Annual Report 2011 - CSCE • Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Niagara on the Lake board meetings in November.In brief, these initiatives represent1) A New Category of Corporate Membershipfor Canadian Civil/EnvironmentalTechnology Departments; 2) ImprovedQuality of the National Membership Database;3) Develop a CSCE MarketingBrochure for Canadian/International Promotions;and 4) Design and DistributeMember Recognition Pins to 20-year, 30-year, and 40-year Members.The new category of corporate membershipfor Canadian civil/environmental technologyprograms is a natural offspring of thesame initiative rolled out in 2011 for Canadiancivil engineering university programsof which 22 became new corporate members.There has been preliminary dialog directlywith instructors at one of the Albertatechnology programs in an effort to wordsmithappropriate text tailored specificallyto the needs for technology programs.Quality of membership data comprises allcurrent member contact information beginningwith new associate members andfollowing member relocations betweenprovinces and employers. The proposedinitiative is to be achieved by providingSections with real-time access to the nationaldatabase for the purpose of maintenanceof member contact information.From inception, this initiative has beenscrutinized by board members vocal aboutmatters related to database security. Theseconcerns have been respected by Nationalas the initiative is rolled out initially as apilot comprising the Membership Chairsof two Sections that have received limiteddatabase privileges in order to explore potentialopportunities.In November our Executive Director confirmedthat the National Office did nothave any additional individual marketingmaterial other than the one pager preparedfor the international members. The MembershipCommittee of ACC has beentasked with the groundwork on the needsand costs and the ACC will recommend acourse of action including the budget in2012/2013 fiscal year.In March our Executive Director confirmedan order of some 600, 40-year pinsthat will be sent with a letter to the individualsthat qualify for this recognition.The pin is our basic shield with an additionalfield above it. The field above will say40 YRS/ANS and will be in red. There willbe a different colour for the 30-year field,and 20-year field, always maintaining theCSCE green for the basic shield.Student Affairs CommitteeChair: Lynne Cowe Falls, FCSCENo reportLife Members CommitteeChair: Peter M. Wright, LF.CSCEThe Life Members Committee provides theformal link between the Board of Directorsand the more than 400 Life Members, LifeFellows, and Retired Members of the Society.It should be noted that many of thesemembers are still actively engaged in the activitiesof the Society at the national, regionaland local levels.Life Members/Life Fellows do not pay anannual membership fee but they are askedat the time of the fee billings in Novemberto make a voluntary payment of $40 tohelp cover such costs as the Canadian CivilEngineer. At the same time Life Members/LifeFellows are encouraged to donateto the CSCE Foundation for both the generalfund and for specific accounts such asthe Donald Jamieson Fellowship and theSociety’s History Program Fund. The annualvoluntary payments and donations tothe CSCE Foundation amount to about$5000 per year for each.For many years there has been a reducedregistration fee for the Annual Conferencefor Life Members/Life Fellows. The annualFellows/Life Members dinners held on theSaturday immediately after the Society’s annualgeneral conferences are consistentlywell attended and thoroughly enjoyed.Commencing in June, 2012, Jules Houde,a member of the Life Members Committeeand a past-president of the Society, willtake over the role of chair of the Committee.Financial Planning and Accounting CommitteeChair: Jeff H. Rankin, MCSCEThe ongoing mandate of the FinancialPlanning and Accounting Committee(FPAC) is to ensure that the Society ismoving towards its vision and remains financiallysolvent. FPAC focuses its activitiesin three areas: working with theNational Office to support financial reportingand accounting activities; providing financialadvice to the CSCE Board ofDirectors, Committees, Divisions and Regions;and managing financial risk withinthe framework of CSCE revenues and expenses.The National Office, under the leadershipof the Society’s Executive Director, continuesto improve its financial managementcapabilities and this has enabled moretimely and accurate reporting of operationsfrom a financial perspective to the Board ofDirectors. The Treasurer’s Network (withparticipation from treasurers at the Section,Region and National level), is continuingto work on standardizing the reporting ofannual financials from Sections and Regions.The positive financial climate of theSociety in recent years and the pursuit ofVision 2020 have re-emphasized the importanceof financial planning. Thereforerevisions to the CSCE National Budgetand Financial Management policy are underwayto reflect this.Young Professionals CommitteeChair: Amie Therrien, AMCSCEThe Young Professionals (YP) Committeewas created by the Board of Directors at theend of last year’s conference in Ottawa. Themandate of this committee is to provideservices and programming for youngermembers or those who are new to the profession.In this inaugural year, the committeefocused its effort on raising awarenessof its existence and its mandate. The creationof the “Young Professionals’ Corner”column in CIVIL magazine helped tospread the word and will be featured in issuesof CIVIL in the future to help YPsacross the country connect.This year also saw the committee grow byestablishing YP representative positions inthe local section executive committees. YPrepresentatives from both the Toronto andCalgary sections have hosted successfulevents and as the executive positions within18