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September 12, 2018
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Vol. 49 No. 10
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GBA
Imagine the added profits to your firm if you could collect money owed by your clients by just 3-days!
In an ideal world, design and environmental professionals’ bills would all be paid within 30 days. Recognizing that we do not live in an ideal world, the Geoprofessional Business Association (GBA) developed a brief but comprehensive guide to getting paid faster. Titled Getting Paid, the 19-page guide comprises 21 chapters, each focused on a specific technique to achieve prompt payment while avoiding some clients' efforts to avoid payment altogether.
Getting Paid is available for FREE to all GBA Members.
Download Here: Getting Paid
The Huffington Post
Nashville, the capital of the state of Tennessee, the epicenter of the country music scene and one of America's hottest cities right now.
Nashville is known for its legendary music venues, famous Honky Tonks and delicious Southern cooking. Now Nashville is looking set to be one of the top travel destinations of 2018 with a new direct flight launching from London, a plethora of hotels opening in 2018, new neighborhoods emerging and the opening of the new Tennessee State Museum — there's never been a better time to book your ticket to Music City.
READ MORE
GBA
GBA is offering three professional development workshops on November 1, 2018 prior to our Fall Conference. This is an opportunity to enhance your conference experience by adding one of these valuable ½ day workshops taught by industry leading experts.
Pre-Conference Workshops
November 1, 2018
J.W. Marriott Nashville
8:00 AM to Noon
- Jump Start Your Growth (workshop details)
William “Bill” Siegel, P.E. & Kevin J. McMahon — McMahon | Siegel Group
- Positively Implementing a Culture of Accountability (workshop details)
June R. Jewell, CPA — AEC Business Solutions
- Project Financial Management: Managing Self & Others (workshop details)
Lee James CPA, CMC and CBI — Lee James & Associates
These ½ day workshops have been discounted for conference registrants to $300. Please contact Sara Menase (Sara@Geoprofessional.org) to register.
More information about the workshops is provided on our website:
GBA Pre-Conference Workshops
GBA
GBA is proud to announce our support of future geoprofessionals by providing scholarships to thirty upper level students in fields directly related to the services our members provide. Selected students from Vanderbilt and Lipscomb Universities will be attending all the sessions of our Fall Conference in Nashville on Friday, November 2nd to fully experience the unique educational, networking, and collaboration opportunities our conferences provide. "We are thrilled to have this opportunity to expose our students to the good work GBA does for our profession and let them interact with industry leaders." said Chris Gwaltney, P.E., the Chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and GBA Faculty Member.
For more information
Lipscomb University
Vanderbilt University
GBA
 Most Popular Article from our last issue of GBA NEWSlog
Educate Your Clients: GBA Updates Message to Owners
GBA
It is six times harder and more expensive to find a new client than to get work from an existing client.
In most firms, 80% of your profits will come from 20% of your clients. So how can you ensure that your most valued and profitable clients are extremely happy with your services, and even recommend you to their friends and colleagues?
During this webinar we will discuss how valuable a client retention plan can be to vastly improving your client services and relationships and how it can help you gain a competitive advantage. This opportunity for one professional development hour (PDH) is FREE to all GBA Members.
Register Here: September 12, 2018 Free Webinar
Gannett Fleming
Global infrastructure firm Gannett Fleming has acquired the assets of KEH & Associates Inc. KEH, formed in 2006, is a highly respected water and wastewater engineering firm based in Southern California. Effective Aug. 31, 2018, the company now operates as KEH, a Business Group of Gannett Fleming. This acquisition creates a national water team with a depth of knowledge few other firms can match.
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The Daily Reporter
GZA GeoEnvironmental recently took on the opportunity to provide geotechnical engineering and related services for the $132.6 million BMO Tower that's now under construction in downtown Milwaukee, right across from Milwaukee City Hall.
As the Daily Reporter reported in early June, GZA and Irgens, recently reached a milestone in the project as crews from J.H. Findorff & Son and Ozinga Brothers poured 6,700 cubic yards of concrete — nearly 700 mixer loads arriving over the course of 21 hours — to form the new building's foundation.
The successful foundation pour ranks as one of the largest continuous concrete pours in the history of the state of Wisconsin.
READ MORE
Terracon
Terracon's bi-annual employee photo contest highlights our employee owner's passion, creativity, and dedication to the diverse work we do. These images represent Terracon's service lines and the unique project locations we serve. WATCH VIDEO
Wagman Construction Inc.
Wagman Construction announces the promotion of Mark Morrow to director of operations and welcomes James Weber as director of preconstruction and Jim Paschke as project executive.
"We have bolstered our leadership team, further strengthening Wagman's ability to provide exceptional preconstruction and construction services. Together, they bring over 80 years of combined professional construction expertise and will enhance responsiveness and value to our clients externally and provide tremendous support to our staff internally," said Michael J. Konieczka, president and chief operating officer at Wagman Construction.
READ MORE
SCI Engineering
SCI Engineering was thrilled to host a "Concrete Day" program for a group of campers from the 2018 Society of American Military Engineers STEM Engineering & Construction Camp. The program, held at Scott Air Force Base, invites students to participate in hands-on engineering activities in a competitive environment that promotes teamwork, leadership, project management and problem solving. Scott Air Force Base is the most recent addition to a long list of military installations that support this SAME camp, which has been held annually for over 30 years across the country.
READ MORE
S&ME
Following on the heels of OSHA's recent Silica Standard, OSHA began enforcing the new Beryllium Standards on May 11, 2018. The new regulation, issued January 9, 2017, affects general industry (29 CFR 1910), shipyards (29 CFR 1915), and construction (29 CFR 1926) in separate standards. Among other things, the new standard reduced the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for beryllium from 2 µg/m3 to 0.2 µg/m3 as an 8-hour TWA (a reduction factor of 10) and established a new short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 2 µg/m3. Easy so far, but not so fast. OSHA has delayed enforcement of some provisions of the general industry standards until December 12, 2018, a date that is rapidly approaching.
READ MORE
Strata Inc.
It's here! Strata Inc. is proud to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website. Explore the site to learn more about who we are and our full spectrum of engineering and material testing services.
READ MORE
Mark your calendar for these outstanding GBA get-togethers, and be on the lookout for announcements about others being finalized.
Future GBA Events
Free GBA Webinars:
Getting More Work from Existing Clients — Wednesday, September 12, 2018, 1:30 p.m. ET
Turning Around an Underperforming Team — Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 1:30 p.m. ET
GBA Workshops:
November 1, 2018, 8 a.m. to noon, J.W. Marriott, Nashville, TN
PROJECT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP DETAILS
POSITIVELY IMPLEMENTING A CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY WORKSHOP DETAILS
JUMP START YOUR GROWTH WORKSHOP DETAILS
GBA 2018 Fall Conference — November 1-3, 2018, J.W. Marriott, Nashville, TN
GBA Winter Leadership Summit — January 26-27, 2019, Westin Hotel, Denver, CO
GBA 2019 Spring Conference — April 4-6, 2019, Grand Wailea Resort, on Maui, HI
GBA EVENTS CALENDAR
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President: Woodward L. "Woody" Vogt, P.E., D.GE, F.ACI, F.ASCE, F.ASTM, (Paradigm Consultants, Inc. / Houston, TX), 713/686-6771 |
President-Elect: Arthur G. Hoffmann, P.E., D.GE, (Gannett Fleming, Inc. / Harrisburg, PA), 717/763-7211 |
Secretary/Treasurer: Kenneth R. "Ken" Johnston, (GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. / Norwood, MA), 781/278-3700
Directors:
Saiid Behboodi, P.E., G.E., (PBS Engineering + Environmental / Portland, OR), 503/417-7707
Thomas W. "Tom" Blackburn, P.E., G.E., F.ASCE, (Blackburn Consulting / Auburn, CA), 530/887-1494
Chuck A. Gregory, P.E. (Terracon / San Antonio, TX), 210/641-2112
Christopher Matthew "Matt" Moler, P.E. (S&ME, Inc. / Greensboro, NC), 336/553-1245
Leo J. Titus, Jr. P.E., (ECS, Ltd. / Chantilly, VA), 703/471-8400 |
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Terra Insurance Company
BVPS. While the acronym means little to most people, it means a great deal to the owner/insureds of Terra Insurance Company, the highest-rated professional-liability insurer based in the United States.
BVPS stands for book value per share, and Terra hit yet another new record at the conclusion of its second quarter of 2018, on June 30. While the dollar value — $428.93 — is substantial in and of itself, it becomes even more noteworthy when one considers that the company sold its stock for a mere $10 per share in 1988.
"Our management team certainly deserves praise for the fine job they're doing," Terra CEO David L. Coduto said, "but our owner/insureds are the true heroes of Terra's outstanding performance. They devote a tremendous amount of energy to continually improving the quality of their performance."
More Information: Terra Insurance Company
Forbes
Improving your organization's overall ability to continually adapt will facilitate the implementation of future discrete change projects.
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Inc.
It's that time when many of GBA members begin to focus on a strong finish to the year and what will need to change to be even more successful next year. You may be ready for the changes that are necessary for your firm to be more successful, but is your team? Change doesn't need to be hard, it's all in how it's positioned. Putting people first is essential to leading through change, what is needed to solve for future change, how to achieve greater engagement in the workplace, and why taking care of the mind is an important part of navigating change form the basis of five outstanding TED talks on the topic.
READ MORE
Instapage
Let's face it, among the changes we'd like to see with many of our clients is getting them to pay their bills on time. There are ways to help clients improve their bill paying efficiency, most of them start with you.
READ MORE
iHire
Changes on the home front can create distractions and disrupt your work. There are ways to proactively limit the impact.
READ MORE
Harvard Business Review
It seems that many people need to complain about changes before they can embrace them. Constant and poorly directed complaining takes energy and is a distraction. However, there are constructive ways to complain at work.
READ MORE
Society for Human Resource Management
One of the biggest challenges in change management can be the need to see rapid improvement in an employee’s performance. It takes direct management action in the form of a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). A well-crafted and executed PIP will give an employee with performance deficiencies the opportunity to succeed.
READ MORE
Elsevier
As scientists and engineers, we should be at the center of implementing the changes that will be necessary to solve the greatest challenges of our times. What are those challenges?
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EfC
Engineers that embrace change are more common than society gives us credit for. Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has led world-wide change by example through their projects helping to improve basic life needs in many countries throughout the world. EWB is a founding partner of Engineering for Change Engineering for Change, a knowledge organization dedicated to preparing the global workforce to deliver solutions that improve the quality of life of under-served communities.
READ MORE
Eos
Last March, nearly 100 geoscientists from state, federal, academic and private sector institutions in the United States and Canada gathered on the University of Minnesota campus. They presented current research on and discussed issues related to the latest developments in geologic mapping. They also discussed the synthesis of geological and geophysical information into 3-D models of the North American continent on scales varying from urban to continental.
READ MORE
Construction Dive
Louisiana State University mechanical engineering professor Guoqiang Li has invented a new type of sealant that could help put an end to the pavement cracks that plague America's roads and highways. Guoqiang first developed his shape memory polymer-based sealant using a 2009 Highway IDEA award from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program and additional funds from the Louisiana Research Transportation Center.
READ MORE
Safety + Health
Knowledge is power when it comes to outdoor workers protecting themselves from skin cancer, new research from the American Association for Cancer Research suggests. National Cancer Institute data shows the rates of melanoma have been on the rise for decades. In a study published in 2014, 70 percent of heavy machinery operators (who mostly worked outside between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.) reported rarely or never using sunscreen.
READ MORE
San Francisco Chronicle
Riding a lawn mower over dry grass. Target shooting on a hot day. Cutting a metal pipe. Faulty wiring in a hot tub. These are among the countless ways that wildfires have started in California, and they’re among a dizzying spectrum of causes that make it that much harder for California to wrest control of this year’s unrelenting fire season.
READ MORE
EHS Today
The labor shortage in the construction industry is projected to last another three years, requiring increased emphasis on safety training and supervision, according to a recent industry report. The third quarter USG Corp. and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index 6 reveals that 88 percent of contractors surveyed expect to feel at least a moderate impact from the workforce shortages in the next three years.
READ MORE
Words of Wisdom

"The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it better."
-Barbara Pletcher
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GBA Staff:
Joel G. Carson, Executive Director, 301-565-2733 (office) | 402-517-1819 (cell)
Sara Menase, Program Manager, 301-565-2733
Phillip D. Pettway, Controller, 301-565-2733
Barbara A. Nappy, Program Director, 301-565-2733 (office) | 727-457-2272 (cell)
Geoprofessional Business Association 12320 Parklawn Drive, Suite 212 | Rockville, MD 20852 | 301-565-2733 | Contact Us
About GBA
The Geoprofessional Business Association (GBA) helps its members and their clients confront risk and optimize business performance by delivering unique professional resources, programs, and services that make them stronger, smarter and more successful.
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