PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Two Years at the Helm: Summing Up I t’s hard to believe two years has passed. In this final President’s Message, I would like to review the objectives set out in my first Message, take stock of what has been accomplished, and give my thoughts on what lays ahead. Objective 1 Maintain a lean, mean administrative machine. In June 2011, the Executive Committee developed an organizational strategy to focus resources in four operational areas. The full-time addition of Mary Ellen Bruce to assist technical operations has had a dramatic impact on headquarters’ ability to support the efforts of the Technical Committees and develop special projects. We have added full-time staff to support the efforts of the Trust, financial accounting and event planning. Overall, staff has doubled from 4 to 8 since 2010. DFI headquarters’ ability to support members has increased and improved dramatically – but then again so has the scope and breadth of DFI! Looking forward, we will have to focus on better methods and systems for managing and supporting our growing global member- ship and global presence. Congratulations to Theresa for a job that is never done, and a goal that is never accomplished. Grade A Objective 2 If we are going to talk international, we need to look international. There is no doubt; DFI is now a global organization. In two years, we have held 8 major events outside of North America, wi th participation by over 2,000 people. We have establ ished strong regional committees in the Middle East and India, in addition to our existing European committee. It has been an honor to work with the hard working, visionary members that have dedicated their personal time and resources to spread the mission and vision of DFI, and I salute you all. Two years ago I challenged the board to target 50 percent of Objective 3 Focus on training the next generation. In October 2010, I challenged the annual meeting organizers in Boston to attract over 100 student participants to the annual conference. Although attendance has set records, we have fallen a bit short of this goal. In North America and Europe we need to focus our commitment to bring younger members into active participation in DFI. But I am very happy to report that our conference in Mexico City included approximately 150 participants under 30 years old, over 100 young participants in Brazil and large numbers in Dubai and India. The rest of the world seems to understand the value of younger member participation better than North America. We have increased from 3 to 5 student chapters across the United States and with American University in Dubai. Additionally, the board has estab- lished an operational committee to focus on younger members’ activity, and this committee has an incredible opportunity and large responsibility in the years ahead to keep DFI relevant to the needs of younger members. Grade B Objective 4 Synergy. DFI has made phenomenal progress in the last two years at developing working relationships with other organizations around the world. We have collaborated with the Offshore Technology Conference to sponsor technical sessions, and developed relationships with geotechnical societies in Mexico, Brazil and India. Of special note is the DFI collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of the board to be made of trustees from outside of North America within 5 years. Organizational change options have been explored and seriously debated by trustee management, but this effort will take some time to fulfill. Grade A Engineers to sponsor workshops and assist in document review for seepage control on dams. This alliance has and will take DFI to the forefront in setting the standards for deep foundation James A. Morrison, P.E. President [email protected] work. I also highlight and thank ADSC for developing an agreement and model for future collaboration with the joint oversight of International Society of Micropiles (ISM). Grade A Many other achievements have been made by DFI over the past two years, most notably: our alliance with OneMine.org, giving all members unprecedented free access to 100,000 plus technical docu- ments; expanding the publication of Deep Foundations magazine to both six times a year and as a digital version; and establishing a mechanism to fund commit- tee sponsored research and projects. I am certain this process will yield great benefits to the industry in the years ahead. DFI has come a long way in the past two years, but like any worthwhile journey, we have many miles to go before we sleep. Looking ahead I see the biggest challenges to DFI will be supporting global opera- tions, and retaining active participation from increasing global membership. These are high-class problems indeed. It has been a pleasure working with Theresa, Mary Ellen and the DFI staff, whose enthusiasm and commitment are what make this a great organization. Thank you to the trustees, committee chairs and dream-team executive committee whose tireless dedication, commitment, contribu- tions and shared vision are directly respon- sible for the successes listed above. The organization is in great hands as Bob Bittner takes the wheel and I move to the best seat in the house – immediate past president! DEEP FOUNDATIONS • NOV/DEC 2012 • 5
