This message was sent to ##Email## August 28, 2019 Vol. 49 No. 35          Home  |   About Us  |   Membership  |   Resources  |   Events  |   Contact Us Subscribe  |   Archive    GBA NEWS GBA Fall Conference in One Month - Register Now! GBA Program Committee Please join us as we continue a yearlong celebration of GBA’s 50th Anniversary and explore the opportunities of BIG DATA at the Fall Conference at the Omni Louisville Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Please Join Us - October 3-5, 2019 Conference Theme: BIG DATA Means Big Opportunities Conference Details and Registration Dallas Workshop September 5, 2019 GBA GBA has teamed up with TCEL and Agile Frameworks to provide a one-day workshop titled “Optimizing Business Performance and Confronting Risk” on September 5, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. During this workshop you will learn: How to identify, measure and solve current business process inefficiencies in your business and help you to develop a program to minimize poor or costly productivity. The most frequent lessons learned from GBA Library of Case Histories, so you can learn how to avoid them in the future. How a GBA member-firm resolved an allegation that could have permanently damaged their reputation both externally and internally. Registration Fee: $50.00 Optimizing Business Performance and Confronting Risk Workshop IN CASE YOU MISSED IT GBA The most Popular Article from our last issue of GBA NEWSlog: Deposition Do’s & Don’ts for Fact Witnesses - GBA Best Practices Next Issue: September 11, 2019 GBA NEWSlog will feature: GBA 9/11 First Responder - GBA Board Member, Leo Titus’s experiences as a First-Responder at the Pentagon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. NEW! Case History #107 - Learn how a GBA Member-Firm’s experiences with an underperforming employee lead to a monetary settlement and changes in their human resources processes. A must read for all supervisors!  EVENTS Future GBA Events: Mark Your Calendars Now Optimizing Business Performance and Confronting Risk Workshop: September 5, Dallas, TX Fall Conference 2019: October 3-5, 2019 at the Omni Louisville Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky Winter Leadership Summit 2020: January 25-26, 2020 in Denver, Colorado Spring Conference 2020: April 23-25, 2020 at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort and Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida Fall Conference 2020: October 22-24, 2020 at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis Hotel, in Minneapolis, MN For more information: GBA EVENTS CALENDAR  MEMBER NEWS Welcome to the all-new DOWL.com DOWL DOWL is excited to announce the launch of our brand-new website at DOWL.com. The new site, rebuilt from the ground up, places the focus on the thing that makes our company so great: the people who work here. Front and center on the home page, you’ll see Bob Goodrich, Monica Bradbury, Brad Melocik, and Read Stapleton working and playing in their communities. Keep an eye out for other team members who will be making appearances throughout the year. You’ll also see our smiling faces scattered all throughout the site, whether it’s the rockstars leading our growing Bridge, Structural, and Marine service line or the diverse talents behind our corporate team. Read More PBS Now Offers Lead Inspector and Lead Risk Assessor Training in Oregon PBS Engineering and Environmental Inc. PBS Engineering and Environmental Inc. (PBS) has expanded their training program to include Oregon Health Authority (OHA) certified Lead Inspector and Lead Risk Assessor Training, as well as their Refresher courses in Portland, Oregon. The Lead Inspector and Lead Risk Assessor Refresher courses will both be available starting on August 29, with additional classes September 18 and October 21. Read More Work On Port of Seattle's Terminal 5 Begins Hart Crowser Seattle workers might remember hearing blasts off Elliott Bay a few years ago. That was Hart Crowser and the Port of Seattle doing “rapid load testing” at Terminal 5 to collect geotechnical engineering information needed to design an upgrade to the dock structure. By using controlled explosions in a carefully constructed structure, engineers tested dock piles up to 1,600 tons. This load is equivalent to the weight of 800 full sized pickup trucks. This was the first use of this innovative testing method for a port structure in the Pacific Northwest and resulted in significant project cost savings. Read More Materials Testing & Inspection to Celebrate 25 Years MTI MTI is fortunate to be celebrating 25 amazing years of service to communities throughout the Northwest. In lieu of our annual King of the Barbie competition, this year please join us as we celebrate 25 years and look forward to our exciting Atlas future. Read More Thomas Rodriguez Joins Kleinfelder as Executive Vice President and East Division Director Kleinfelder Kleinfelder announced that Thomas Rodriguez has joined the firm as Executive Vice President and East Division Director. Rodriguez is a results-driven leader with significant experience directing multi-disciplined operations and leading teams to drive profitable growth. Based in Kleinfelder’s Exton office, Rodriguez will oversee operations throughout Kleinfelder’s East Division. Read More Interested in Showcasing Your Company's News and Updates? Please send your company’s news, updates, press releases and blogs to GBA for inclusion in GBA NEWSlog. Send Here  BOARD OF DIRECTORS President: Arthur “Art” Hoffmann, P.E., D.GE (Gannett Fleming, Inc./ Harrisburg, PA), 717/763-7211 President-Elect: Kenneth R. "Ken" Johnston, (GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. / Norwood, MA), 781/278-3700 Secretary/Treasurer: Thomas W. "Tom" Blackburn, P.E., G.E., F.ASCE (Blackburn Consulting / Auburn, CA), 530/887-1494 Directors: Saiid Behboodi, P.E., G.E., (PBS Engineering + Environmental / Portland, OR), 503/417-7707 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 Martin LaRoche, P. Eng, M.Sc. (SNC-Lavalin / Montreal, Canada) Matthew "Matt" R. Poirier, P.E. (Sanborn Head & Associates, Inc. Concord, NH)  INDUSTRY NEWS Indemnification in California Still Includes Automatic Duty to Defend - Court Relies on Crawford v. Weather Shield Construction Risk Indemnification in California Still Includes Automatic Duty to Defend – Court Relies on Crawford v. Weather Shield. Read More Dramatic Ridgecrest Earthquake Images LA Times Millions felt the shaking from the Ridgecrest earthquake. But new satellite images offer a dramatic and instructive view of the immense power of the magnitude 7.1 quake, showing how California’s biggest earthquake in nearly two decades caused the ground to break. Animated slides show how the quake permanently jolted a huge block of earth northwest while the other side of the fault moved southeast. Some of the clearest images show long scars on the surface of the Mojave Desert, indicating precisely the 30 miles of earthquake fault — oriented in a northwest-southeast direction — that moved within moments on July 5. View Here Looking Ahead After a Quarter Century into the Digital Age WSJ The digital age was born nearly 25 years ago with the public release of the Netscape browser in December 1994. The browser made it much, much easier for the average person to access information over the internet, sparking the explosive growth of users, websites and online applications. This was a truly historic point, marking the transition from the industrial economy of the past couple of centuries to a new kind of digital economy. The McKinsey Global Institute recently published Twenty-Five Years of Digitization, a report offering 10 insights to help business leaders navigate this still relatively new digital world. Read More Price Your Product or Service Info Entrepreneur The price you charge for your service is one of the most important business decisions you make. Setting a price that is too high or too low will - at best - limit your business growth. At worst, it could cause serious problems for your sales and cash flow. Carefully consider your pricing strategy before you start. Established businesses can improve their profitability through regular pricing reviews. Read More How to Get Credit at Work CNN You've come up with a winning idea for your company and the accolades are pouring in -- to everyone but you. What do you do? There's a fine line between looking like you're not a team player and getting the recognition you deserve. Read More 3 (Silly) Beliefs That Stop Us From Asking for Help at Work, in Our Business & in Our Career Red Cape Revolution Have you ever felt overwhelmed, frustrated, or confused at work, or in deciding on a next step for your business or career? What did you do? Ask for help? Did it take you way too long? There are 3 (silly) beliefs that stop us from asking for help at work, in our business, and in our career. Read More Mount Polley Mine Disaster 5-Years Later CBC People are swimming and fishing in Quesnel Lake five years after the largest environmental mining disaster in Canadian history, but residents of Likely, B.C., are still struggling with unresolved emotions about what happened and who will be held accountable for the dam collapse at the Mount Polley mine. Read More City, Federal Government to invest $30M to Protect Toronto Shoreline Erosion Global News Mayor John Tory and federal officials have announced a joint investment of $30 million to protect Toronto shorelines from future flooding and erosion. Tory said on Monday that the federal government will be backing almost $12 million into projects, while the city will provide an additional $18 million. There will be about 35 different projects funded and set to start as early as next year. Tory said the projects will protect the waterfront from Humber Bay Park to the Scarborough Bluffs. Read More 50TH Annual Ohio River Valley Soils Seminar Scheduled Kentucky Geotechnical Engineering Group The 50th Ohio River Valley Soils Seminar (ORVSS L) will be an ode to 50 years of geoprogress. The seminar will include a review over most of the principal areas of geotechnical practice, from what was being done in 1970 when this seminar started, to all the changes that have occurred in the last 50 years with the consequent improvement in practice, to predictions of what the next ten years will bring, possibly highlighted by topics and stories that were featured in the Proceedings of this Seminar over the years. Read More Genoa's Broken Bridge BBC Podcast An icon of Italian design; a centerpiece of a community; a tragedy waiting to happen? What happened when the Morandi Bridge in Genoa collapsed? Engineers, government officials and the public have had a year to reflect on this terrible bridge failure as its anniversary approaches. Listen Here The Reality Bubble: You've Got a Blind Spot as Big as the Planet Grist Much of what we encounter every day is really nature in disguise, writes Ziya Tong, in The Reality Bubble. It explains our inability to recognize the hidden world that sustains us — where our food comes from, how we get our energy, and what we do with our waste. Read More Dramatic Footage of Exploding Lime Bike Battery Highlights Safety Issues GeekWire The popularity of bike share programs in cities has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, the electric battery packs on some of these bikes can resemble rockets, a little too much. Video footage of a Lime electric bike spewing flames on the University of Washington campus in Seattle this week is the latest in a string of battery-related safety issues affecting new mobility services. Read More and View Here Words of Wisdom “Asking for help doesn’t mean we are weak or incompetent. It usually indicates an advanced level of honesty and intelligence.” -Anne Wilson Schaef NEWSlog Connect with GBA Recent Issues | Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Web Version  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 15800 Crabbs Branch Way, Suite 300  | Rockville, MD 20855 | 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. Learn how to add us to your safe-sender list so our e-mails get to your inbox. 7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063