also asked if anyone had articles that could be submitted by the end of the year.
bullet Clay Kelly noted that Michael Earle was scheduled to speak about his experience at the Construction Camp but he rescheduled for the November meeting.

President Bickel then turned the meeting over to Education and Training Co-Chairman Rob Campbell who introduced the Guest Speaker Mr. Brian Bingham, Regulatory Management Services Director for Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) who presented on Louisville’s Wet Weather Consent Decree with the Kentucky Division of Water (KDOW) and the US EPA. Mr. Bingham briefly went over some of the agreements within the consent decree and the requirements MSD must abide by to comply with the Clean Water Act and avoid further fines and penalties. Mr. Bingham also went over what has been completed to date and the other major items that must be completed in the near future. In total MSD must spend $800 Million on various projects to comply with the consent decree. While the is the consent decree is a very large and important effort Mr. Bingham explained that it is not MSD’s only focus.

President Bickel thanked Mr. Bingham for being a guest speaker and presented him with a token of appreciation. The next KP-SAME meeting is scheduled for November 14th.

 

September 2006 Meeting Summary
President Bickel noted that representatives of the Student Chapter would be attending the Regional meeting and that Michael Earle will attend the October meeting to speak about his experience at the Construction Camp.

President Bickel introduced Marilyn Lewis who spoke briefly about the Future City Competition. The competition is for seventh and eighth grade students. Participants utilize a team approach to the competition and win or lose as a team. There is a broad diversity of competition options including computer applications, writing, model building and presentations. Marilyn solicited assistance from the Post for individuals to serve as Engineer Mentors and judges.

COL Ray Midkiff, First Vice President spoke briefly about Task Force Hope and the New Orleans Recovery efforts. His remarks included discussion regarding the repair, restoration and improvement plans of the Hurricane/Flood Protection Facilities in New Orleans. This included discussion of the organizational structure, the budget and the interaction with other USACE districts.

Steve Skaggs, Education & Training Co-Chair then spoke briefly regarding his involvement with the Hurricane Katrina Recovery efforts. Steve gave background on hurricanes, the causes, general information on naming of hurricanes and other historical items. He provided a very interesting group of photographs accompanied by discussion about the devastation in the Mississippi area to which he was deployed.
August 2006 Meeting Summary
The August meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held on Tuesday, 15 August 2006 in the cafeteria meeting room the Mazzoli Federal Building. Thirty-seven (37) members and guests were in attendance. Post President Steve Bickel made a few opening remarks and welcomed everyone. Clay Kelly led the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation which was followed by introductions of guests and members.

President Bickel recapped the June meeting which was held at the Fort Knox Leader’s Club and the July golf outing. President Bickel then called on various officers and committee chairs to address the business of the day. The following items were noted.

Rosemary Gilbertson noted that the Young Members Committee was looking for volunteers to assist with surveying at the Portland Promise Center. Gerard Edelen reported on the potential schedule of future meetings. Janet Skees announced the upcoming Small Business Forum scheduled for Tuesday, 12 December 2006 at the Holiday Inn Downtown. Grant Bartee, Co-chair of the SAME Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Combined Regional Conference announced that the conference will be held 10-12 October 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Millennium Hotel.

President Bickel then turned the meeting over to Clay Kelly who introduced Kristen Rutledge who recently attended the Engineering and Construction Camp at the Air Force Academy, sponsored by the Kentuckiana Post. Ms. Rutledge gave a brief review of her experiences.

Brian Huston was then introduced as the keynote speaker for the meeting. Brian is the Building Information Model (BIM) Manager for the Louisville District. Brian was joined by Lee Ezell with Mason & Hanger who is leading the firm’s BIM implementation efforts. Brian and Lee provided a very interesting program development and implementation of BIM. It was noted that BIM is highly effective for use with Design-Build, provides for high quality design; allows for better project estimating; consistency of products; better visualization of product and overall project cost savings. The program was very well received and numerous questions were received from the audience.

Following closing remarks President Bickel adjourned the meeting.
 
July 2006 Annual Golf Outing
The July 2006 Kentuckiana Post meeting was the Annual summer golf outing to help raise funds for the Student Chapter and the scholarship fund. Special thanks go out to committee members: Mike Harris (JTL), Dirk Gowin (Quest), Tony Marconi and Jay Mazzoni (FMSM).

Golfers in attendance numbered: 63 non-federal, 12 federal, 4 young members, 16 students, for a total of 95 participants; giving us 24 teams. This was an increase in participation over the 2005 event by 60 percent. Several others attended and assisted with the event including President Steve Bickel who provided photographic support.

A total of 20 firms sponsored this year’s event:
 
RSP Architecture Skees Engineering Stanley Consultants
Michael Baker FMSM Engineers Lusk Group
MWH Shaw Woolpert
Earth Tech HNTB OHC Environmental
SAIC ARMAG Tetra Tech
TriEco Palmer Engineering EQ
URS KZF/BWSC (A Joint Venture)

Student Sponsor firms included:

Michael Baker MWH HNTB
SAIC Mason & Hanger Stanley Consultants
MACTEC Palmer Engineering  

Prizes for the Student Chapter’s putting contest were provided by sponsors FMSM Engineers, QK4 and Terracon.

bullet 1st Place Winners: Dave Ahnquist, Daniel Miles, Scott Hancock and Aaron Cooley (representing the U of L Student Chapter)
bullet 10th Place Winners: Greg McGowern, Stoney Cox, Mike Harris and Aaron Steele
bullet 20th Place Winners: Hans Probst, Jimmy Stahl, Chris Whitney and Barry Burdick.

The Student Chapter raised $525 from the sale of mulligans and $140 from the putting contest. The Post raised approximately $3500. Some memorable moments from the outing include the following:

bullet Marilyn Lewis was able to keep track of her “glovey thing” throughout the event.
bullet Jimmy Stahl and Hans Probst did not hurt themselves or anyone else.
bullet Kristen Crumpton did not object to sweaty hugs from old people.

 

June 2006 Meeting Summary
The June meeting of the Kentuckiana post of SAME was held on Tuesday,20 June 2006 at the Fort Knox Leaders Club. Sixty-five (65) members and guests were in attendance.

Post President Steve Bickel welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked everyone for attending. Clay Kelly then gave the invocation and led the pledge of allegiance. President Bickel then began the business portion of the meeting. Steve gave a short history of the SAME organization and the Kentuckiana Post for the 19th Engineering Brigade and others stationed at Fort Knox. He also mentioned that the Kentuckiana Post recently received both the Top Post and Distinguished Post Awards at the SAME National Conference in New Orleans.

President Bickel then called on various officers and committee chairs to address business of the Post. The following items were noted:
 
bullet Frank Terak, Readiness Co-Chair, provided an update on the Fast Start plan and encouraged sustaining members to fill out the online questionnaire on the Post website so that the plan could be completed.
bullet Young Members Co-Chair, Susan Rich, updated everyone on the Portland Promise Center initiative. They are currently looking for volunteer surveyors to survey the 45,000 sq ft facility that has just been acquired and will soon be looking for architectural and space planning volunteers. Rosemary Gilbertson, Young Members Co-Chair added to Susan’s comments that SAME will be sponsoring a Governor’s Scholars’ event at Cave Run Lake and Morehead State University.
bullet Tony Marconi, reporting on the progress of the annual golf outing, announced that there are still many slots for players and hole sponsors at the 18 July Scramble being held at Quail Chase Golf Club. Interested firms and individuals should contact Tony, tmarconi@fmsm.com or Mike Harris, m.harris@jtleng.com.
bullet Programs Co-Chair, Gerard Edelen, announced that the upcoming meetings are being planned and will focus on the USACE’s new Building Information Model (BIM) and the new green building design initiative. Look for the meeting details in the next Post newsletter.
bullet President Bickel provided the following SAME Streamer related announcements:
bullet Kentuckiana Post is looking for an avenue to help support the deployed forces. President Bickel urged the 19th Engineering Brigade to let KP-SAME know if there was any way the Post could assist deployed forces. Kentuckiana Post would like to get more acquainted with the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) at Fort Knox and encouraged any NCOs interested to join and become involved with the Post.
bullet Kentuckiana Post has not submitted an article to the Military Engineer in 2006. Anyone with an idea for an article should contact President Bickel, sbickel@fmsm.com or Rob Campbell, rcampbell@qk4.com.
bullet Dr. Hagerty, advisor to the U of L student chapter, would like SAME sustaining members to set up display booths at the University’s Engineering-Expo in March. They are particularly looking for a display on technology used in military engineering.

President Steve Bickel introduced Karlos Bruce of ARMAG Corporation for a presentation on the Sustaining Member Firm. ARMAG is a manufacturer of storage magazines for ammunition, arms, and explosives. ARMAG has been in business since 1969 and is headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky. Mr. Bruce brought along one of the company’s storage magazine units and invited everyone to tour the unit in the parking lot after the meeting.

LTC Jeff Ogden introduced guest speakers Rick Lutz, Program Manager for Ft. Campbell, and Russ Boyd, Program Manager for Ft. Knox, from the USACE Louisville District. Their presentation highlighted the current MILCON transformation and how the transformation is necessary to meet the many ongoing and upcoming initiatives such as BRAC. Mr. Lutz explained that BRAC 2005 must be completed by September 2011 and is under funded by $4 to $5 billion dollars. Because of this military construction must be done faster, cheaper, and more innovatively. Mr. Lutz also gave a brief overview of the $1.5 billion workload underway at Fort Campbell. Mr. Boyd then gave an overview of the $700 million of projects underway and scheduled for Fort Knox along with many of the other projects scheduled for other bases within the region.

President Bickel thanked the presenters and the meeting adjourned to tour ARMAG’s storage magazine unit.

 

May 2006 Meeting Summary
The May meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held Tuesday, 16 May 2006 at the University of Louisville University Club. Forty-four (44) members and guests were in attendance.

Post President Steve Bickel made a few opening remarks and welcomed everyone. Clay Kelly led the Pledge of
Allegiance and invocation which was followed by introductions of guests and members. President Bickel then called on various officers and committee chairs to address the business of the day. The following items were noted:

bullet President Bickel announced that the Kentuckiana Post would be awarded the Top Post Award at the Honors Ceremony at the SAME Education and Training Conference in New Orleans on 31 May 2006. Steve urged support of the Conference.
bullet President Bickel noted that the Fast Start Plan was on the website and sustaining member firms should fill out the questionnaire. The questionnaire will be taken down mid June.
bullet Tony Marconi noted that a Young Member event at Slugger Field was scheduled for 18 May and encouraged attendance.
bullet Steve Bickel reminded attendees that the 20 June meeting would be held at the Leaders Club Fort Knox from 1130 to 1300. The venue will be focused on building a relationship with the 19th Engineer Battalion and the NCOs.
bullet Mike Harris reported that the annual golf outing was scheduled for 18 July at Quail Chase.
bullet Ideas for Post Education/Training were reviewed and President Bickel requested comments be sent to Mike Harris or Gerard Edelen.
bullet The Post is also soliciting articles for publication in the Military Engineer and other Professional Journals.
bullet Dr. Joe Hagerty reported that new officers for the Student Chapter had been elected and the Chapter is working on programs for the year.
bullet Clay Kelly reported that both applicants for Engineering Construction Camps had been accepted.
bullet Marilyn Lewis reported on the successful National MathCounts competition the previous week. The Kentucky team finished 16th overall.
bullet President Bickel noted that a $2,000 contribution to support the HQ SAME Century House had been approved.

President Bickel then turned the meeting over to Clay Kelly and Veronica Rife, co-chairs of the Scholarship Committee who led the presentation of scholarships ceremony. Clay recounted the Mission of SAME and its relation to the Kentuckiana Post’s Scholarship goals and objectives. Two former Kentuckiana Post scholarship recipients, Tiffany Caldwell Coleman and Jeremy Kubac spoke briefly about what has happened in their careers since receiving the scholarships.

The 2006 Scholarship recipients were then introduced. Each will receive a $3,000 scholarship from the Post. This year’s recipients are as follows:

bullet Catherine Baker, University of Louisville
bullet Terry Horn, University of Kentucky
bullet Nicholas Stallings, University of Louisville
bullet Justin Lewis, University of Illinois
bullet Mark Taylor, University of Kentucky

Following closing remarks President Bickel adjourned the meeting.

 

April 2006 Meeting Summary
The April meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held Tuesday, 18 April 2006 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Post President Stephen Bickel made a few opening remarks and welcomed everyone. Clay Kelly led the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation which was followed by introductions of guests and members.

President Bickel then called on various officers and committee chairs to address the business of the day. The following items were noted:
bullet Regional Vice President Hans Probst announced that the Kentuckiana Post won both Distinguished Post and Top Post for calendar year 2005. He noted that this was the culmination of three years of effort and all Post members should be proud of this accomplishment. RVP Probst also announced the Regional meeting to be held in Cincinnati October 10 – 12, 2006.
bullet Readiness Co-Chair Frank Terak reported that the Fast Start Plan has been posted to the website and sustaining member firms should fill out the questionnaire.
bullet Young Members Co-Chair Susan Rich reported that the committee is working hard to encourage young members to be involved with the post. One activity the committee plans to support is the Portland Promise Center which is looking for volunteers to help convert the existing site to an outreach center.
bullet Scholarship Co-Chair Clay Kelly reported that the 2006 scholarship applications had been reviewed and the committee would be meeting directly following the Post meeting to complete award recommendations. He encouraged Post members to let potential applicants know about the program for future years and that the Post would be awarding a minimum of five $3,000 cash scholarships.
bullet LTC Ogden noted that the 20 June meeting would be held at the Leaders Club Fort Knox from 1130 to 1300. The venue will be focused on building a relationship with the 19th Engineer Battalion and the NCOs.
bullet U of L Student Chapter Faculty Advisor Dr. Joe Hagerty thanked the Post for its support of the students. The student post has a new set of officers and 131 members who will be involved in several upcoming events in which the Post is invited to participate. Events include Habitat for Humanity, Repair Affair and a potential water supply project in Belize to be executed by U of L students. Erin Baker, an engineering graduate student went to Belize this year and performed water quality sampling.

President Bickel requested that if anyone knows a high school student interested in attending the SAME Construction Camp, contact Clay Kelly. The Post would like to sponsor up to two local high school students annually to attend the Camp.

President Bickel introduced Ralph Norman of sustaining firm Woolpert who presented an overview of the firm.

President Bickel then introduced Glen Kelly, Senior Vice President and Director of Transportation Services for QK4 who was the keynote speaker. Mr. Kelly provided an overview of Section 1 of the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project - the Kennedy Interchange reconstruction. He presented a brief history of the project and how it has evolved into the current plan that is selected to begin as early as this year. He noted the many obstacles and challenges involved in the alternative selection process. He then presented slides on the chosen alternative and renderings of how the interchange will look once completed. The presentation was interesting and informative. There were several questions and comments and Mr. Kelly stayed after the meeting to provide for some extended discussions.

 

March 2006 Meeting Summary
The March meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held March 21, 2006 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Forty two (42) members and guests were in attendance. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, led by President Steve Bickel and invocation by Clay Kelly introductions of guests and members occurred.

President Bickel then called on various officers and committee chairs to address the business of the day. The following items were noted:
 
bullet Colonel Ogden noted that the tentative 20 June meeting would be held as Fort Knox. We are going to try to involve the NCO community this year.
bullet The Fast Start Plan has been posted to the website. Member firms should fill out the questionnaire.
bullet Chuck Anderson noted the receipt of an Award of Appreciation from Mathcounts for the Post’s continued financial support.
bullet President Bickel requested suggestions for an effort to assist deployed civilian and military individuals and their families. The Post would like to implement a program to benefit these folks this year.
bullet Tony Marconi noted that a MOU had been signed between the Kentuckiana Post and the Kentucky Engineering Foundation in regard to the Education and Mentoring Fund.

President Bickel introduced Pete Johnson of the sustaining firm of GRW who presented an overview of the firm.

President Bickel then introduced Mike Kimmel, Deputy Director of the Louisville Waterfront Development Corporation who was the keynote speaker. Mr. Kimmel provided an overview of the history of Waterfront Park and the integration of financing from the Federal government, State government, local government and private foundations and citizens. He noted particularly the importance of all entities to the success of the project. He then spoke of the waterfront residential component; River Park Place that was currently working its way through the regulatory process. Overall the presentation was interesting and stimulated several comments and questions.

 

February 2006  Board Meeting Summary
The Board meeting was held Tuesday, 14 February 2006 at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Post President Steve Bickel conducted the meeting.

John Beyke, Post Secretary noted that minutes of 13 December 2005 meeting had been circulated, comments received and incorporated into the minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as circulated and amended. Motion passed. John Allison, Post Treasurer reported that $4,157.54 was available in the treasury as of 14 February 2006, and there were no outstanding bills. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion passed.

President’s Report

In respect of everyone’s time, President Bickel noted his intention to start and finish meetings on time. President Bickel noted that 2005 was a banner year. Past-President Probst did a good job; which had been reflected in the annual report. President Bickel expects 2006 to also be an exciting year. Streamers had been submitted last month and he is optimistic that the Kentuckiana Post will be designated as Distinguished Post. President Bickel noted he has appointed three members of the Board to assist him with monitoring of the Streamer status for 2006. Ken Besser will monitor the National Security Mission; Marilyn Lewis will monitor the Outreach Mission; Bruce Murray will monitor the Education and Training Mission; and President Bickel will monitor the Relationships and Recognition Mission.

At this time, President Bickel introduced new Post Board members and Committee Chairs. President Bickel also announced the 2006 schedule of meetings. This year the schedule includes General Post meetings for the Engineer’s Week Banquet on 17 February, 21 March, 18 April, 15 May, 20 June, 18 July, 15 August, 19 September, 17 October, 14 November and 12 December.
Post Board meetings are scheduled for 11 April, 13 June, 8 August, 3 October and 12 December.

Committee Reports

Tony Marconi reporting for the Scholarship Committee noted that Clay Kelly and Tony Harover recently attended a meeting at the University of Kentucky with Students to discuss SAME and the potential for a Student Chapter at UK. Scholarship information had been distributed.

Tony Marconi also reported for the Education and Mentoring Fund Committee and distributed a report on the Fund assets. Tony noted that the committee was reviewing how screening and distribution for grant requests would be handled. Marilyn Lewis noted that a request had been submitted for funding both the Louisville Chapter and State Mathcounts programs. After
discussion, a motion was made and seconded to approve distribution of $1,500 for the Louisville Chapter and $5,000 for the State Mathcounts programs from the Education and Mentoring Fund. Motion passed. President Bickel requested that the screening and distribution process be made a priority and that the committee recommendation be brought back to the April meeting.

Tony Marconi reported for Mike Harris and Gerard Edelen of the Program Committee. A tentative date for the golf outing had been discussed and reservations were being negotiated for the course.

Rosemary Gilbertson and Susan Rich reported for the Young Members Committee. The plan for the year is being prepared.
Frank Terak reporting for the Readiness Committee, noted the committee is working with Post Webmaster, Troy Mays to load the Fast Start Plan. A questionnaire will be posted on the website to solicit information from sustaining members. This will complete the Fast Start Plan.

Pete Johnson and LTC Jeff Ogden reported for the Homeland Security Committee. The committee has met and a plan is being formulated.
Janet Skees reporting for the Small Business Committee, stated the committee is continuing its emphasis on identifying small businesses. The Open House was successful utilizing different colored badges for small businesses. Janet noted that they had added Linda Hunt-Smith to the committee to work more closely with the USACE small business programs.

Will Ailstock and Troy Mays reported for the Website Committee. Troy noted that the questionnaire for the Readiness Committee should be available by next meeting. President Bickel requested that the Committee consider setting up something on the website that might facilitate keeping Streamers monitored and up to date.

Tammy Dean reporting for the Newsletter Committee, solicited input from the Committees. President Bickel noted that the Kentuckiana Flyer offered a great history of the Post and what we are doing every year.

Kristen Crumpton and Kim Johnson reported for the Membership Committee. The Committee is trying very hard to balance individual and sustaining member activity. The Committee’s goal for the year is to keep the level of effort up following the National Conference year.

The next Board meeting date was noted as Tuesday, 11 April 2006.

 

January 2006  Meeting Summary
The January 2006 general membership meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held in concert with the Louisville District Open House. This allowed the Post to take advantage of the larger-than-normal attendance of Sustaining Members, Louisville District employees, and guests at the Louisville District offices. Over 200 sustaining members, individual members and guests attended the meeting. The meeting was held in the cafeteria conference room of the Mazzoli Federal Building.

The meeting was called to order at 12:50 pm by President CAPT Hans Probst, Jr. PE, FSAME. President CAPT Probst welcomed the attendees and then celebrated the accomplishments of the 2005 year by delivering the Annual Report in slide format. President Probst then turned the meeting over to Clay Kelly who served as Master of Ceremonies for the remainder of the meeting.

Certificates were presented to new sustaining members and sustaining members who had achieved milestone membership class. Tony Marconi, PE of sustaining member firm FMSM Engineers received the Young Engineer of the Year Award for 2005. Ken Besser, PE, FSAME of the Louisville District US Army Corps of Engineers was recognized as the recipient of the Engineer of the Year Award for 2005. Certificates of Appreciation were presented to the 2005 Post Officers and Board Members. Regional Vice President Medals were then presented to the following individuals: Dirk L. Gowin, PE, PLS, Kenneth J. Besser, PE, David B. Servis, PE, Marilyn W. Lewis, PE, John C. Beyke, PE, PLS, John F. Allison, PE, John W. Storm, PE, and Troy Mays. The following were recognized for RVP Medals previously presented: Tony Marconi, PE, Bruce Murray, PE, Hans Probst, PE, FSAME and Clay Kelly, PE.

The 2006 calendar year Post officers were then introduced and administered the oath of office. Newly inducted President Steve Bickel took the podium, recognized President Probst for his service as President with a gavel plaque, gift certificate, and Past President pin. President Bickel thanked the Board of Directors and all members who work hard to make the Post a success. He spoke briefly about the upcoming year, and the general membership meeting adjourned at approximately 1:25 PM.

 

December 2005 Meeting Summary

The December meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held on Wednesday, 14 December in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Sustaining member firms were invited to setup displays about their respective firms and the services they provided. The cost to display was two toys to be donated the “Toys for Tots”. The following firms were in attendance:

bullet ARMAG Corporation
bullet Barge Waggoner Sumner Cannon, Inc.
bullet Burgess & Niple
bullet EA Engineering Science & Technology, Inc.
bullet EnSafe, Inc.
bullet FMSM Engineers, Inc.
bullet GRW Engineers, Inc.
bullet H.C. Nutting Co.
bullet HNTB Corp.
bullet LJB, Inc.
bullet Mason & Hanger Group, Inc.
bullet Michael Baker Corp.
bullet O’Brien & Gere
bullet Palmer Engineering Co.
bullet QK4 Engineers, Inc.
bullet Schneider Corp.
bullet Science Applications International Corp.
bullet Strand Associates
bullet Tetra Tech, Inc.
bullet Third Rock Consultants, LLC
bullet Woolpert, LLP

President CAPT Hans Probst, Jr. conducted a brief business meeting of the Post. The slate of new officers that had been submitted for consideration at the November meeting was placed on the floor for consideration and approved by acclamation. The newly elected officers will be sworn into office at the January 2006 meeting.

Approximately 130 people representing the Kentuckiana Post of SAME and a number of guests were in attendance. COL Raymond Midkiff circulated among the convocation of sustaining member firms discussing their services and discussing the Louisville District’s mission. The Post conducted no other activity.

 

November 2005 Meeting Summary
The Army is Transforming to position itself to best serve the needs of the Nation in the 21st century. The US Army Corps of Engineers and its Architect-Engineer-Construction service providers will have to “transform” as well to provide facilities in a more cost effective and timely manner to meet the Army's needs. The USACE has to transform itself in order to remain ready, responsive, reliable and relevant in serving the Army and the Nation's needs in peace and war. The demand for better, faster and cost effective service in an era of increasing budget constraints calls for dramatic change in the way we currently deliver facilities for the Army. The USACE is responding with the MILCON Transformation concept, which stands to substantially impact the design-build project delivery process well beyond current practices. This will not only significantly affect USACE business practice, but will also dramatically affect the
AE and Construction industries serving the Army.

The Kentuckiana Post of SAME was pleased to have Donald L. Basham, PE, Chief of Engineering and Construction, Headquarters, US Army Corps of Engineers, for its 15 November 2005 speaker. Don was in Louisville on other business and agreed to present his thoughts regarding USACE’s Transformation. Don is currently responsible for policy, program and technical expertise in the execution of over $10 billion of design and construction programs for the US Army, US Air Force, Department of Defense, other Federal agencies, and over 60 foreign nations. He provides leadership to a field organization consisting of eight divisions, 40 districts, and approximately 15,000 personnel, and guides the development of engineering and construction policy for the Corps' world-wide Civil Works, Military and Environmental Missions.

Don, a 37-year veteran of the US Army Corps of Engineers, is a native of Kentucky and received his BS and MS Degrees in Civil Engineering in 1970 and 1971 from the University of Louisville Speed Scientific School. He began his career with the Corps in 1968 with the Louisville District as a student trainee in the Engineering Division and departed Louisville in 1992 as the Deputy District Engineer (PM) in the Louisville District.

Don is a Fellow of SAME and a member of NSPE and ASCE. He is a licensed engineer in the state of Kentucky. Mr. Basham has received numerous awards and decorations during his Federal service, most notably being named the Corps of Engineers Civilian of the Year in 1998.

Don emphasized that adapting for today’s Army and tomorrow’s Army is difficult because we do not know what the enemy will look like in five years. The USACE changes will include a streamlined approach to design, specifications, procurement, construction processes, and practically every other component of the built environment. The USACE will require internal changes in attitudes and also changes for the USACE Private Sector Partners. But the end product will be a quality product in a quicker and more cost effective manner.

Don’s comments and visit were well received by the over 70 members and guests from both the public and private side at the Kentuckiana Post meeting, many attending to welcome Don back home.

 

October 2005 Meeting Summary
The October meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held on Tuesday, 18 October 2005 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, led by President CAPT Hans Probst, Jr., and invocation by 1st VP Steve Bickel, introductions of guests and members occurred. President Probst then introduced Rosemary Gilbertson, Young Member Affairs Co-Chair, who introduced David McFayden of the Sustaining Member firm Michel Baker Corporation who conducted the meeting program about the U.S.-VISIT Program: INS & Border Crossings. David McFayden is Program Manager for the U.S.-VISIT Program Office of Facilities and Engineering.

The U.S.-VISIT Program resides within the Department of Homeland Security and is a program that is a top priority because it:

bullet Enhances the security of our citizens and visitors.
bullet Facilitates legitimate travel and trade.
bullet Ensures the integrity of our immigration system.
bullet Protects the privacy of our visitors.

U.S.-VISIT is part of a continuum of security measures that begins overseas and continues through a visitor’s arrival in and departure from the United States. It incorporates eligibility determinations made by both the Departments of Homeland Security and State. U.S.-VISIT is helping us demonstrate that we remain a welcoming nation and that we can keep America’s doors open and our nation secure. Part of the responsibility of this Program is to manage the 500 plus ports of entry to the U.S. and other ancillary programs.

U.S.-VISIT program consists of five phases, which are Pre-entry, Entry, Status Management while within the U.S., Exit and finally Analysis of the other four phases. As a result of the U.S.-VISIT Program more than 800 known criminals and immigration violators have been intercepted before they have entered the U.S. Following the presentation, Mr. McFayden answered questions from the attendees. The program was well received.

President Probst then conducted some routine business and announcements. He noted that the program was eligible for 0.5 Professional Development Hours (PDH's) and suggested that attendees email a Post officer if they desired a certificate documenting the PDH’s. President Probst mentioned several of the Post successes over the past several years and encouraged these to continue. The President recapped the Post membership status, which is excellent, and reviewed upcoming events.

 

September 2005 Meeting Summary
The September meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of the Society of American Military Engineers was held Tuesday September 20, 2005 in the Cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Approximately 32 members and guests were in attendance. Following the Pledge of Allegiance led by President Hans Probst, and invocation led by Clay Kelly, Gerard Edelen introduced the guest speaker, A. J. Ballard, Senior Director of the Government and Force Protection Group for American Technology Corporation (ATC).

The program was entitled “Shaping the Future of Sound” and was a presentation and demonstration of ATC’s Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). The LRAD was developed after the USS Cole terrorist attack to enable ships to determine the intent of vessels that enter the 500 yard Naval Vessel Protection Zone. Prior to LRAD there was no existing technology to determine Friend or Foe short of using flares, warning shots or placing a boat in the water. There are over 350 LRAD devices deployed with the Department of Defense in IRAQ, commercial cruise liners, major police departments and at other critical infrastructure locations. New applications have subsequently emerged for highly directional, clearly intelligible, long range acoustic devices that provide an immediately escalating non-lethal capability. The mission suite is universal - communicates at safe standoff ranges, gain compliance, and determines intent to support an appropriate response. Effective multi-service use of ATC’s the LRAD in Operation Iraqi Freedom has led to significant interest for law enforcement and homeland security applications with New York and Boston Police Departments deploying LRADS for crowd control and mass communication. The presentation highlighted the technology and supported missions, plus its transition into border and critical infrastructure protection systems to provide an unambiguous acoustic hailing, notification and warnings over a large area. LRAD communicates with unambiguous intelligibility and authority to ensure that the recorded or live message is heard. This enables public safety personnel the ability to follow clearly defined rules of engagement without the unnecessary escalation of force. LRAD has the following characteristics: Loud - 151dB at 1 meter about 105dB at 500 meters Clear - Less than 10% total harmonic distortion Directional - 15-30 degree beam width Low Power Consumption - 4 amps max, 2 amps continuous Portable - can be moved to the appropriate threat axis Remote - Pan Tilt configuration for infrastructure safety Following the lecture portion of the program and some brief Post business, the attendees exited the building for a live demonstration of the LRAD. The program was quite informative and well received by the audience invoking several questions and interchange from the attendees.

 

April 2005 Webinar Summary
For the month of April, 2005, the Kentuckiana Post of SAME tried something new. The Post conducted its first “Webinar” meeting. George Athanasakes, PE, of the Sustaining Member firm Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott and May Engineers, Inc., conducted the Webinar on the topic of Stream Restoration. There were 15 phone line connections to the Webinar. One connection was from the Louisville District USACE which involved 15 people participating from the one location.

The Webinar was hosted through SAME Headquarters and the membership was provided call in and connection information in advance of the meeting. There were a few technical issues that affected the presentation but overall, the Webinar Meeting was considered a success. President Hans Probst conducted some brief Post business in advance of the start of the Webinar. Professional Development Hour credit of 1.0 PDH was available for the Webinar.

 

March 2005 Meeting Minutes
The March meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held March 15, 2005 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Following invocation by Clay Kelly and the Pledge of Allegiance, led by President CAPT Hans Probst, Jr. introductions of guests and members occurred. President Probst introduced guest member Adrienne Kelley Gordon, Ohio Valley Regional Vice President of SAME.

A brief business meeting occurred. Rob Campbell announced PDH credit of 0.5 hours for the technical session for the day. Clay Kelly commented on distribution of funds from the Scholarship Fund and plugged booth sales and sponsorships for the upcoming SAME National Education and Training Conference. It was announced that on-line registration was now available.

President Probst then introduced the new “Sustaining Member Highlights” program and introduced Frank Terak of the Sustaining Member firm of Michael Baker Corporation. The “Sustaining Member Highlights” program allows a sustaining member firm to give a 3 to 5 minute overview of their firm and services. Frank did an excellent job of highlighting his firm. Michael Baker Corporation rates number 42 in the ENR and focuses on Engineering and Energy.

Frank then introduced Brad Dailey of Baker for the day’s presentation: Antiterrorism/Force Protection: “Doing it by the Book”. This Baker project was to investigate the constraints and impact of the United Facilities Criteria of the Department of Defense minimum Antiterrorism (AT) standards for buildings on Air National Guard Facilities nationwide. The work under this project was to identify and document the AT standards, to evaluate all facility buildings against those standards and make recommendations for compliance. The standards include distance standards and security measures (access control, parking, visibility, storage limitations and facility use) relative to occupancy. The program is primarily protection of people oriented. The program was very well received and several questions were asked by the attendees. 

 

February 2005 Meeting Minutes
The February meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held Friday evening February 18 in concert with various other Engineering Societies, celebrating Engineer’s Week. This Annual Engineer’s Week banquet was held at Caesars Conference Center at Caesars Casino Indiana. Total attendance was 306 registered with some walk ups. The Kentuckiana Student Post assisted with registration and sold raffle tickets to support Student Post activities.

The evening began with social time followed by dinner and award presentations. The following is a list of attending organizations, awards given and award recipients:

 American Society of Structural Engineers (ASSE) Distinguished Service Award -Michael Ray; National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Distinguished Service Award - Jeffrey T. Thompson; Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Distinguished Service Award - Carolyn Nowlin; Society of Women Engineers Student Chapter (SWE) Distinguished Service Award - Amanda Moore; American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Distinguished Service Award - Dr. Joe Hagerty; Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Distinguished Service Award - David B. Servis; Society of American Military Engineers Young Member (SAME) Distinguished Service Award - Clay Kelly; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Distinguished Service Award - C. R. Davis; Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers (KSPE) Distinguished Service Award - Christopher H. Dickinson; KSPE Outstanding Contribution to Leadership PE - John C. Beyke; KSPE Outstanding Contribution to MATHCOUNTS - Charles R. Anderson; KSPE Achievement in Government - Derek R. Guthrie; KSPE Achievement in Private Practice - George J. Athanasakes; KSPE Young Engineer of the Year - Michael D. Mattingly, Jr.

Following the presentation of awards, a representative of Caesars spoke on tips for gaming at the casino. The event was very well done and the organizing committee was congratulated on the venue, the meal and the excellence of the evening.

 

January 2005 Meeting Minutes
The January 2005 general membership meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held in concert with the Louisville District Open House. This allowed the Post to take advantage of the larger-than-normal attendance of Sustaining Members, Louisville District employees, and guests at the Louisville District offices. A total of 243 sustaining members, individual members and guests attended the meeting.

The meeting was held in the cafeteria conference room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. The meeting was called to order at 12:50 pm by President COL Robert Rowlette. President COL Rowlette welcomed the attendees and turned the meeting over to First VP CAPT Hans Probst, Jr. Hans presented certificates to new sustaining members and sustaining members who had achieved milestone membership class. Clay Kelly was recognized as the Kentuckiana Post Young Engineer of the Year for 2004, a repeat winner of the Young Engineer Award won in 2003. David Servis was recognized as the recipient of the Engineer of the Year Award for 2004. The 2005 calendar year Post officers were then introduced and administered the oath of office. President Hans Prost, Jr. then recognized former President COL Rowlette for his year of service to the Post. Clay Kelly announced the details of the 2005 Scholarship Program. Dave Servis provided updated details for the SAME 2005 National Education and Training Conference.

Hans reminded the attendees of the February and March 2005 meetings. The general membership meeting adjourned at approximately 1:25 PM.

 

December 2004 Meeting Minutes
The December meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held December 14 in the Cafeteria Meeting Room at the Mazzoli Federal Building. Sustaining member firms were invited to setup displays about their respective firms and the services they provided. The cost to display was two toys to be donated to “Toys for Tots”. The following firms were in attendance:

3001 Inc. - ASC - Burgess & Niple, Ltd. - DataChem Laboratories, Inc. - EnSafe, Inc. - Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott and May Engineers, Inc. - GRW Engineers Inc. - H.C. Nutting Co. - HNTB Corp. - James N. Gray Co. - Jacobs Engineering Group - The Mason & Hanger Group, Inc. - Michael Baker Corp. - QK4 Engineers, Inc. - Palmer Engineering Co. - Schneider Corp. - SG Construction Services - Skees Engineering, Inc. - Stanley Consultants, Inc. - Strand Associates - Tetra Tech, Inc. - Third Rock Consultants, LLC - URS Corp. - Weston Solutions, Inc. - Woolpert, LLP 

First VP President CAPT Hans Probst, Jr. conducted a brief business meeting of the Post. The proposed changes to the Constitution and Bylaws, previously distributed, were adopted by voice vote. The slate of officers that had been submitted for consideration at the November meeting was placed on the floor for consideration and approved by acclamation. The newly elected officers will be sworn into office at the January 2005 meeting.

Approximately 130 people representing the Kentuckiana Post of SAME and a number of guests were in attendance. Post President COL Robert Rowlette, Jr. circulated among the convocation of sustaining firms discussing their services and discussing the Louisville District’s mission.

 

November 2004 Meeting Minutes

The November 2004 meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of SAME was held 16 November at Masterson’s Restaurant. The 37 attendees, including several members of the University of Louisville Student Post listened to an update on the efforts of the Louisville District staff to support the efforts to rebuild Iraq. 

Following the invocation by Clay Kelly and leading the pledge of allegiance, 1st VP Hans Probst conducted some business including announcing the schedule for the modifications to the proposed Constitution and Bylaws. Hans recognized Ken Besser as our newest SAME Fellow and Clay Kelly announced the Scholarship contest for 2005.

Dirk Gowin introduced the speakers, Steve Durrett and Greg Croon, both Louisville District employees who had recently returned from Iraq. The theme of the presentation focused on the Forward Engineering Support Team and in particular how “Engineers were Peace Makers”. Some of the comments made by the speakers sum up the overall focus of the presentation. “In 10 years Iraq will be an economic genius in the Middle East”. “Because of Corps of Engineers influence with rebuilding the schools, we are helping kids move from being shy, repressed and reserved to happy and interested.” The speakers discussed how the work environment in Iraq was so much different from that in the US. Occupational Safety regulations are not a priority. Using people instead of machinery to perform work is more the norm than the exception. Fire alarms, exit signs and other similar features are not all that important when your primary need is walls and floors.

The presentation was extremely well received and the Kentuckiana Post owes a debt of thanks to Steve and Greg and all the folks involved in the rebuilding of Iraq.

 


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